richardf

Hiya. so pleased that your engine is finally ok. I'm currently moored up at Oxley awaiting a new stove being fitted. The stove fitting has been somewhat delayed due to your engine situation . However, I agree, the crew at Oxley are a rare breed of boatyard and I use them for all work on my boat. Orph and Phil are stars and though work has backed up over the past few weeks they have looked after me superbly. Best Wishes - Phil Whoops - sorry about that! I'll be gone soon - promise!

Here's a couple of pics of the reduction gear when we opened it up - not pretty!

I think I know who you mean and I have also heard the rumours! No, this lot are down on the south coast!

Thank you for that useful and enlightening post - I am now much the wiser (NOT)

How would you fix either of those problems? I would love to know The parts are obsolete and have been for many years More chemical metal probably

I'm told that this forum is not the place to 'name and shame' so instead I will tell you all the sorry tale of my engine swop and let you draw your own conclusions. I bought my boat about 3 years ago and just after that a fully refurbished Kelvin P4R came on the market from a well known restorer. I have been around canals long enough to have heard the stories about 'so and so's engines being a really good paint job and not much else' - mostly these probably need to be taken with a pinch of salt, but the restorer of this engine had a good reputation and seemed to build his business on old vintage engines, mostly JP and LW. The engine has sat in my garage for 3 years, filled with good quality anti freeze and turned over regularly - my insurance policy if you like. Gradually the original engine got more and more smoky and developed a bad habit of coking up within an incredibly short time - so time to cash in the insurance policy! Purely by chance, I spoke to Oxley Marine in Wolverhampton and their owner, Orph Mabel, told me that his own boat had a P4 in it - so the decision was made to change the engine straight over. Things went wrong right from the start - prior to fitting the new engine in the boat, they ran it on a bench and immediately found the sump full of water. I contacted the original restorer and to be fair, he offered to fix it under warranty if I could send it back to him. We decided to push ahead ourselves as I knew that the heads were good on my old engine. The pic below shows exactly why the heads were leaking - the water passage here would normally be shelved out to support a short rubber pipe that mates with the block. The casting would be about 3-4mm thick - but you can see that it has completely rusted away! I must admit to being suspicious that the restorer knew that the head was dodgy and that is why he didn't want us to open it up. But we got hold of new gaskets, all was well and we fitted the engine (not easy with a rear engined boat and a small engine room). Time for 'sea trials' - the boat was run along the canal for about 30mins at which point the reduction gear overheated and practically seized up! Once again the restorer offered to fix it - but we didn't want to take the engine out again so decided once again to press on - what we found was quite shocking. The water jacket on the reduction gear had either rotted through or been damaged somehow and had been repaired with chemical metal - this was leaking and had allowed coolant to run into the box and wreck it. On closer examination we noted that so much chemical metal was required on the outside of the jacket that the brass drain plug had been removed and the hole just 'pugged up' with filler! I am now sure that the restorer knew this (he painted it a lovely shade of green) and that is why he wanted us to send it back There have been various other smaller incidents in the rebuild that have shown the rebuild to have been of dubious quality. Oxley Marine have just been amazing - Orph the owner and Phil the mechanic have had the engine in and out a total of 3 times - in the absence of an available Kelvin reduction box, they have now fitted a TMP hydraulic gearbox to the Kelvin (it was an option on this engine) - that involved the fitting of another crank, as the Kelvin boxes and the TMP attach differently. Orph runs a rare breed of boatyard - he keeps you in constant contact - emails with photo attachments have kept us in the loop - and if it wasn't for the unforeseen problems, he would have finished in the agreed time. It's a pity that the restorer cannot be named on here, but the towpath telegraph is a unique phenomenon and will be very effective. If anybody is considering some engineering works - I would recommend Oxley Marine. We now have the boat running and will now conduct some trials at the weekend - so all fingers are crossed Orph has serialised our tale of woe in his article on Narrowboatworld here and here There are a further two instalments to go!

Ours are the EVERHOT range (www.everhot.co.uk) - they run off a 13A electric supply; have spent years trying to find a good marine use for them, but apart from a couple of big Dutch barges with good onboard power generation, I have never really found a solution for the narrowboat market. Picquot was that range of stuff that everyone's granny had - sugar bowl. teapot and milk jug all on a matching tray. The kettles are awesome, but with a price to match! I think we charge about £135 for them.

