Tony Brooks

I don't think anyone is saying don't do a self fit out, but we are saying please go into with your eyes wide open.

So true, when I did a partial refit all fitted furniture was built at home, using jigs as required, and after very careful measuring the ply sheets were mainly cut at home, but it was still difficult working in the confined space of a narrowboat cabin.

Back to the glitter in the oil. Do what KIB advised. Swirl a decent magnet around in the oil and if the glitter collects on it then it is steel bearing material, if not it is likely to be cutch material and arguably less of an immediate concern.

All I can say to help is that I paid a deposit subject to survey, engaged a surveyor of my choice, the vendor (a boat hire company) gave me the details of a nearby dry dock so I could book and coordinate them and the surveyor. I can't remember if I or the yard took the boat for survey, but I think it was me. Survey was OK apart from a load of nitpicks, so paid in full and had it blacked at the dry dock. I think you said that you know little about boats and in that case the fact that is has an uncommon UK inland engine, marinised by goodness knows who, would cause me concerns. If you have to get professional help someone who relay knows that engine is likely to eb difficult to find, as are engine parts. Like wise, what constitutes "good stuff" in your eyes. There is a world of difference between, say, a Victron or Mastervolt inverter and a flash looking job from Ebay/Amazon. As long as you accept that it will take you three to five times longer than you think and cost three to five times more to complete it, it is one way, and probably very rewarding. BUT if/when you come to resell it and want to avoid having to reduce the price, or pay for a Post Construction Assessment to ensure it complies with the Recreational Craft Regulations (RCR/RCD) you need to ensure you fit out to the RCR and that requires access to a load of ISOs to be sure, nad possibly proffesional fees to help you. I fear this will open up a whole lot more debate about the value of the RCD/RCR and the need for it, but it is an aspect that many self fitters seem unaware of and it is a legal requirement, even if it is not actively enforced. Edited to add: I used to be involved with fitting out GRP hire cruisers and despite our best efforts and Gantt charts I think we never ever hit the end dates, all fit outs over ran for various reasons, and the chippies could handle and cut 8x4 ply sheets inside the boat, that will be much more difficult in a narrowboat.

If you let us know roughly where this boat is located and someone may know a nearby facility that can get the boat high enough. For instance, Calcutt have/had a straddle carrier that could lift the boat high enough, but that is no good if the boat is a long way away.

There is no reason an inland boater can not do the same if they are that worried. In this topic there is no question of the outlet being below the water line, just lower than the ISO/BSS demand/recommends

and the ISO for the RCD/RCR I expect. At least on a steel boat, the stub for any hose or pipe can be welded in, rather than relying on a brass/bronze flange on a skin fitting that can get knocked off. After all virtually all sea boats will have underwater skin fittings for their toilets, let alone logs and depth sounders. Worrying over hull outlet height seems pretty pointless to me as long as the sink rim height meets the ISO and BSS.

FWIW, I have seen enough to believe MIC is a thing on canals BUT there is a big problem in getting many yards to recognise it as such, or maybe willing to learn how to recognise it and differential between MIC and electrical corrosion form the no GI/IT type. I would trust Matty give a fair account of his experience.

If you have not doe so already give this lot a ring Contact Details Engines Plus Ltd Unit F The Aquarius Centre Edison Close Waterwells Business Park Quedgeley Gloucestershire GL2 2FN Tel: 01452 729707 They are listed as the UK dealers and have been on the canal engine scene for years, marinising different makes of engines.

As you used the sump plug, I doubt a flush will make a significant difference, apart from possibly showing virtually no glitter, that will then give you have a baseline to compare at the next oil change. Sole are not very common on the canals, so you may need to look at the closer coastal sailing communities for someone who really knows the gearbox. The chances are that the engine is just a marinised industrial unit from one of the major engine manufacturers. Similar could also apply to the gearbox but given a Sole name plate. I do not recognise the box from your photo, but it does not show much of the box.

It strikes me that the way things are going, anyone planning a summer cruise would be very grateful for reports of low pounds anywhere on the system from first had experience at the moment. It might provide an early warning of areas to avoid. Ditto reservoir levels.

