jake_crew

Our 1930s Gleniffer had a similar "port" in the head for some sort of pre-heater. We were told it was usually a smouldering oily rag !

Smoke ?? What smoke. Anyway, look on it as SOLID carbon, which drops into the cut and is locked into the mud. Its a carbon sink, you were doing the climate a favour. If the exhaust was cleaner, the CO2 would going into the poor old atmosphere doing what ever the current fashion says CO2 does.

We only use a little 12V power (IE not 10s of amps). We use the old 2amp round pin (3 pin) socket that are still used in houses for lighting circuits.

Definitely aim to have the shaft dead straight. Are you perhaps using wooden engine bearers ? That would be expected with a vintage engine, to cut the vibration from a solid mounted motor. Cut the bearers to be a mm or under size (under-height) and use metal shim / sheet to finally lift the engine into alignment. I guess the engine has four feet, or least four fixing bolts. So stack the shims at each bolt hole, drill through and then bolt up to lock the shims in place. 1000 rpm is pretty slow in vibration terms, but in the very unlikely event that the shaft "whirls" (ie unwanted vibration at a particular rpm) the shaft can be tuned by fixing additional weight to it. EG a piece of 1 1/2" bore tube split and then fixed over the shaft with BIG jubilee clips or, even better, something more strong. This will move the vibration frequency down.

I think the wife has a rabbit, I didn't realise it was a phone as well !

I stand corrected.

In today's paper the death was announced of John Woodward, erstwhile landlord of the Boat Inn, Stoke Bruerne. Born and brought up in the pub, his ashes will be buried under a flagstone in the bar. With great foresight, his father apparently said "it will be warmer there than in the churchyard" !

True but maybe denboy would prefer buying new, cheap batteries every year, as opposed to expensive, top quality batteries every few years. Its the same dilemma at this time of year with car batteries.

My apologies to have caused confusion. I thought the words "disconnect completely" would be sufficient. I suppose this is one of those occasions where if you're not sure what you're doing - don't do it. My suggestion was intended to explain that unless you built the boat yourself, you cannot be sure that somewhere an earth has been made somewhere to the hull. The more so now with galvanic separators being used for shore power installations. In that case, IMHO disconnecting the batteries as well as all the other devices mentioned will isolate and protect the electrical system as effectively as is possible. I don't like the idea of leaving batteries connected as a "soak". Stray currents through them may produce hydrogen and oxygen just itching to find a spark so that they can get back together again.

Try this crowd. Hopefully the cables are man enough for you as they're more car sized. http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/VWP-...s/battleads.php

Apparently us Suvverners are still suffering supply difficulties since the Buncefield explosion 2 (or was it 3) years ago.

The times refer to (effectively) the number of seconds it would a prescribed ball to sink a certain depth in a prescribed cylinder of the oil. The "heavier" to oil, the longer the time to sink. At work I am currently experimenting with aviation kerosene and stock diesel fuel. The AVKERO is much lighter than the diesel.

Disconnect the batteries. Probably best to completely disconnect any ELECTRONIC devises ie radios, TVs, inverters, alternators etc. ELECTRICAL stuff ie lights, water pump, etc will be OK just turned off. Don't forget to remove flammable stuff from nearby. Also foam insulation produces the most poisonous fumes when burnt.

Can anyone tell me more about the Harrison boating family ?.

Mrs Wonderful uses the Wrights bread mixes from the supermarket 500g bags (funnily enough looks like a small brown flour bag). 75p a bag, a number of varieties, just add water and a little elbow grease. Bobs your mothers brother.

No indeed it'll be the "Animal Rights" people. What about the rights of all the wild animals they kill I say.

The quietening additive previously mentioned is a bag or 2 of sugar in the fuel tank. Invisible, undetectable and deadly . I have used this a number of times to "quieten" a generator which was too close. (When camping at festivals I should add - not on the cut).

Global warming, nuclear Winter, water and fuel running out etc. The only thing that will suffer is MAN. We've had a good run for the last 100 000 years. The rest of the world will blink and carry on as normal.

Creosote (like Cellulose paint) is still available from the trade outlets. In this case that would be your local agricultural suppliers. If you're near Herts, that would be Shepherds of Hertingfordbury. 5 litre barrels ~ £25. As always at these places, dress appropriately, and make sure you sound like you know what your talking about.

Caution carpet and underlay may not be fire-proof ! A superbly effective sound deadening system used in the aircraft industry is use two sheets of metal of different thicknesses. These are loosely riveted / bolted together (say one fixing roughly 6-12" in each direction. A random pattern for the fixings is good. Different materials (ie ally and steel) of the same thickness will also work. Each part of each sheet will have its own resonant frequencies, but as they are in close contact, the adjacent sheet will damp out the resonances of its mate. Works like a charm.

I wonder if the diagram shows the heater take-off from above the t/stat so that the engine quickly gets up to temp BEFORE the stat opens and lets hot water out to the heater. Otherwise if you had a big heater circuit the engine would take ages to warm up. Y ou should be able to slip the 1/2" hose on OK If you heat it (boiling water/cup of tea?) and smooth & grease the end of the 5/8 stub. It would be better to have grooves/barbs on your stub, but the hose should still grip OK with a decent jubilee clip. I note that your new stub is not the right angle you originally wanted, so you'll worry it might trap air. But I think you''ll find that the flow from the pump will push the air bubble out. I have the identical arrangement in a BMC car with A series engine, and the standard water pump will blow out air locks from at least 6" above the cylinder head.

Dead right JP It was just after the ice fairs that accurate thermometers were invented, so surprise surprise, temperatures have been increasing since. I have seen data that there has been a lot of seismic activity in the last 20-30 years. The amount of greenhouse gases that volcanoes spit out dwarfs mans contribution. Incidentally, water vapour is a far stronger greenhouse gas than CO2. There is up to 4% water vapour in the air, and only 0.03%CO2, so why do they witter on about CO2.