Mike Adams

Thanks Pat. When going over the engine a few months ago I noticed that the stay bar had broken out of the cylinder and someone had tapped a second hole in the cylinder and attached the tie bar to that. Although the engine runs OK when it is warm, it is difficult to start and smokes very badly for a few minutes. I have installed a new engine in the forepeak in front of the engine room driving another hydraulic pump which worked well on a first outing on New Year's day except for having a hydraulic leak which I hope is now fixed. I am now deciding what to do with the Kelvin and I have cut a doorway though from the cabin to the engine room so I don't have to run along the deck and down the engine'ole all the time.

Could this be an elusive JP1?

As a fellow Kelvin owner I wish you luck. Unless you are very keen on this type of engine, which really needs its own engine room, I would sell it and buy something more in keeping with this type of boat and is easy to maintain. You need to find out if this is the original engine for the boat and it has the correct engine bearers which as it has been said need to be transverse and very substantial otherwise it will move alarmingly. The propeller needs to be the correct size and with this engine developing 44SHP it may be overpowed if the draught is low. Spares may be difficult and expensive to obtain and a lot of work and money is needed to install everything around it. If you are paying someone it may be lots of £K and you really need to know it the engine is good first.

The only information I have is that the burst pressure of the hoses should be more than 11,000 psi. The ones I have purchased are rated at working pressure of 215 bar or 3110psi with a burst pressure of 13,000 psi so I hope these will be fine. They are marked as ISO 1436 SAE 100R2AT the same as the old ones. I have yet to fit a pressure gauge to find out what the actual running pressure is but the bent axis pump and motor are rated at 420 bar continuous. I suspect the relief valve operates way below that though.

Mine don't appear to have any damage either by chaffing or UV so why do they need to be replaced? I can see if they are exposed to UV on some piece of equipment or being moved often then that would be required.

None that are navigable except the canal d'Ourcq near Paris (10'6"). The main problem will be with some of the ports that don't like boats over 12 to 15m.

Here is a picture of my hull after zinc spraying. At Debdale it is all inside and in controlled conditions so weather independant. Much better quality control.

As they are new and contain no oil it has been suggested to wash then out with hot water, followed by compressed air and then dried out completely over a few days with hot air.

I am not sure what the future situation will be regarding 'importing' a vessel into the EU and its VAT status. It depends on the outcome of brexit. I remember many years ago if you wanted to keep a British registered craft in France for more than 6 months it had to be put in a customs bond, usually over the winter. I think there is still technically a limited time for visiting before you need to get a French Registration, which needs a French address for keeping a British boat in France but I don't think it has ever been enforced. We had our boat in France for the last ten years and never had any problems but sadly decided to call it a day after the brexit vote. No doubt it will all be made clear soon! Currently there are few regulations for vessels under 20m except on places like the Rhine when 15m is currently the limit to be a 'sportboat' but I have heard there may be further restrictions.

I am replacing some 4m Hydraulic hoses. The new ones came without any end covers. Any suggestions of the best way to clean them internally. They need to be spotless before I use them. Any suitable solvent? I was told not to use compressed air.

I had my whoe hull blasted to shiny steel, zinc sprayed and 2 pack coated at debdale 3 years ago. The results were excellent even if you scrape a bit of paint off the zinc stops it rusting. My hull is 85 years old so I am hoping it will last a bit longer! Although it is expensive, nothing reduces the value more than a bad hull and you save time and money in the long run. I can recommend Debdale- a real proffesional job.

Oil pressure 1000rpm 21psi, 1800rpm 43, 2200rpm 50-100. cn't find a value for mine at tickover

Start the engine when cold. See how long it takes for the oil light to go out. If it takes more than a few seconds it indicates wear. If it stays off when the engine is cold at tickover yet comes on when the engine is hot it is likely due to low oil pressure - probably worn bearings, oil pump etc. Needs checking with a pressure gauge to be sure. Maybe just a lower viscosity oil been used in the last oil change and tipped it over the edge. 11,000 hours without a rebuild could indicate you need one soon.

Very simple. VOAC bent axis motor and pump (fixed displacement), control valve, boost unit, oil cooler and reservoir. I think it is an ARS system.

