Pump Thingie?

[William Martin]

A quick question - there is a gizmo on my NB engine I dont recognise and I wondered if anyone knew what it was.

 

It is a brass cylinder with a pull out handle on the top and a brass spout - looks like some kind of manual pump or priming device. I have given it a few pumps and nothing came out of the spout, although I can feel some resistance to the pumping. Any clues?

 

I have a picture, if only I knew how to put a picture on here.

[Bones]

A quick question - there is a gizmo on my NB engine I dont recognise and I wondered if anyone knew what it was.

 

It is a brass cylinder with a pull out handle on the top and a brass spout - looks like some kind of manual pump or priming device. I have given it a few pumps and nothing came out of the spout, although I can feel some resistance to the pumping. Any clues?

 

I have a picture, if only I knew how to put a picture on here.

 

where is it? Is it the gadget for pumping the oil out of the engine instead of undoing the impossible to get to sump plug?

[Mike Richardson]

A quick question - there is a gizmo on my NB engine I dont recognise and I wondered if anyone knew what it was.

 

It is a brass cylinder with a pull out handle on the top and a brass spout - looks like some kind of manual pump or priming device. I have given it a few pumps and nothing came out of the spout, although I can feel some resistance to the pumping. Any clues?

 

I have a picture, if only I knew how to put a picture on here.

 

I reckon Bones is right, the resistance you feel probably comes from a shut-off cock underneath the pump between the sump drain and the bottom of the pump. Mine has a brass screw-in seal in the spout as well.

Edited September 28, 2006 by Mike Richardson

[William Martin]

It is attached to the engine block towards the rear level with the flywheel/transmission take off. It does not exist on a car/van engine (this is an Isuzu 4 cylinder) so I am guessing it is specific to marine.

 

A pump to drain out the sump - that sounds very likely - I am not at the boat to check, only looking at a picture - but that sounds the most likely identity - thanks

Edited September 28, 2006 by William Martin

[John Orentas]

You will find there is a valve below it and even a plug which must be removed before use.

 

Most people when changing their engine oil, open the valve and pump away depositing all the nice black stuff into the bilge to swill around for the life of the boat, stops things from going rusty.

[blackrose]

It is attached to the engine block towards the rear level with the flywheel/transmission take off. It does not exist on a car/van engine (this is an Isuzu 4 cylinder) so I am guessing it is specific to marine.

 

A pump to drain out the sump - that sounds very likely - I am not at the boat to check, only looking at a picture - but that sounds the most likely identity - thanks

 

Yes, everyone is correct, it's a pump for making those oil changes a bit easier. Saves you having to get under the engine with an old washing up bowl & removing a sump nut. I have an Isuzu 55 and it has the same thing. You can buy these things in chandlers but your engine has one built in. You should have a black plastic stopcock on the pump.

 

You may also have hit on a good business idea! Why don't we have these things on cars? The number of times I've crawled under cars & dropped the sump nut in a bowl of hot oil... or missed the bowl altogether!

 

Most people when changing their engine oil, open the valve and pump away depositing all the nice black stuff into the bilge to swill around for the life of the boat, stops things from going rusty.

 

That was a joke John (wasn't it?)

Edited September 28, 2006 by blackrose

[William Martin]

Thank you all - you are great!

 

The power of the internet!

[steaming floater]

You may also have hit on a good business idea! Why don't we have these things on cars? The number of times I've crawled under cars & dropped the sump nut in a bowl of hot oil... or missed the bowl altogether!

 

 

 

When I lived in Germany it was possible to have a similar thing done to your car . A fella with a portable machine plugged into the top up hole and extracted the oil to be cleaned and returned, any discrepancy was topped up. It wasnt instead of an oil change just an imbetween affair to ensure engine longevity.

[DHutch]

That was a joke John (wasn't it?)

Yeah, dont drain it into the bilge!

