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Apologies for raising a topic that has possibly been often covered before but my forum search didn't help too much in relation to diesel fuelled stoves specifically. My Bubble diesel fuelled corner stove is a basic bit of kit with no sophisticated air /fuel mixture control to compensate for short flue or windy conditions. Currently it has typical boat flue/ chimney with a vane type cowl atop and it works reasonably well at high temperature settings but not so well at low settings. Snag is my boat is small and rarely has need of the high temp. settings. The main problem is of course the short flue/ chimney length and that gives problem of maintaining correct air/fuel ratio in anything other than a dead flat wind. There is talk of 'H' type cowl, vedette cowl, Rotor cowl, etc., etc. so many options but which is best suited for my application? Shall be grateful for comments.

Hi all, So like the numpty newbie that I am smashed on the 24/7 heating to get through this cold snap and almost completely ran out of diesel. Resulting in the flame going out and the stove (a Morso squirrel conversion) sooting up quite heavily.. something thats never happened before. Any way I awaited a diesel delivery gave the stove a good clean out and froze to death for a couple of nights. I was hoping that a full tank of diesel would be all that was required to get some heat back in our lives. Not the case. The stove can be lit and burns a healthy blue flame but after about 20 minutes (can also hear a rather loud and fast dripping sound) the flame gradually lowers itself down the burner pot until its just a yellow flame burning away the remaining diesel in the hole where the fuel drips through until it burns out. Anyone have any ideas whats going on or what I can do to remedy this. I have used the cleaning rod, I have cleaned out the stove, paying attention to remove the coke from all of the little air holes in the burner pot. If I turn the regulator on I can physically watch the diesel entering the burner pot. The stove has been rock solid until running out of fuel, really need to get this sorted as its unbearably cold right now! Thanks in advance

Hi All, So, after a year of living aboard a boat that only generates hot water via running the engine and slowly warming up water in the calorifier which is all over in a hot minute. Ive decided that its time for some home improvements, mainly in the guise of hot water. My initial thought was Webasto, but I read very recently that they don't like to work as just water heaters and need to do central heating as well. Lovely in times like this but I don't particularly want to be heating the boat via rads in the middle of the summer every time I want to do the washing up. Other thing is the quite high cost or purchase and what ever parts of the install I cannot do myself plus regular maintenance. Second thoughts a Morco gas boiler, but from what I see in the specs of the ones I've been looking at they only heat the water to 25C above the water temperature. Thats just not hot enough for most hot water requirements. Secondly I heard that BSS is wanting to phase out gas from boats so is investing is a gas boiler perhaps not wise. Immersion heater, to be honest I've done little to no research. Just the huge power output has put me off even considering it as an option. However knowing that my battery bank needs replacing and a new solar array is on the shopping list maybe it could work. I guess what I'm asking is what from the above is myth, what people are using, what you find the pros and cons of your set ups are and how much they have cost you to purchase/install. I've got a fair bit of cash to spend on the batteries the solar and the water heating I just want to make sure I spend it wisely and don't regret it in a few months years down the line! Look forward to hearing what you all have to say. Thanks in advance.

I'm no expert on diesel installations (my previous boat was home built with a petrol engine modded to run on paraffin!) but now I've got one I'm trying to understand it. I believe the normal fuel line set up has a return from the common rail or high-pressure pump back to the filter and then to the tank, the reasoning being that the fuel injectors react more quickly than a pump can so it's better to have excess pump capacity and return the excess fuel than to have the pressure drop when the injectors want more. My boat doesn't have any of that, just a single fuel line via the filter to the pump. I guess that because it's an old engine (Perkins 100 series) without any fancy ECU set up the injectors just squirt what the pump sends. Could also be that it was originally a petrol engined cruiser and the diesel was fitted by a cowboy, so I'd like your opinions. Is it OK as it is?

I'm afraid I have stupidly run out of diesel while running the engine. Of course it shuddered to a halt after running a little hesitantly for a while, and the dip test confirms the merest hint of diesel. Annoyingly, tomorrow I was going to fit the new fuel filters. Bearing all that in mind I wonder what procedure I now ought to follow - ie while the system presumably has air in it, could that be the best or worst time to do the fuel filters? It's a canaline 42. I'm off for a jerry can of diesel anyway

Hi All, I have a ford 1.8xld with Bosch alternator, also the boat has a smith industries tacho, which has never been connected. I have searched and found links from other sites, as I understand it the Tacho is wired to ground and to the 'W' terminal of the alternator. See pics. As you can see from the alternator picture, the 'W' terminal appears to be missing, I am assuming that I will have to connect my own terminal her, probably by soldering. Is this correct ? The second picture is from the back of the Tacho. Assuming this is the wiring diagram, single ind is a single alternator setup, dual ind, for a dual alternator setup. So if I am reading correctly, 'W' connector from alternator, to pin 1 of Tacho, pin 2 of Tacho to Ground. And now if I wanted to connect the second Alternator, then the same for pins 3 and 4 ? If any one can just confirm or deny, been a while ( 18 years ) since working on this type of equipment.

I've just bought an old Trentcraft GRP cruiser with a Perkins 100 series 3 cyl diesel engine. It has a heat exchanger that incorporates the exhaust manifold and uses canal/river water to cool it (and spits it out of the exhaust). There's a separate clean water supply via a header tank on top of the heat exchanger and a conventional (ie car type) water pump driven by vee belt. There's a bottom hose from the heat exchanger to the water pump but whereas on (old) cars you get a thermostat housing on top of the cylinder head and a top hose to the rad on this there's nothing like that. I assume the flow is through the cylinder head straight into the heat exchanger. According to a downloaded manual (which isn't very clear) there should be a thermostat behind the water pump, but the temp gauge varies from about 40°C on a canal to 70°C going upstream on a river so I suspect the thermostat is either jammed or missing. I'll strip it down at the end of the year and check. There are two tapping points on top of the water pump, currently plugged with threaded blanking plugs. I would like to fit a small calorifer but can't figure our where to connect to. Are the two tapped holes on the pump usable as flow and return? If so which is which, is there some way to find out? Or should I take hot water from one of those (which?) and return to a tee in the bottom hose? Any advice anyone?

Hi. Just back from looking at a boat and thinking of making an offer. However, this particular boat has its' fuel tank in a thick plastic container on the stern deck. Haven't seen that before and wondered if anyone else had? Should I be concerned about this? Is it hazardous in any way? Also, is fuel theft a problem on our waterways? Any advice much appreciated.

Hello! We are looking at purchasing our second Narrowboat, one vessel that we have viewed has Hurricane Diesel Hot Water Central Heating System. When tested it was quite noisy, does anyone have experience with this type of system?