The system was installed in 1987 so I don't have that much information on it. I hope it has a prv but if it has I have yet to locate it. I am hoping to keep the same propeller so that at 2000 revs on the new engine will give the same performance as the old engine running 39:39 at 1000. With the hydraulic reduction of 19:39 it should therefore take about 22Hp from the Izusu. What governs the power taken from the engine is the propeller speed but the load from the prop goes up as a cube law so the power absorbed goes up rapidly, doubling by about 1250 compared to the original 1000. Assuming the power available from the engine goes up approximately linearly with speed the engine will develop 44Hp at a shaft speed of 1250 so the pressure in the system( pressure drop across the motor)should rise in proportion to the square of the revs - well that's my thinking at the moment. Ideally the engine revs will be limited by the load on the prop or its governor and not by excess pressure in the system. The hydraulic system has a cooler but is not connected -perhaps the forty feet of pipes each way cool it down. Next step is to install a pressure gauge!

I am replacing an old Kelvin with 22HP at 1000 rpm. I have changed the ratio of the hydraulics from 39:39 (1:1) to 19:39 which is like a reduction of 2:1. I have calculated that the system will take about 30Hp at 2200rpm (1100rpm on the prop). If I try to extract any more power the system pressure will exceed 350bar which is the maximum allowed with the pump/motor. I need to limit the revs to 2200 with the current pump/motor otherwise it will go bang! Mine has an external oil cooler and I not sure if I will need it.

Basingstoke Canal. The skin tank is the bow. I am not sure if this will be a benefit or hinderence when going faster. Perhaps someone will know. I have had hundreds of blockages (The Basingstoke is full of leaf mould) and resulting steam coming out on my other boat but remarkably still on the original impeller after 15 years. I put this down to it being the lowest point in the system below the engine and intake so remains wet enough to stop the impeller burning out.

Raw water cooling is my easiest option. If it was just for me I would do it that way as my other boat has been done. The reason for trying to make it bullet proof is that anticipate the boat being often used by numerous offspring who are not known for their mechanical appreciation and the engine is right in the bow of the boat so it would rely on the use suitable sensors to detect overheat/blockage and of course the skin tank is already in place.

Thanks They are all 32mm. I will need to change the current external engine oil cooler as that was fed by the old raw water supply with 22mm bore. What would be the maximum permissible length of the pipework between the engine and skin tank?. Looks like it would be a total of about 3m.

What would be the minimum bore for the pipework? I am thinking maybe 28mm. Currently the raw water pipework though the engine oil cooler, mounted on the top of the engine is only about 5/8".

I am presently installing a replacement engine (Isuzu 55) in a boat fitted with a hydraulic drive. Due to the constraints of the hydraulic system the max rpm will be limited to 2200rpm with about a maximum of 30Hp. The engine is currently configured for raw seawater cooling with a jabsco pump, manifold heat exchanger and bowman type coolers for the engine and hydraulic system. The boat currently has a skin tank of about 15 square feet and 4 internal baffles forcing the cooling water in a zig-zag though the tank. I would like to utilise the skin cooling system if possible. I originally thought to use the existing raw water circuit just going through the skin tank with a header tank. This would involve heat needing to go through 2 exchangers(engine to raw water and then raw water through skin tank) so the temperature difference between each would be say half the design difference compared to the original raw water system. I don’t think this would give enough temperature gradient to work properly. I cannot just connect the engine up for normal skin tank cooling because of all the pressure drops in the coolers pipework might be too much for the circulating pump. I am looking for suggestions as the best way to proceed and was thinking of just removing the main heat exchanger in the engine manifold so that engine coolant is mixed with the skin tank coolant and pushed around by the jabsco pump to the skin tank.

You need to get the installation certified under building control if you fit a new consumer unit as it notifiable under building regs. Whoever did it should not have signed it off with this fault. I would cut the cable out of the wall and replace that section back to point where you can install a suitable junction box under the floor or wherever.

Thanks I am pretty sure it is the ECU (black box) now . Aparently lots of these fail after 5 or so years and mine just happens to be 2013. I can only see a youtube video in polish that may indicate which transistors have failed so without a circuit for the ECU repairs have ceased. So I will fork out for a new and updated ECU and hope for the best.