Engine Bay

[Laurie Booth]

10 hours ago, GRLMK38 said:

How would they know, I thought the butler dealt with it? ?

I stand corrected, I should have said "Hudson Butlers use Pampers" 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, cuthound said:

I have a Vetus water cooled stern gland. It never drips going forward and produce a only a drip or two of water in reverse.

 

They need lubricating with silicon grease every 100 hours. I use "plumba grease" http://www.builderdepot.co.uk/50ml-plumba-grease.html

 

You simply remove the Allen bolt on top of the gland, put some silicon grease into a plastic syringe, and squeeze a toothbrush head size blob into the gland. Replace the Allen bolt, wipe a smear of silicon grease around the prop shaft on the outside of the gland and leave well alone for another 100 hours.

 

If the Vetus gland starts to leak in forward gear, then it needs replacing. This can be done in the water if you are quick, but perhaps for the first time you do it best left until you dry dock.

My vetus was like that for years, but when it finally failed it fair gushed in when reversing! I changed it afloat but was less happy with the newer type Vetus offering (the first one was great, despite being fitted wrongly from new! but for this I am certain it would have lasted even longer). I eventually fitted a Radice seal (very similar to the Volvo unit) and have been very pleased with it. I'll guess about 5 years now. Also much cheaper than the vetus type.

Edited July 28, 2019 by Guest

[blackrose]

12 hours ago, OldGoat said:

If you love the boat and intend to keep it for some time -

How's about lifting the engine out,

cleaning, derusting painting the whole engine bay area?

At the same time fix the stoern gland?

 

 

There's really no need to lift the engine out just to de-rust and repaint the engine bay. The oil pan directly under the engine shouldn't need painting anyway as it will most likely be oily so just put some oil absorbing pads down there.

 

Also we don't know that there's anything wrong with the stern gland.

[blackrose]

12 hours ago, robtheplod said:

Thanks for the very useful replies. I've asked to see the history of servicing on the boat so we'll see what that shows. Will have a full pre-purchase survey in any case if we go ahead. Out of interest I've several threads where the water sealed units don't seem to be working (and get hot etc) - how do you know its working correctly?

 

There will be a pipe on top of the gland leading to the weed hatch. If you ask your surveyor to loosen the jubilee clip and take that pipe off the top of the gland you should see water coming out. If my memory serves me correctly that will happen even without the engine running and without the shaft rotating. If there's a flow of water and the gland itself isn't leaking then you can assume it's working. But to be honest if you run the engine in gear for a while and the gland isn't getting hot then it's working. Take it out of gear before you climb down there to check!

[Guest]

1 minute ago, blackrose said:

 

There will be a pipe on top of the gland leading to the weed hatch. If you ask your surveyor to loosen the jubilee clip and take that pipe off the top of the gland you should see water coming out. If my memory serves me correctly that will happen even without the engine running and without the shaft rotating. If there's a flow of water and the gland itself isn't leaking then you can assume it's working. But to be honest if you run the engine in gear for a while and the gland isn't getting hot then it's working. Take it out of gear before you climb down there to check!

Yes, it flowed out of ours when I disconnected it.  I tied a bin bag around the shaft behind the prop and this slowed it down considerably, when changing the seal afloat. 

[robtheplod]

Bit of an obstacle in that the existing surveys for the boat are only viewable in the sales office and that's a 300 mile round trip. They say they cant email them to me so without these I'm a little stuck in getting an accurate documented history of the boat …. seriously put off by this...

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

Bit of an obstacle in that the existing surveys for the boat are only viewable in the sales office and that's a 300 mile round trip. They say they cant email them to me so without these I'm a little stuck in getting an accurate documented history of the boat …. seriously put off by this...

 

Its not a broker in Northamptonshire (Daventry way)  is it ?

 

[robtheplod]

yes it is.... very roughly... (probably not the one you think it is though beginning with W....)

Edited July 29, 2019 by robtheplod

[Alan de Enfield]

16 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

yes it is.... very roughly... (probably not the one you think it is though beginning with W....)

In which case it makes you wonder if they are really 'bothered' to try and sell it, or the surveys / history is not particularly good.

 

I can completely understand your 'put-off-edness'.

 

I'm sure that the 'office' is not busy every minute - it doesn't take 'much' these day to scan a few pages into a Pdf and they can then send them to any prospective buyer.

At least then you can make an informed decision to travel 300 miles or not.

[cuthound]

9 hours ago, catweasel said:

My vetus was like that for years, but when it finally failed it fair gushed in when reversing! I changed it afloat but was less happy with the newer type Vetus offering (the first one was great, despite being fitted wrongly from new! but for this I am certain it would have lasted even longer). I eventually fitted a Radice seal (very similar to the Volvo unit) and have been very pleased with it. I'll guess about 5 years now. Also much cheaper than the vetus type.

 

Is the Radice seal a direct swap for the Vetus, or is it a complete new gland?

[MtB]

That red/brown tide mark might not be rust in my opinion, it might easily have been coolant water given the way the black rubber hose has been stained exactly the same colour. It's clearly been pumped out for selling the boat but I find myself wondering if this engine has a serious overheating problem and ejects all its coolant from boiling after a few hours of running. 

 

Something to ask your surveyor to look into specifically, I suggest.

 

 

 

 

[alan_fincher]

2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

I'm sure that the 'office' is not busy every minute - it doesn't take 'much' these day to scan a few pages into a Pdf and they can then send them to any prospective buyer.

At least then you can make an informed decision to travel 300 miles or not.

It sounds to me like the broker involved is prepared to let OP read a copy whilst they are present, but not to supply an electronic or  paper copy to take away that allows the possibility of is being made available to others for comment.

