Mad Harold

My boat has a 6 mm baseplate and 5mm sides. built 1978 and the last hull survey recorded an average base thickness of 5mm and the sides 4.5mm. This subject has been extensively discussed on CWF regarding hull thickness and corrosion. If you use the search facility you can have a good read.

If it isn't an overfilled sump then valve seals or worn bore/pistons are the cause. Boat is a 30ft steel narrowboat,prop is 16 inch pitch unknown.Gearbox is a Hurth I assume 2:1,although it might be 1.65:1. I have never found it necessary to use full throttle,I only discovered the full throttle smoking by accident. Cruising along the Bridgewater canal,(20 miles and no locks) I got bored and just for the hell of it,opened it up.Was horrified by the amount of smoke and now that I am aware of it I can't really ignore it.If I hadn't done that I could well be cruising around in happy ignorance. Oil used is Halfords 20/50

It is confusing! Under normal running you wouldn't think anything was wrong.Easy starting,and at canal speed no smoke.Even pushing it a bit on the river all seems normal. However as I have said give it full throttle and the blue oil smoke it produces has to be seen to be believed. Will reduce the excessive oil in the sump first to see if it has any effect. My theory being that the big ends are dipping in too high an oil level and flinging the oil into the undersides of the pistons,and although the rings should stop it getting into the combustion chamber, I have had an engine (in a motorbike) burn oil at high revs due to a failed scavenge pump allowing a build up of oil in the crankcase.+

Crankcase breather pipe goes to the air filter from the tappet chest.No breather on the rocker box.Starts from cold wthin 4 or 5 revolutions with a small puff of blue smoke which clears quickly. Tried checking compression with a spanner,but it was stiff to turn and after skinning my knuckles twice , I lost interest in doing this.I think I felt a couple of compressions,but because of the lack of leverage with a spanner and the stiffness of the engine I can't really take any useful lnformation from this. The air filter is quite clean,so oil is not blowing in there.

Thanks for you thoughts on this,but the smoke is blue, a hugh amount, you can't see the canal or towpath behind,it would be a credit to a warship dodging the enemy,and it stinks of,well,oil smoke.

Thanks for the advice.If I turn the dipstick loop towards the engine, it doesn't reach the bottom of the sump,and it fits quite firmly that way around.

Nobody has mentioned the shambolic farce,Brexit, (well,not on this thread) In uncertain times,people will tend to hang on to their money'so this could one of the factors slowing down sales.

When you say run away,do you mean the engine was running on it's own engine oil? That was my worry,I have heard horrendous tales of "diesel runaway" On initially giving my engine full throttle,the smoke has a dirty burning rubber type smell,which I think is the engine burning off the crap in the cylinders and exhaust manifold as the engine is generally working at a low power setting.But after a few seconds of full power the smell is definately oil burning.

Thanks for the replies folks,am going to drain the oil level to midway between min and max with the dipstick at the bottom of the sump and see if that cures it.

BMC 1500 starts and runs fine,a bit of smoke from a cold start but none at normal canal speeds. However, there is a bit of smoke when giving a good burst of reverse,or when on the river cruising at (a guess) 6 or 7mph,there is a slight blue haze.Not worried by this,but am concerned that when I give the engine full throttle it really smokes,enough to obliterate the canal behind.It needs to be seen to be believed. The engine oil capacity is given as 4.7 ltr but my dipstick with the loop outwards goes to the bottom of the sump,and with the loop towards the engine it stops before the bottom. At the last oil change I put in a 5ltr can of oil,and the dipstick at the bottom of the sump registered full,but with the loop turned towards the engine the oil was on the minimum mark.I topped up the oil to the max with the dipstick loop turned inwards. I thought nothing of this because I read on here that different size sumps were fitted to BMC engines but now with the smoke at high revs,I am wondering if I have overfilled the sump. There is probably five and a bit ltr in, would overfilling cause excess smoke at high revs,? or is my engine just getting old and tired?