- Pump it into a few empty bottles or somthing, and take it to a waste oil place, of get your local garage to take it (often for a fee)

 

 

 

Daniel

[Yamanx]

You will find there is a valve below it and even a plug which must be removed before use.

 

Most people when changing their engine oil, open the valve and pump away depositing all the nice black stuff into the bilge to swill around for the life of the boat, stops things from going rusty.

 

I tried that it didnt work as the oil floated on top of the water and it went rusty anyway

 

Slightly off topic, but I was working on the boat one sunny afternoon after we had had one of those massive short downpours recently, when this chap came over all in a fluster saying that his engine had blown up and didnt know what to do. Would I have a quick look.

 

"Yes osf course", so I went over and looked into his engine compartment, it was a small cruiser stern and it was full of liquid, halfway up the engine. Looked like oil.

 

"How do you know your engine has blown?"

 

"Because all the oil has come out, look." He said looking at me like I was stupid.

 

"Thats no problem" I said, "just pump it all into the canal, top up your engine and away"

 

"You cant do that!" he was now looking at me like I was really stupid.

 

"It'll be alright" I said switching on his bilge pump, whilst trying not to laugh at his shocked face.

 

I then explained that his drain hole from the channel gutters was blocked and the heavy rain we had had had (wow is that right?) leaked into his engine compartment and the small amount of oil that had been in there had floated to the top making it all look like oil. Pumping it into the canal was fine, at least most of it, as the bilge would pump out all the rain water first, leaving a small amount of mucky stuff to clean up.

[alan_fincher]

Not all such oil drain pumps on narrowboat engines have some kind of tap between pump and sump.

 

On my marinised BMC 1800, there certainly isn't, and if you lift that pump handle oil will start to be dragged out almost immediately.

 

Previous posts on here (I think) have said that sometimes these don't self-prime properly, in which case you need to unscrew the top cap, and add a bit of fresh oil above the plunger, to help it do so.

 

(But I've never seen that problem myself)

 

I'd assume the reason cars and vehicles don't tend to have them is that they tend to sit slightly above the engine line, and would probably foul the bonnet when closed.

 

Even if they didn't there probably wouldn't be enough room in the average engine compartment to allow a suitably large container to be introduced under the outlet spout.

 

Finally, it's been said before, but if you want to do a similar trick to get the oil out of a gearbox, fairly cheap hand-held suction pumps can be bought that you introduce down the filler hole. Mine was a Draper one from a local motor accessories shop, and I think cost somewhere just over ten quid.

 

Both pumps save a good deal of messing around, I must say.

[DHutch]

I'd assume the reason cars and vehicles don't tend to have them is that they tend to sit slightly above the engine line, and would probably foul the bonnet when closed.

I'd say the main reason, as i mentioned, is simply because theres a lot more space under a car engine, even if you dont put it up on a ramp.

- Its always a bit of a chore doing the lawn mower tho, although now i just a rope around the engine block and garage ceiling and hoist the whole thing bodly up!

 

 

Daniel

[Carrie]

Most people when changing their engine oil, open the valve and pump away depositing all the nice black stuff into the bilge to swill around for the life of the boat, stops things from going rusty.

 

Finally got around to the job I've been putting off for the 3 months I've had my boat - getting rid of the swamp of oil swilling around under the engine. A lovely job! There was 7 litres of the stuff to be got out by cup and sponge

Edited October 1, 2006 by Carrie

[alan_fincher]

Finally got around to the job I've been putting off for the 3 months I've had my boat - getting rid of the swamp of oil swilling around under the engine. A lovely job! There was 7 litres of the stuff to be got out by cup and sponge

Consider yourself lucky!

 

We had a lovely oil/ diesel / grease / antifreeze / water mix, that overflowed between genuine under engine area and the area under the sterntube, (and sideawys too).

 

With at least 3 * 25 litres containers taken for safe disposal, we outdid youe 7 litres at least ten-fold!

 

Alan