If you mean glittery as in "someone has dropped a load of small glitter powder into it" then what colour? Silver suggest a bearing track starting to break up, brassy/bronzy suggests clutch plate/cone wear. If it is clean golden oil with sunlight glittering off the surface, then that sounds fine to me. Bearing problems often manifest themselves with a growling type noise, raising it pitch as speed increases. Wearing clutch plates/cones will eventually cause slipping in gear, much as it would in a car. As it is now less than before and if it looks like a clutch problem, ten it may just be from residue left in the box so may clear at the next oil change. I think that I would see how it goes until the next oil change, but be ready for the trouble and cost of a box overhaul, but you may be lucky and have years of life left in it.

1. Fuel line hose has a far too small bore for this duty, it would be car heater hose. 2. For one coil connection. You will have noted then KIB and myself have different ways of doing the connections, but which ever way you do them it is likely to work. I don't think a 4% increase in warm up time from the engine is worth worrying about, and as the air is forced upwards as the engine system is filled I have doubts about the bleeding, but I did advise a bleed point close to the calorifier at the highest point in the engine circuit. This is just in case thing, and often will never be used. Personally, I think using the cooling water in the coil to assist the engine water pump in circulating through the calorifier is marginally more advantageous, but take KIB's post and mine and decide yourself. You can connect the flow FROM the engine to the top or bottom of the coil, depending upon how you value the posts. It occurs to me that you might be asking about which connection, on the engine, goes to the top and bottom coil connection. The height at some random point in the run is not that important. One engine connection will be to a larger bore hose, pipe, or engine casting that runs into the water INLET to the engine water pump. The engine water pump is usually driven by the alternator belt and is typically the highest pulley central to the engine. That is the RETURN connection from the coil. The other engine connection is usually, but not always in/on the cylinder head. A few marinises fit a calorifier thermostat, so the hot out connection will be on that housing. I think Barrus tend to do this, the other main marinisers just put the hot out connection on the head. . There are diagrams on my website here: http://www.tb-training.co.uk/17Bdomwat.html but not showing the engine connection, they are shown here: http://www.tb-training.co.uk/15cool.htm#bmn55

FWIW. Drop a light bulb down each bore in turn and use the bright light to look for cracks. I had a 1.5 diesel that was laying all sorts of tricks, even after a head skim, and it turned out to be a cracked cylinder both the diesels and 898/998cc petrol engines do not use cylinder liners. Can you recognise valve seat inserts. They can be used to "hide" cracks in the head. At least you seem to be narrowing down the problem area.

Wafi sort of answered that before you asked. Hot in the top and cold out the bottom uses the thermo-syphon effect of the liquid cooling in the coil to help circulation, but sometimes the whole engine circuit thermo-syphons back though the engine when the engine is stopped. this cools the domestic hot water overnight. This might be lessened by using the lower coil. If that happens you can try simply reversing the two connections (hot in the bottom, cold out the top) and if that does not work, then fit a plumbers' flap type NRV, correctly orientated, in one of the hoses, I would use the one on the higher connection.

You "test" the oil more by small and feel, but for oil dilution to cause a runaway it would either have to be very full of diesel so mist got drawn through the breather system or when it got hot enough to produce fuel vapour. Yours sounds as it did it from cold. I don't think kitchen towel would be very good for doing the test (forgotten the name right now) where you out a drop of oil on blotting paper and see what the leaching through the paper shows. I there is fuel in the oil you should get an outer ring than is cleaner than the rest.

Without some kind of boiler or stove, probably not worth doing that. All you could do is use the calorifier as a heat exchanger while the engine is running to warm the rads, but that would need a pump and may reduce the temperature of the domestic hot water. Doing that sort of thing is fine if you can utilise an installed wet central heating system, bur likely to be a lot of effort and expense for only a small gain.

If the oil level is OK, then it sounds as if the rack/control rod or governor stuck in the maximum fuel position, Especially if it stopped when the stop control was operated or the rack pulled back. I can't think what else it could be. If the J3 has separate injector pumps like the small air cooled ones, then maybe one of the pumps has/is twisted slightly because that can make the racks stiff.

Sounds like it. Do you have wet central heating?