Servicing my 1.5 Bmc Engine ...or going to try to anyway!

[jamieee]

hey up, im going to try and service my engine this weekend. Not had my narrowboat boat long and no idea the last time it was serviced so really want to give her a good going over. i know very little about engines and have no manual so ive looked at various information online and havnt really found anything conclusive. so my first question is... is there a set order of doing things or can each task be taken individually?

is there a website that has a step by step guide?

im guessing my tasks are...

 

air ,oil fuel filters

fuel pump?

 

change belt

glow plugs?

timing chain?

change oil

 

she also smokes a fair bit! someone shouted accross the cut one day ...quoted my engine perfectly and said my rubbers have gone, a common issue with the 1.5 bmc....does this mean anything to anyone?

 

anyways...happy easter and thanks for your your time, jamie

[John V]

never had much to do with the 1.5...but had some experience with 1.8, 2.2 and 2.5 BMC.

by "rubbers gone" would suspect he meant the small oil seals on the valve stems

[Tony Brooks]

 

Snip

 

she also smokes a fair bit! someone shouted accross the cut one day ...quoted my engine perfectly and said my rubbers have gone, a common issue with the 1.5 bmc....does this mean anything to anyone?

 

anyways...happy easter and thanks for your your time, jamie

 

It means as much as the pratt who tried to tell me my engine smoked because I had not changed the oil.

 

If it only does it for a short while after start up and is whitish then ignore the smoke and the pratt, It is common for 1.5s to smoke a bit at first start, it may not be 100% correct but its not worth worrying about or spending money on.

 

If it starts OKish from cold then after you have changed/tested the glowplugs your injectors could probably do with a refurb.

 

The only "rubbers" that might cause smoke are valve stem oil seals but the smoke would be bluish and I would expect it to go away soon after starting as the oil that leaked into the manifolds was burned off.

 

Don't touch the fuel filter(s), water separators, and lift pump unless you are sure that you can bleed the fuel system.

You do nothing to the injector pump.

 

Alternator belt - just like an older car.

 

Oil filter - if this has not already been converted change it for a spin on. Otherwise get a gasket and take the whole filter assembly off the engine (two long bolts) so you can change and clean the filter on the bench.

 

Glow plugs - get the engine warm and then take well over an hour to "worry" each plug out of its hole. They snap all too easily. Worry" means tighten it a flat then loosen it a flat plus a minor amount. keep on until you finally get the plug out. Even then you may still snap some. Once they are out use a drill in a HAND drill to clean the carbon out of the small holes (7/64" I THINK). If any have failed (test them with a lead across the battery) then renewing them may do a lot for the smoking.

 

Please do not even contemplate touching the timing gear. If you do you will need a special tool to reset the injector pump timing. It is more important to check the oil jet and strainer that you will find below the rear end of the exhaust manifold.

 

You can do one task at a time EXCEPT fuel system work where normally all the jobs are done at once so you only have to bleed the system once. Even then you can still do one at a time but you will have to bleed it each time as well.

 

Have you looked at the RCR maintenance courses?

[jamieee]

Tony ive been reading your post for 3 days so very pleased youve replied to mine and thanks to john too.

ive changed the belt!

 

Ive taken on all your advice and will act accordingly....and put my tools down before i get to excited...

my boat generally always starts well and seems to run well although the idle may need taking up a touch.

 

as for the smoking, it is slightly blueish and dosnt really go away. when i bought her i checked the oil and there was propably a litre to much in.(the boat had travelled 100 miles over filled im guessing.)which i removed and then added one of them engine cleaner attitives things (been told since that prob wasnt a good idea for circulating crap in the engine.

 

i havnt looked at your RCR maintenance courses but i would be interested.

 

thanks again, jamie

[Tonka]

Calcutt boats sell manuals and are £2 downloadable on their online shop

[jamieee]

and my airfilter seems very oily

[Tony Brooks]

and my airfilter seems very oily

 

In that case (typical of an older 1.5) take the hose off the air filter, put a longer on and lead it into a plastic bottle sat beside the engine. The smoke may well go a way or get less.

 

The overfilling will have had a lot to do with this but they all seem to do it to a degree when they get old. Actually a mesh or foam filter should be washed in white spirit or paraffin, dried and the oiled before refitting but in marine use where there is little dust and on a 1.5 I would not bother. If this is the engine that has been overhauled and then run overfull maybe the fitter did the job right and oiled the mesh.

Calcutt boats sell manuals and are £2 downloadable on their online shop

Yes, but that will tell the OP to bleed the injector pump from the screw in the top of the idle stabilisation damper (the turret on the top of the pump). It would be a good thing for him to have but I would urge him to only use that bleed point in the direst of necessity. I have seen too many problems caused by the less experienced using this screw. Just use the one on the side of the cylindrical part of the pump body (8mm headed screw).

 

 

 

 

If it starts easily from cold with about 30 seconds of heat then ignore the glow plugs. They are almost certainly all working.

Edited April 19, 2014 by Tony Brooks

[Traveller]

Tony, what happens should a glow plug snap when trying to extract? Does that mean there is an expensive bill on the horizon to have it put right?

Colin

[jamieee]

Cheers everyone, and top stuff Tony, im just checking out your website now...huge amounts of much needed information, great stuff. cheers

[Tony Brooks]

Tony, what happens should a glow plug snap when trying to extract? Does that mean there is an expensive bill on the horizon to have it put right?

