Tony Brooks

If the butyl tape was what I used then yes, it would "mould" around the porthole, but despite what Truckcab says mine did squish out and continued to squish out for several months.

I say OK is you are sealing with an adequate thickness of closed cell foam, but if using a mastic type sealer, I would fear the rivets may squash too much out. You could try rivet nuts or simply tap the cabin side and use set screws. With the window out you may find countersunk wood screws through the cabin side securing the lining framing.

First of all make sure CaRT don't own a ransom strip at the canal edge, they usually do, and it may take a lot of digging in historic document to find out. If you ask the there is every chance the answer will be yes, even though that might not be so. BW/CaRT have been registering land alongside canals that they arguably had no entitlement to do so. The reason this is important is that they may try to get an annual payment off you if you do anything on or to their land.

Thanks, but how is the filler cap keyhole sealed? It looks as if there are recesses that will hold water in the centre of the cap. Tanks do suffer from internal condensation, but from what you said, it seems yours may be more than that. Traditionally, the advice was to keep tanks full over winter to minimise the airspace for condensation to form. This winter has seemed exceptionally wet and damp to me.

The bio content (7%?) is certainly hygroscopic, and it seems to make the diesel go cloudy pink. I would not be so ready to write the filler cap off if it is a male cap with an O ring. If it is then when did you last replace the O ring, and when did you last dress it with silicon grease? I think that I would change the filter, cut it open, and look for signs of bug. Are you sure that your Jerry cans are bug free, but most likely water.

If Redshawas can't help, then I think that is the way to go. Possibly fit a temperature gauge or an overheat warning buzzer. I think that you can still get bolt on thermal switches designed to wet exhaust that would be good for a buzzer if you don't want to fit a sender into the cooling circuit or cylinder head.

Might have been put there deliberately when the leak was first noticed. I got the impression this was a sort of first aid measure in the hope of stopping the leak getting worse, which this one obviously did.

General non-Ruhton comments Does C go back into the inlet side of any engine water pump. I would expect it to, so the pump can recirculate the returning water (until you close the valve). If so, be careful about what you do. On many engines this bypass is vital to stop local hotspots inside the water jacket overheating and locally boiling furring up. If the Jabsco type pump is the circulating pump, then stopping it pumping water may not be a good idea in case friction allows the residual water in the pump to boil and damage the rubber impeller. I suspect there is more relevant plumbing than that shown. I don't know if any hoses are involved, but some Renaults had a thermostat that fitted inside a coolant hose and secured by an external worm drive hose clip - Renault 4 I think and possibly Renault 5. As far as the engine staying cold until the calorifier warms up, I don't think it is a particularly important issue, probably a more theoretical concern than a practical one. The same applies to the vast majority of boats equipped with calorifiers. Offhand, only Barrus seem to fit another "calorifier" thermostat to mitigate it. However, the calorifier feed hoses used on other boats are typically about 1/2" bore, so will restrict the flow to a degree. Is this direct canal water cooled, heat exchanger cooled, or skin tank cooled, because the plumbing is likely to differ. Wet or dry exhaust.

Sorry Allan, I must have had a brain fart. I agree the figures are indicative of rested voltages in general and good enough for inferring state of charge. However.it seems the voltage varies a little depending upon battery design and chemistry.

Neither seem to be what the mariniser recommends, but, as long as the engine is well run in, I doubt it will do any harm to your engine if you use it. The second photo shows that the performance specifications for that oil are slightly less onerous than the first, but in your engine and use it is of little consequence. I can not give you a definitive answer because it may open me up to legal action if something did go wrong and to be frank it is a bit unreasonable to ask when the mariniser's recommendations can easily be found - even if the oil can not. Looking at the photos, API CI has the second letter further up the alphabet and the second one which is CH-4. As I understand it, the -4 relates to residence to black sludge formation that I have never come across on canal boat engines, so it is pretty much immaterial.

No good paying for premium batteries if it turns out you can't keep them more or less fully charged each day, they will sulphate just as easily as a cheaper battery. The cheaper battery will have less cyclic life but that tends to be less of a problem than sulphation because the charging is not understood. Only if they are accurate, and he knows how to use and interpret them. I dispute Alan's table above. that looks like non-rested voltages straight off charge, not rested voltage, which is what you use to infer state of charge.

On the face of it, that sounds like a valid reason, but who ever said he had to go down into the battery bank to check them. My ammeter and voltmeter were in the back cabin, but they could just as easily have been located in the living or sleeping area.

The alternator's voltage regulator protects the batteries from overcharging, as do modern battery chargers and solar controllers. If you want to maintain the batteries properly then in my view you need a decent voltmeter, ammeter, and a little bit of knowledge. Note: Jen's and Alan's posts rely upon the charging system limiting the charging voltage to around 14.2 to 14.6 volts for a 12V battery.

Depends upon what he means by "smart", if he means he likes gizmos and wants to look at things on a mobile phone, then I am out of this conversation. If he means he just wants to effectively monitor his batteries, then all he needs is a decent voltmeter and ammeter, plus a little knowledge and brain power. Although nowadays things are a bit better with certain manufacturers (not sure Victron is one of them) many battery monitors have been known to lie, especially those on solar controllers, and have been instrumental in destroying batteries on boats where the manual was not read, understood and the monitor reset and calibrated regularly. This is to do with how lead acid batteries behave and people believing a fancy display. I don't see how a phone display makes it any more accurate. Just tell him to be very wary and not to be taken in by technology and fancy displays. If he wants to know how to monitor his batteries using a voltmeter and ammeter, he only has to ask. Knowledge and understanding beat fancy displays every time because the person with the knowledge can take far more things into account when inferring the battery needs.

No new cables, but going to 24 volts will need changing a lot of stuff. When running at 24 volts for some things, you also need a voltage dropper (car radio). For 24 volts you need new bulbs, domestic equipment, the domestic alternator and if a single alternator boat new instruments and starter motor. Changing from 12 to 24 volts means the wiring can stay the same because for a given task 24 volts draw half the current (amps). Edited to add that the battery wiring will need altering because you usually put 2 x 12V batteries in series to get 24V and then more pairs in parallel to get the required capacity. But so far he still seems to be ignoring the need to ensure that he can recharge the batteries fully and frequently.