Janz

Loool..! Yeah, I noticed them on my way down from Herts, or rather the rubbish they left behind. I was quite lucky when I arrived in Rickmansworth, to be able to get rid of all my rubbish at Batchworth lock. There are a bunch of CRT bins behind the Premier Inn...👍

I do have an engine bilge pump but it's offline. Either that or it won't kick in unless submerged. There is only two or three inches of water down there at any one time. All my bilge water has been baled into buckets & I have a forty litre plastic container two thirds full of what looks like grease water. They say water doesn't mix with oil... well I've been driving about with this thing for nearly two weeks & I haven't seen any separation. I do have a moral compass & I wouldn't dump stuff like that. If it does eventually separate I'll siphon out the water & take the oil sludge to the tip. I was gonna use my shower pump that wasn't working but I saw how much they are new, so after fixing it I wasn't keen on using it to pump the bilge out. It's a Whale Gulper... a 'Gucci bit of kit.' The other pump idea i had was using my old Jabsco as a dedicated bilge pump that once fixed, will run off my spare pulley space. That's still a plan but it will run into a barrel.

I kept all the masonry in two recycling bins so I haven't actually messed with the ballast. They were useful to place on each side to bale out the engine bilge. Now it's all dry down there (well, not under two inches of water), I want to clean & paint under there but I might as well wait for the weather to improve. Question is, how on earth do people clean a boat engine bay? Obviously harsh chemicals are out, seeing as they will all end up eventually being pumped into the canal & soap & water won't cut it in this engine bay... not with forty years of greasy grime & filth to contend with.

All sound advice..! Well I won a second hand refurbished pump from ebay & I'm waiting for it to arrive. I only have another week at my mooring spot before I have to move, so I shall swap mine out... then at least whilst it's on the bench I'll still be able to drive. I have been working on the boat daily & I've been accepted into the local boating community down near lock 100. Nice to know they can keep an eye out when I'm away from it. I have cleaned out everything under my floor - bags of rotten wood, rubbish, rust & chunks of masonry. Only the paving slabs remain & they have been lifted, reset & the floor panels left up to dry everything out. I've also dried out the engine bilge in preparation for some engine work & a general tidy up of the wiring, which is a right mess. So, hopefully when my parts arrive, I'll be able to plug in the calorifier, sort out some proper cooling fluid & report back on how the cooling/heating performs. I have bonded with my boat. I have been everywhere, seen everything & decided that it's all doable... it's a keeper! 👍

I also noticed a plate on the rocker cover that states 'Tempest.' I'm assuming they 'marinised' the BL engine so maybe that might throw some light on how the engine was originally cooled before all the bodge mods were carried out. Do you guys think the BMC pump would run a small bathroom radiator or should I plumb that into the skin tank circuit in order to benefit from both pumps? I should've said the bathroom is just behind the bulkhead so the water wouldn't have to travel far.

I like this. I also like the versatility of the pump design. It can be hand or drill/motor cranked & can be mounted to pretty much anything solid.

Thanks, I did have a look through their site but I couldn't find anything like rebuild kits for legacy or discontinued pumps. I've emailed ASAP to see if they do a rebuild kit & a new belt for it. I also have a bottom hose on the way with two take offs & a number of imperial brass pipe fittings & a couple of engine gaskets. I'd like to keep the pump. In fact, if I see another one 2nd hand I'm gonna buy that n'all & see if I can build a dedicated bilge pump system using the second space on my engine pulley...

I've emailed ASAP to see if they do a rebuild kit & a new belt for it. I also have a bottom hose on the way with two take offs & a number of imperial brass pipe fittings & a couple of engine gaskets. I'd like to keep the pump. In fact, if I see another one 2nd hand I'm gonna buy that n'all & see if I can build a dedicated bilge pump system using the second space on my engine pulley...

I gave the pump a good looking at today. Fired up the engine & ran it. The shaft seems ok, albeit leaking pretty bad. I reckon I'd get a pint out of the gland bit in five or six minutes. It's also leaking from the gasket & either from one of the caps which won't budge & looks like it has been cross threaded or from where the whole fitting screws to the body. The other one is ok. They are fine threads. One of the screws that holds the two pipe halves together is a bodge so someone's been in there. I'll have to take it off, strip it & rebuild it. Oh yeah! 😂 I stuffed it full of grease & tightened it all up but no cigar. The pulley is well out of whack. It's held on what looks like a taper with a grub screw. I'm gonna do a post-mortem & maybe get the bits to fix it. I couldn't hear any bearing noise...

Cheers for that. I would definitely like to save mine if I can & refurbish it with new parts. It looks like it isn't running true. The belt is kicked out as if the shaft on the pump is too long. Either that or the engine pulley that drives it is too short or possibly was a double pulley that was replaced with a single one. It's that noticeable. When I bought the boat there was a small plastic bucket underneath it but I just assumed it was for the bilge. I shall replace that first 👍

Thanks, Tony. I have read through the notes. Well done for bringing this to my attention. I now see the importance as well as the practical necessity. I'll have a good look & if my pump is salvageable I'll order some bespoke packing along with a new belt. I'll also take some pics of the stern gear. I have a grease gun for my Stihl gardening tools. I'm going to get a hand pump from Screwfix for the bilge. I was going to use the shower pump that I repaired last night but it's a Whale Gulper & I just saw the price of 'em, so I'll not use that...

Thanks, I looked it up. I get the concept but I will probably need to see it in front of me. Looking at the Jabsco pump, I think that would be a good place to start because the gland nut & locking nut are wound tight to their fullest extent.

Loool..! Thanks 👍 Had to wean myself off the cold bucket & sponge massages.

