Engine shut off valve

[moiuk]

Hello friends,

 

My solenoid for the fuel shut off is faulty and so I am doing a short term fix with a stop cable.

 

My engine also has a lever attached to the cylinder head which also stops the engine.

 

Am I ok to attach the stop cable to the cylinder head lever or does it need to reach over to the fuel shut off lever?

 

Help much appreciated

Adrian 

[Psychalist]

Still awaiting news from last time....

I'd say the former, as that's what it's for.

[moiuk]

I didn't have the answers or details before now as we just bought the boat.

 

Now I know more 🙂.

It's a 32 foot, 1992 midway boat with a Nanni 2.60 KC engine. 

 

The issue I was having previously was just to get an engineer to help service the boat and get the engine running. The engineer in Scarisbrick marina eventually did the service for us, but left us with a leaking diesel fuel line.

 

A project boat, but will be lovely when all back to good condition.

Edited March 1, 2023 by moiuk
Typo

[Tony Brooks]

9 minutes ago, moiuk said:

Hello friends,

 

My solenoid for the fuel shut off is faulty and so I am doing a short term fix with a stop cable.

 

My engine also has a lever attached to the cylinder head which also stops the engine.

 

Am I ok to attach the stop cable to the cylinder head lever or does it need to reach over to the fuel shut off lever?

 

Help much appreciated

Adrian 

 

Once again, make and model of engine, plus a photo please.

 

The lever on the cylinder head sounds like a decompressor but might just be a stop solenoid relay leaver. Engines with decompressors tend to use cable pulled stop levers.

 

It is generally considered bad practice to stop by using a decompressor.

[moiuk]

6 minutes ago, Psychalist said:

Still awaiting news from last time....

I'd say the former, as that's what it's for.

To be clear, when you say the former you mean the fuel shut off?  Both seem to work, so I'm not sure what the purpose of the cylinder head lever is for if not to offer an alternative way of shutting down the engine?

 

The cylinder head lever is in a much better location for the stop cable.

[Tony Brooks]

2 minutes ago, moiuk said:

I didn't have the answers or details before now as we just bought the boat.

 

Now I know more 🙂.

It's a 32 foot, 1992 midway boat with a Nanni 1.60 KC engine. 

 

The issue I was having previously was just to get an engineer to help service the boat and get the engine running. The engineer in Scarisbrick marina eventually did the service for us, but left us with a leaking diesel fuel line.

 

A project boat, but will be lovely when all back to good condition.

 

So probably not a decompressor lever. Connect to the shut off lever where the splenoid connects.

[moiuk]

Just now, Tony Brooks said:

 

Once again, make and model of engine, plus a photo please.

 

The lever on the cylinder head sounds like a decompressor but might just be a stop solenoid relay leaver. Engines with decompressors tend to use cable pulled stop levers.

 

It is generally considered bad practice to stop by using a decompressor.

It's a Nanni 2.60 Kc

[Tony Brooks]

Yes, the lever on the rocker cover is a decompressor. it will stop the engine but will also flood the cylinders with unburned fuel mist.

[moiuk]

Will it damage anything if I use this method for a while whilst I fix the solenoid?

[Psychalist]

13 minutes ago, moiuk said:

I didn't have the answers or details before now as we just bought the boat.

 

Now I know more 🙂.

It's a 32 foot, 1992 midway boat with a Nanni 2.60 KC engine. 

You did well. For its age, it's a lot less of a project boat than most. Where's the rust?

[moiuk]

9 minutes ago, moiuk said:

Will it damage anything if I use this method for a while whilst I fix the solenoid?

Answered my own question by researching what a decompression level does.

 

Will find a way to attach it to the fuel shut off level.

 

Many thanks 

4 minutes ago, Psychalist said:

You did well. For its age, it's a lot less of a project boat than most. Where's the rust?

Haha. This is a picture of the same engine which is cleaner to be able to see things.

 

My engine is in a much worse state, mostly because of the bilge flooding before I got it (and mixing the oil bilge with the engine bilge, as well as a significant diesel leak also filling the bilge).  Lots of work to be done. 

 

This is my engine bay at the moment (in the condition when we bought it.)

 

[Tony Brooks]

20 minutes ago, moiuk said:

Will it damage anything if I use this method for a while whilst I fix the solenoid?

 

10 minutes ago, moiuk said:

Answered my own question by researching what a decompression level does.

 

Will find a way to attach it to the fuel shut off level.

 

Many thanks 

 

As long as the decompressor has been correctly set up then in the short term, no, not discernable damage. If it has not been correctly set up then maybe a piston would hit a valve and that could be expensive.

 

If you stopped it with decompressor long-term, it would dilute the engine oil and possibly wash the oil from the cylinder walls and pistons, causing extra wear.

[Eeyore]

34 minutes ago, moiuk said:

 

Haha. This is a picture of the same engine which is cleaner to be able to see things.

 

 

Ahh thought that looked familiar.

[David Mack]

3 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

 

As long as the decompressor has been correctly set up then in the short term, no, not discernable damage. If it has not been correctly set up then maybe a piston would hit a valve and that could be expensive.

 

If you stopped it with decompressor long-term, it would dilute the engine oil and possibly wash the oil from the cylinder walls and pistons, causing extra wear.

If you stop using the decompressor, is there not also the possibility that if you time it wrong (and you have no control over that) the valve will open just as ignition is taking place, meaning a jet of hot burning fuel will pass between the mating faces of the valve which could erode? Not a problem if it happens occasionally, but not something I would want to do on a regular basis.

[Eeyore]

3 hours ago, moiuk said:

 

 

My engine is in a much worse state, mostly because of the bilge flooding before I got it (and mixing the oil bilge with the engine bilge, as well as a significant diesel leak also filling the bilge).  Lots of work to be done. 

 

This is my engine bay at the moment (in the condition when we bought it.)

 

Check the front mounting brackets whilst you are in there. The weight distribution between the mounts is heavily biased towards the front, and they came from the factory that way. Fractured brackets are common, but a good welder can reinforce them during repair. 

[moiuk]

32 minutes ago, Eeyore said:

Check the front mounting brackets whilst you are in there. The weight distribution between the mounts is heavily biased towards the front, and they came from the factory that way. Fractured brackets are common, but a good welder can reinforce them during repair. 

Will do. Thanks for the tip.

[Psychalist]

That looks more like what I expected. 😉

It might be worth checking if the solenoid is jamming. If the alignment is off, it won't operate smoothly. On mine, the people who put the engine back in didn't align it correctly and sometimes the engine wouldn't stop and the circuit breaker would trip because the solenoid went over current. It took a while to work this out as it was only sometimes. A closer inspection revealed it was working at a slight angle.

Have a look as it is now and manually pull it. If it feels smooth and looks correct, alignment may not be the issue. Either way it is worth taking it off and cleaning it. They are quite simple, so if the coil is intact, it should still operate.

[moiuk]

It seems to work just fine, but isn't powerful enough to pull the lever.

 

I will need to take it off to install the stop cable, and once it is off will take a closer look to see what the issue is.