I wonder why, (if I'm right, that is).

[Neil2]

14 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

It sounds to me like the broker involved is prepared to let OP read a copy whilst they are present, but not to supply an electronic or  paper copy to take away that allows the possibility of is being made available to others for comment.

I wonder why, (if I'm right, that is).

Probably, and it doesn't reflect very well on the broker, or the boat.  

 

I've looked at any number of boats where there is an old survey available and never had the slightest issue with access to it, even remotely.

 

To the OP - for goodness sake stop going down this rabbit hole, there's surely enough to put you off going any further with this boat regardless of what virtues it may appear to have.       

[MtB]

19 minutes ago, Neil2 said:

To the OP - for goodness sake stop going down this rabbit hole, there's surely enough to put you off going any further with this boat regardless of what virtues it may appear to have.

 

On the other hand, if the OP can deal with this problem or is not phased by it, then the seemingly endless search for the right boat comes to an end now. And they can stop running all over the country haemorrhaging vast quantities of time and money looking at ever more unsuitable boats, and get on with their boating life NOW instead of at some random and unpredictable point in the future.

 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Mike the Boilerman
Spelling.

[Richard10002]

3 hours ago, robtheplod said:

Bit of an obstacle in that the existing surveys for the boat are only viewable in the sales office and that's a 300 mile round trip. They say they cant email them to me so without these I'm a little stuck in getting an accurate documented history of the boat …. seriously put off by this...

On the one hand, you would think the broker is trying to avoid many people seeing the survey/s, because there are things they don’t want to be seen. Alternatively, it might be the car dealers trick where, if you can someone into the showroom, you have a good chance of selling to them.

 

Whatever the case, it’s probably worth the round trip, to see in real life how the engine bay looks, and to read the survey/s. The chances are, you will be able to combine the trip with viewing a few boats, both at this broker, and a few others locally.

 

When I saw my boat in the advert online, the cruiser stern deck looked really rusty... very off putting, and it was a 150 mile round trip. But the price and the rest of the boat had really piqued my interest. So I found a few boats to call in and see during the trip, if it wasn’t suitable. When we got there, the stern was nowhere near as bad as it looked in the photo, the boat was ideal and, after a coffee in the marina cafe, we offered the asking price and paid the deposit. Didn’t need to look at any of the other boats on the list.

[robtheplod]

Thanks for all your very helpful replies!!!!  The reason given is that its the owners survey that they cant send out to others - not sure of the merits of this but that's the situation!  The rest of the boat is tidy but the price is on the high side for the state of the bay - I think its been marina based mainly with not many hours cruising. Other items to note are the pumpout indicator doesn't work and they lost 12v whilst out and there is a temp wire in the engine bay until an engineer can investigate. The engine control panel is on the outside and almost horizonal without cover so they have several failed ones (it has a new one fitted) - looks like this is a design issue and will probably eat control panels all its life! (Liverpool boats)...

 

We've decided to take stock and look elsewhere on the thinking more boats will come to market at the end of the cruising season..?  learning all the time...

[Richard10002]

22 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

The reason given is that its the owners survey that they cant send out to others - not sure of the merits of this but that's the situation!

Absolute rubbish!! The owners can do what they like with the survey. The surveyor will have made it clear that he has no liability to anyone other than the owner, so it doesn’t matter who sees it. In addition, if it’s not OK for you to view an emailed scan, how can it be OK for you to view the hard copy.

 

22 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

We've decided to take stock and look elsewhere on the thinking more boats will come to market at the end of the cruising season..?  learning all the time...

 

You have now pointed out a few other things that add to the concerns, and make it sensible to look elsewhere. If you were passing, and it was still available, it could be worth a look, but I don’t think I would be too trusting of the broker.

[Neil2]

1 hour ago, robtheplod said:

Thanks for all your very helpful replies!!!!  The reason given is that its the owners survey that they cant send out to others - not sure of the merits of this but that's the situation!  The rest of the boat is tidy but the price is on the high side for the state of the bay - I think its been marina based mainly with not many hours cruising. Other items to note are the pumpout indicator doesn't work and they lost 12v whilst out and there is a temp wire in the engine bay until an engineer can investigate. The engine control panel is on the outside and almost horizonal without cover so they have several failed ones (it has a new one fitted) - looks like this is a design issue and will probably eat control panels all its life! (Liverpool boats)...

 

We've decided to take stock and look elsewhere on the thinking more boats will come to market at the end of the cruising season..?  learning all the time...

That's absolute codswallop.  

 

I know Whilton/Venetian have this policy that you can look at the survey in the office but you can't have a copy, and I can't see the reasoning behind it at all. 

 

Everything you say about this boat points to neglect and that's fine if you get the thing for a song, but far better to shop around and find something cared for - there are a lot of boats around and I get the impression that the market isn't anything like as buoyant as it was 12 months ago.    

 

I really would be wary of boats where there is a collection of little faults here and there, it's never a good sign.  

[Tony Brooks]

2 hours ago, Neil2 said:

That's absolute codswallop.  

 

I know Whilton/Venetian have this policy that you can look at the survey in the office but you can't have a copy, and I can't see the reasoning behind it at all. 

 

Everything you say about this boat points to neglect and that's fine if you get the thing for a song, but far better to shop around and find something cared for - there are a lot of boats around and I get the impression that the market isn't anything like as buoyant as it was 12 months ago.    

 

I really would be wary of boats where there is a collection of little faults here and there, it's never a good sign.  

I can and it does not reflect well on those concerned

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

I can and it does not reflect well on those concerned

Would that be anything to do with a 'blank survey' and the boat name can just be added ?