David Mutch

You may have a point there. It's recessed 20mm, which is probably about the length of the pins. I guess I may be able to bend the tool a bit if it doesn't quite reach!

Thanks to @Tracy D'arth's tip about the holes in the pulley centre, I've ordered one of these. Will let you all know how I get on with it 🙂

Both would have required removing the box before getting the part. Not really an option for a continuous cruiser, so I'm satisfied that I'm getting good value, all told 🙂

But would they have known what I needed?

Not sure I'm brave enough for that approach! Thanks, but on the whole, removing the starter sounds easier!

Thanks, but I've got a hydraulic gearbox, so the prop shaft won't be engaged without the engine running. About the only things that might work are the water pump and alternator, but I don't suppose you'd get a valid torque reading with the belt on, and I'm not sure if the belt would provide the necessary friction. Not sure about drilling the bell housing. The holes in the pulley centre might be a good shout though. Thanks 👍

Hi folks. I'm wanting to take the timing cover off to check the condition of my timing chain and tensioner. I'm not too worried about getting the crank nut off, as I've done the job before. However, doing it back up again is a different story. On a previous boat (on advice gratefully received on this forum), I've removed the starter and jammed a tooth on the flywheel to stop the engine rotating when torquing the crank nut back up. On this boat, though, getting the starter off is a real pain, due to access. I'm wondering if there's any other way to get the nut torqued back up? Is there a hole in the bell housing where you can insert a locking pin into the flywheel like you can on some cars, for example? All suggestions welcome 🙂

In case anyone else has this problem, thought I'd report that I tried the usual suspects: ASAP, Midland, etc., but they could only provide a full seal kit for between £30 and £50. So, I contacted PRM (had to call in the end as they didn't answer emails), who put me on to a company called Lancing Marine. They were able to supply a seal on its own, for the princely sum of £7+p&p. Going to try fitting it next week, so look out for a post on how to sleeve an output shaft 😜

I believe the 150D is the successor to the Delta 30. It looks identical. Does anyone happen to know if the oil seal for the 150D will work with the Delta 30?

Thanks. I've emailed PRM, but will do that if I get no joy from them. Am I to take it from your recommendation that you're somewhere nearby, or did you just see where I was on my profile?

Thanks. That makes sense 🙂 Can anyone help identify the correct oil seal? Google doesn't immediately come up with a definitive answer.

Just looking at the manual, it looks like there's a circlip that goes round the output shaft. Would that not prevent you from driving the shaft out, or am I misunderstanding its purpose? It pays to read the manual sometimes! I assumed the box needed dismantling because in the section called 'Servicing the output shaft assembly ', it says you have to remove the input and layshaft assemblies as per section 9.4. What I didn't spot is that the first instruction there is to remove the output shaft exactly as @Steve56 describes! D'Oh! Thanks Steve!

Thanks! I was hoping that might be possible. I'll certainly have a look at doing that. Sounds closer to my skill level!

Ah well. Guess I'll have to do that then. Thanks

Hi all. I have a leak from round the output shaft on my Delta 30 gearbox. The manual seems to suggest that to replace the oil seal, the box needs to come out and be pretty much fully dismantled. Is this really necessary just to change the oil seal, and if so, can anyone provide a bit more detail than the manual does on how to do the job? Thanks 🙂

Thanks (although I'm not sure what's silly about checking the PRV?!) Interesting about water boiling out of the oil. I could have sworn that after I got the engine hot the other day, the oil looked cleaner afterwards. I didn't mention this before, because I thought I must have been imagining it, but I guess if it's been chronically under temperature, it could have accumulated condensation in the oil, which boiled out and made it look cleaner. Maybe another tick in the box for a higher temp stat.

Thanks Tony. It usually never goes below 50psi, except the other day when I revved it for a long time and it dropped to 35ish afterwards, then climbed back up slowly, but I put that down to a lot of heat causing the oil to thin. The gauge and sender are new (well in the last 2 years or so), although I realise that doesn't guarantee working correctly. By and large its readings seem consistent with what I'd expect, but I've usually been too preoccupied with the smoke before now to pay attention to the gauge when I've got the hammer down, and the readings I saw today seemed on the high side. The fact there was zero smoke today on my cruise, plus good compression readings, makes it seem unlikely to me that the rings are bad. I guess the gunged up exhaust theory is still the most likely, but perhaps I'll investigate the relief valve anyway, as I've never had it out.