Had an "add a rudder"on my last boat,and you could adjust the distance from the prop by simply loosening the bolts and sliding the rudder back (or forward). It was most effective well back,but yours looks quite ok to me.

I think you mean a good boat at a cheap price.There are currently over 1000 boats for sale,and thats just on the Duck! Looking at the sold listings on e bay,the ones that seem to be selling are the cheap ones,typicaly sub £10k.Most of the others reach the end of their listing unsold. I can only speculate as to the reasons for this; market saturation? the number of stoppages? the few buyers around looking for a suitable liveaboard? the large number of people visiting CWF and becoming more cautious and market savvy? thanks to all the information on here. It could also be just a lull in buying,it happens in many trades.

Locks and chains may deter oportunist thieves,but as has been pointed out the determined scrote will cut away part of the transom with an angle grinder. A tip I received was to paint the whole outboard in some garish colour or bright stripes to make it harder to sell.

As the Hurth gearbox only holds a small quantity of oil,change it when you do the engine. Rumour has it that Hurth gearboxes are rather short lived,although mine came with the boat,and I have done some 500 hours in two years,and (touch wood) it's fine.

Yes,step,not jump.You are pushing the boat away (evey action having an opposite reaction) I,like you come in at an angle,and when the bow is a couple of feet from the side,full rudder to swing the stern in with a dribble of power.0

Stretching a boat seems an expensive and troublesome way of gaining more room. Selling your boat and buying another would be easier,however,I do understand your hesitating to do this. Buying a boat is fraught with dangers. You can have your prospective boat surveyed inside out,but like taking up with a new woman,you don't know what you have got untill you have lived with her for a year. I wouldn't have bought my present boat (not at the price I paid at least) because of all the faults that I discovered in the first year of ownership,that were not found on the survey. If you are well endowed (with money) then a stretch would be ok,if it is done by skilled people and the really labour intensive part, the fit out,is done by equally skilled people. Good luck whichever route you take.

The thought of welding a used fuel tank fills me with horror! I think rivnuts or drilling and tapping is the way to repair this and welding being the last resort,and then only done by a qualified person with proper equipment,inert gas.fire fighting gear etc.

If you want a job doing.........

My well deck is fastened down with screws into the channel which has threaded holes. Two are stripped and Araldited bolts are working fine. If you hacksaw a slot into the threaded end of the bolt,you can hold the bolt firm with a screwdriver while tightening or slackening.

when I had my Norman cruiser (wish I hadn't sold it) I fitted an "add a rudder"This is simply two ally strips with an ally plate bolted on.The two ally strips clamp onto the outboard leg with a long bolt. Very cheap off fleabay. It made an enormous lmprovement to the steering,even in neutral when normally there is no steering,there was still some control,as long as there was some way on the boat.

There was a small Springer moored near me with an outboard with a tiller (15hp Honda) It had a long swan neck tiller tightly hinged on the motor to allow tilting. I had a Norman cruiser and made a bracket from 3/16 steel plate bolted under the engine and attached a pickaxe handle (stained and varnished) to the bracket. As all outboards are slightly different and boats too, a one off arangement will need to be fabricated to suit your engine/boat. The Springer I referred to had what looked like a standard swan neck,but the way it was attached and the throttle/gear arrangement I can't remember.

If you have an engine that never needs servicing,or fixing, then yes,tucking the engine out of sight is good. Sadly,I haven't yet come across one yet. Every time I look in my engine hole my heart sinks when I see the state of the engine bilge.It needs wire brushing and painting,but I can't even get my hand to it! To do it properly,the engine will need to come out,but I'm not doing that untill it needs an overhaul or replacing. I'll just try not to look at it when checking oil,belt and water.

Some engines are a pig to get at! If the designer of my boat had been prepared to sacrifice a couple of feet of cabin space,then getting to the engine would be a doddle.

A tip I got from an old boater was to give a boat one coat of blacking every year. The reasoning behind this was that the blacking should still be intact after a year,and also you will only need one day in the dry dock.The nearest to me charges £175 for the first day,and £90 per day thereafter. Doing this,I would guess that hull corrosion would be minimal.