Yeah, I have one 'til mid July. Dunno how or why I have one though. There was nothing on the tub apart from a disconnected Dometic dolls house sink & hob combo whacked into a bit of chip board & a Bowman (or Boatman) stove & flue, with no hole in the roof to put it. Maybe the last owner bought it on a whim after installing them plastic panels 😂 It's unused.

Haha, are they bad news? It was given to me by someone who told me to turn it upside down to get it working... Is it a sky hooks/tartan paint thing? Is this some novice initiation right of passage - see how long he lugs the bent fridge down the canal? 😂 Do I have to pass it on to some next noob?

I met a fella at a bike meet a few years ago at the Ace. He'd rocked up in an Austin Mini. The more trad bikers there laughed at him until they saw that he'd put a Yamaha R1 engine in it & converted it to RWD. It would have eaten their lardy cruisers... Anything goes is the moral I s'pose. All I know about the boat is that it was built in 1981 & last licensed back in 2012. It could have had an engine swap in that time. It had a very expensive paint job & rear canopy fitted at one point because it's in good nick externally, however the interior is terrible. Awful plastic panels, woeful bathroom, even the spray foam has been applied badly. Nothing about it makes any sense. It looks like it was once a project & somebody turned it into another project. I'm going to save it because it deserves it & I like messing with old air cooled single cylinder motorbikes, so even though my skills ain't exactly transferable, I can learn, turn it around & because it has been gutted it's pretty much a blank canvas. I think I can get it nice for less that £1000 if I use reclaimed timber & buy some sensible retro appliances from ebay. I've already seen a gas oven I really like, I have a gas/12/240v fridge. It already has a Thetford cassette toilet & crap shower. The rest I can furnish with stuff from my place - loft bed, shelving unit, sink, worktop, table, chairs, telly etc... it's just cool being on the water. My pal bought a 57' 2008 boat from Whilton & I helped him bring it down here last year. That's when I got the yen for one but I could never find anything near my budget until this came along...

I shall. I need some down time. It took me the best part of a week to get the boat from Herts back to Brentford, & I've been roughing it all the way, cooking off a camping stove & doing jobs on the move to get everything working like the water, the solar, the lights & the engine. This boat hasn't been in the water since 2012! Forty odd locks might not seem much to experienced boaters but it was pretty tough going for a novice... especially the Hanwell flight which I had to do in the dark. One of the locks there near the old asylum needed a larger size windlass... I had to use four spanners cable tied together..! Last night was the first night I spent in my own bed & the shower this morning was bliss...

It does go back to the skin tank, I double checked. I have learned a lot today & I'm very grateful for the input I've received. I'm going to look at your website in depth when I get home & then check the calorifier threads for the necessary fittings & perhaps see if I can install a car heater blower which will help me out a lot with comfort whilst doing the work. I have an old Saab 9-5 which has a blown turbo & sludge issues. It needs to be scrapped so I think that would be a great donor vehicle for the heater & stereo system, some hydraulic rams from the boot & bonnet to hold up my solar panels, various hosing, relays, wiring looms & fuse boxes, the battery, nuts, bolts, even the tyres will come in handy...

You're absolutely right, I just had a look. It's a bit too late to mess about with the little Jabsco pump now but tomorrow I'll clean it out & repack it. That's where I'm losing water. There are no other internal leaks but I can't see the lower skin tank hoses until it's dry. I shall completely empty the bilge, clean it all up & I'll know a lot more... I dip notice an external leak coming from the prop shaft but that was only a small drip & I'm hoping that turning the grease pump will stop that. All in all I'm pretty happy with my boat for what I paid for it. I've scraped & cleaned out everything under the cabin floor ready for some rust cure & paint. It all needs to dry right out including my 56 paving slabs but once that's done I can start thinking about flooring, wall cladding & a decent bathroom. It'll be a lot of work but I'm confident that I can have it touring by mid summer. 👍

Ok guys. My bad, I got it wrong, the plumbing is as follows: From the header tank, the water flows directly to the port side skin tank. From there it goes to the lower part of the pump, then into the heat exchanger, out the other side & into the top of the second skin tank, out of the bottom of that through a two inch hose & it looks like it goes out of the side of the boat but I can't see where. There are two jubilee clips on each end of the heat exchanger... A pal just had a look & he's as bemused as I am as to why it's like it is. I'm going to post up some pics as soon as I resize them. 👍

I'm there now. Gonna have a look 👍

No it's all there Tony, the 'piston ring' thing is totally knackered - it's rock hard & cracked. I felt around the sump but there's no sump plug, so I think it's a bespoke marinised engine. I need to buy a rubber hand pump from ebay or see if my pal has an old beer pump in his shed to get the old oil out or maybe a replacement for the piston can be sourced. I shall take a bunch of pics in a bit. The tub is only a mile away near lock 100 in Brentford so I wont be long. Thanks for your replies guys. This forum is most efficient, well done. You have put my mind at rest quite a lot. Just knowing that there's sound advice available is a great help. Bless you all...

😂 loool, it's cool, you can run down my boat if you want, it's a shed. It's basically a floating building site. I ran it down to London from Herts but I kept topping up with water to keep it under 100°C. When fully topped up it runs around 70-80°C. Hasn't let me down yet. I did all the tappets halfway & I need to change the oil but the oil pump thing doesn't pump... the gasket is worn out & doesn't touch the sides. It smokes a bit, especially on start up but doesn't lose oil & there's no water in the oil. I dunno whether there's oil in the water because the water doesn't hang around long enough to see any. From the index number search, the boat was originally made by 'Tollandine' in 1981 & it's 39'6". I don't know whether that helps in pinning down whether it's had an engine swap. 👍