Thanks. I'll take a look then 🙂

So, went for our first cruise today since all the tinkering. Before doing so, I put the pump timing back to dead on the mark and replaced one of the pipes between the fuel filter and the injector pump, which was probably 30 year old copper, and didn't take kindly to being disturbed twice in one week. After a short warm up, I gave it some beans in neutral. Got a fair bit of smoke to begin with, but perhaps not as much as before, and this time it started to clear within 30 seconds or so, even without putting a lot of heat in the engine as previously. Set off, and wherever possible, opened up the taps. No smoke! Or none to speak of. The engine was also running noticeably smoother and quieter (the OH commented on this completely unprompted, so I don't think I was imagining it!). There's still one thing that I thought worth consulting the hive mind about. I wonder whether my symptoms could possibly be explained by a sticky oil pressure relief valve. I've not really had an eye on the oil pressure before when it's been billowing smoke, but I noticed today that when I first gave it some revs, the oil pressure shot up to nearly 100psi. I might have expected something like that with a stone cold engine, but I'd already run the engine for a while in the morning, so it wasn't completely cold. When giving it some welly on the cruise, it peaked at maybe 80psi, which seems more normal, although admittedly I probably didn't reach quite the same rpm, and that still seems higher than my previous BMC (although that could just be down to a different gauge to some extent, I suppose.) Could excessive oil pressure be forcing oil past the rings at high revs, perhaps? And could getting some heat/oil pressure in the engine help un-stick the valve, or just reduce the oil pressure enough due to higher oil temp, that the smoke subsides?

These modern marvels never cease to amaze!

Thanks. I'd never have thought to get that inventive!

Unfortunately, not all of us have have access to such good advice, especially for free. I suspect that's why a lot of folks come here looking for counsel. Indeed, my experience has tended to be that even if willing and able to pay, it's very hard to find a mechanic that good, especially when it comes to diagnosing something at all out of the ordinary. That's pretty much why I have learned as much as I have about engines and do as much of my own work as I can. If you can recommend someone on the Kennet and Avon with those kinds of skills, I'm all ears. I think it's a little unfair to say that I might as well change the gearbox, but perhaps I've not been 100% clear in articulating my reasoning. As @Tony Brooks points out, there did seem to be some improvement in engine sound when hot. However, that's not all. I have always believed that the stat is unnecessarily cool (I believe it's a 74 or even 72 degree stat). I'd never thought about cooler stats being used to regulate domestic hot water temperature, but I have heard they're often used in engines that have raw water cooling, especially if used in brackish or sea water, as this helps reduce corrosion, but that it's a bit of a trade off in terms of engine life, as running cool can cause other problems. I believe my engine may have been converted from raw water to a skin tank at some point in its life, so perhaps that's why it has a cooler stat. My current working hypothesis is that the smoke is due to prolonged periods where the engine is under insufficient load, just generating electricity, (especially over the last two years of working from home) and doing the occasional cruise with few locks and no flow requiring high power or rapid deceleration. I think this may have caused a buildup of a combination of carbon, diesel and oil (and perhaps even water, as the exhaust could conceivably collect condensation or rain water), causing smoke under higher revs, where there's more air flow through the engine to blow the gunk out, and increased exhaust temperature to help vaporise it. I'd reason that such a buildup is less likely to occur if any stray oil or diesel is ejected from the engine at a higher temperature in the first place, and that a higher temperature in the rings is likely to lead to expansion and therefore less oil and unburned diesel in the cylinders and therefore the exhaust system. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I guess I'll find out when I change the stat I like the cut of their jib!

@TheBiscuitsThanks (although needing a rev counter to calibrate a rev counter seems a bit of a catch 22 to me!)

I have a skin tank for cooling, and no calorifier (instant gas hot water), so I think I'll go ahead and change the stat. Thanks. I've always wondered with one that runs off the alternator whether they have to be calibrated somehow, as I'd have thought it depends on the pulley ratios to a great extent?

Well, something to report: This afternoon, to some extent out of frustration, I decided to give the old 'Italian tune up' a jolly good go, as a bit of a 'kill or cure'. I don't have a rev counter, so couldn't say exactly to what extent I gunned it, but I'd say I gave it at least 2000rpm, if not considerably higher (certainly more than I'd ever use for any longer than it takes to stop in a hurry), and just left it. The smoke was pretty appalling to begin with, but I held my nerve, and after maybe 3 or 4 minutes, it began to clear. It didn't clear completely (although my nerve didn't hold long enough to find out if it might, if left), but it reduces to what seemed to me a not completely unreasonable level for those RPMs. The temp gauge read considerably higher than I've seen it previously, and oil pressure at idle dropped below 50psi (to maybe 35-40, it's hard to tell on a dial with tick marks every 25psi), but crept back up as the engine cooled off. I'm beginning to wonder whether @Mad Harold might have been on to something after all. Although I've been on the river recently, there was precious little flow, and the smoking issue made me reluctant to really push it, although it still felt like I was pushing it compared to the canal. I think there could be a bit of a negative feedback loop there, with the smoke making me image the worst about my engine, and me therefore taking it easy everywhere, and allowing yet more gunk to build up in my exhaust. I'm also wondering whether @john.k might be on to something with a cold engine. Perhaps mine would be happier with an 82 degree stat? (Don't know if it was just psychosomatic, or whether I was just deaf from the revs, but I could swear the sound improved when the engine got some heat into it too.) I'm not calling it case closed yet, but thought it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on fitting a higher temperature stat, and doing more regular drag races!