We manufacture range cookers and hence we test a lot of kettles! Our ranges have solid cast iron cooking plates - so pretty much like a stove top. The best by far is the kettle by Piquot Ware - it is a classic shape and has a large, thick, flat bottom so in terms of heat transfer, it is ideal. The bad news is the price - about £135, but you would have it for life and it can be re-polished, re-hendled etc. They do come up on ebay cheaper sometimes http://www.millyskitchenstore.co.uk/Picquot-Ware-K3-Kettle-1.7lt-Product-10385.html?gclid=CPv9p7ry5rICFeTLtAodlEUAjA

It underwent a huge restoration project in the early 90s on the hard at Bulls Bridge - I seem to remember a new counter block going on at the time - but I suppose that's 20 years ago. The guy who owns it has always looked after it as a 'boat for life' - he wanted it from the moment he saw it and will (so say), never sell it.

That's going to be closed for some considerable time - and if it's in a relatively inaccessible place - and winter is looming. Doesn't bode well

I once bought a boat that had what I felt to be quite extreme bondage magazines hidden under the kitchen cupboards - behind the kickboards. A few days later (having perused the magazines!) - I found in a pile of junk what looked to me suspiciously like a butt plug. After poking it with a stick, I realised it was a cable gland!!

Hi David, I think we waited about 3 months before polish, but we did use the Craftmaster wash wax prior to this that kept it looking like new; 18 months on and we still get nice comments about it. 3 months before a polish seems to ring a bell with me - but you might consider cutting this short as the onset of winter looms. John Sanderson put a raddle paint on our roof and we have just washed it, never bothered with wax.

It sounds like it needs re-enamelling. I work with a number of companies that specialise in this service. If you would like to let me know where you live, I can probably recommend someone.

What a nice first post from a new member, welcome to Canalworld

There is a product called 'Sticky Stuff Remover' - worked a treat for me

It's not a sealed system with a cap on it, water head is simply from an open header tank, high up in the engine room. Water is circulated by a Jabsco pump, around the engine and skin tanks.

I have had a few problems with my engine replacement this week, as some water leakage from the heads was discovered. The heads are about to be refitted and the system tested. What pressure should it be tested to? The yard have mentioned 5 bar ( about mains water temp) but this ssounds very high to me, I don"t want to overdo it

I have finally decided to bite the bullet and to have the Kelvin P4 that I bought about three years ago installed in my boat - the existing engine was just not reliable and therefore I thought I would cash in my insurance policy and stop worrying about it! It looks like this might not be the case. The engine was restored by a well known and reputable restorer, has been filled with a water and anti freeze mix in my garage - until this week it has not been run. So the old engine is removed and the replacement is running well in the yard. The engine oil is changed just before it goes in the boat and the old oil is emulsified,so must be in contact with water somewhere. There are new pistons and liners fitted and new CH gaskets. They have refilled it with oil and water overnight and will check it again in the morning, but I can only assume that it will happen again and none of us want to go ahead if there is any chance of a problem. I assume (although it's a guess) that either a gasket or cylinder liner is leaking. The gasket is not a big issue, but the liner seals sounds like a biggie to me and is well outside my field of experience. I clearly have some decisions to make and would welcome views of the engine experts here as to how they would proceed - also an approximation of the scale of the job in changing liner seals (if I can get them). What would you do in my position (apart from cry!) Thanks in anticipation Richard

Normally Rayburns are 900mm and Agas 1000mm or thereabouts

Why would you need a mooring if you were a continuous cruiser?

Might be a bit far away, but we are just vacating our mooring at Stourport - it's in the top basin, on the pontoons opposite the sani station. Top mooring with power, water etc. Would probably be OK up to 50 feet. Will be on a BW auction very shortly

I used to have an old David Piper that had poured concrete, but it had been poured on polystyrene (a terrible idea as it has got damp). It was easy enough to break out with a cold chisel though. To make any discernible difference, you are going to have to take out a hell of a lot though.

Mark, please contact me at richardfrost59ATbtinternetDOTcom Cheers PS - I think you might have owned the other half!

I was at Droitwich Spa marina at the weekend - they do have a system where you pay £1 per day more for your mooring if you are on board for more than 4 days a week on average. Might not be strictly residential but............. The other place is the yard on the Severn, just below Stourport locks - there are all sorts of boats moored there with people in residence. Sirius Yachts