 

Colin

 

Ah, that depends.

 

If it happened to an engineer he would probably advise that the head should come off so the broken bits and any swarf can be shaken out of the injector hole and combustion chamber throat.

 

If you asked me then based on my hire fleet experience where turn round time can be a bit tight I would say different.

 

Before I start you may want to think back and consider the number of times we have been told about engines with indentations in the piston that are still running well.

 

If I had time I would take the relevant injector out and remove the inverted top hat heat shield (new copper washers and injector atomisation washer required for a proper job). If I did not have time I would leave the injector in.

 

The get a drill of the correct size (as i said I think its 7/64" but a bit under 1mm larger than the glow plug tip would do). You may well have to take the injector pipe off and if so cap the union on the injector and pump to stop dirt getting in.

 

Fit the drill into a low power battery drill (say 12 to 14 volts), put plenty of grease on the drill and centre it in the hole. The shape will almost do that for you.

 

Drill for a few seconds, take the drill out, wipe the grease and swarf off, regrease and drill again.

 

Repeat until you fell the drill break through.

 

If you have the injector etc. out spin on the starter with the stop out making sure your eyes are protected from flying tip ends and swarf.

 

When refitting the glow plug put copper grease or other anti-seize on the thread AND tip. This may make it easier to get it out next time.

 

Now, if you try thsi do not blame me if you are the unlucky one where it goes wrong but I never had a problem although we did find one or two tips embedded in the piston over a period of maybe 8 to 10 years.

 

 

If I had a 1.5 I would be removing the plugs every couple of years to decarbon the hole. This helps with good cold starting and also by doing it frequently they are far less likely to snap the tip off.

Edited April 19, 2014 by Tony Brooks

[Traveller]

Many thanks for that, Tony.

 

Colin

Edited April 19, 2014 by Traveller

[puckoon]

there are videos on youtube of bmc 1.5 maintenance, the guy is an engineer teacher, who specialises on bmcs. spoken to him personally, very helpful guy.

[Theo]

Right. My next job in the following 10 minutes is to copy all this Oh, so excellent advice into a LibreOffice doc and save it for the future. I need to make sure that I never lose it!

 

Top stuff, this.

 

N

[Traveller]

My own boat seems to have problem with the glo plugs, although they were new about a year ago. I hold the switch to the preheat position for about 30 to 45 seconds but starting is difficult. The engine coughs out some white smoke (does that mean there is some sort of combustion?) and after several attempts it eventually fires/splutters into life. Once warm the engine starts instantaneously and when running all appears fine.

What surprised me was the fact that when I held the ignition switch over to the preheat position no ignition light comes on and neither did the ammeter show a discharge.

[RLWP]

That doesn't sound right. White smoke is atomised, unburnt fuel. Ten seconds is generally enough this time of year, and the heater plugs make a big impression on our voltmeter.

 

I would check that you are getting volts to the plugs

 

Richard

Edited April 20, 2014 by RLWP

[Traveller]

Will do when I am there next week, Richard. I am no electrician but presumably the glo-plugs are energised by a live feed from the ignition switch (preheat position) and the earth is via the plugs contact with the block? I ask as if there is no power/feed from the switch I can run a temporary feed direct from the battery to test if they are working?

 

 

Why is it that the engine eventually starts? Does it generate its own heat whilst trying to start? Also, the ignition switch has the preheat position to the left and the cold start start position to the left of that. So, one has to turn the key to the preheat position and hold it there against the spring for say 30 seconds. The key is then turned to the extreme left to fire it up. Once running the key is turned to the extreme right which is the hot start position. However when said key is turned to preheat and held no lights come on and there is no ammeter reading. When the key is turned fully to the left the ignition light shows red and the ammeter behaves as expected.

 

As previousely mentioned, once warm the engine starts easily so hopefully this can be nothing too serious?

[Tony Brooks]

Yes, diesel engines work by squeezing the air so much it gets hot enough to ignite fuel. On indirect injection engines like BMCs there is a lot of cold heat robbing metal around at first start so to aid this we have heater plugs.

 

Yes you can run a cable direct from battery positive but it will have to pass at least 50 amps when you first energise the plugs.

 

Other causes of poor cold starting and the consequential smoke are blocked auxiliary spray holes in the injectors, poor fuel atomisation by the injectors, low compression, and faulty timing.

 

Unless you have a diesel compression tester best test the plugs first then have the injectors looked at by a specialist.

[RLWP]

The engine makes heat by compressing the air it breathes in. Normal running means it compresses the air hot enough to ignite the fuel.

 

When cold, the pistons are slightly smaller than when hot, making compression lower. In addition, the engine cranks slower allowing more time for gas to leak past the piston making compression lower. On top of that, the walls of the cylinder are cold, robbing heat from the air, making compression and temperature lower.

 

To compensate, the heater plug warms the atomised fuel making it easier to ignite

 

So, yes it will start eventually as long as your battery doesn't go flat first

 

Richard

[Traveller]

Thanks Guys, I am suspicious of the plugs for as I said when turning them on there is no apparent battery draw registered on the ammeter. The smoke once it does start clears very quickly and the engine runs smoothly. I can create more smoke but only when I open the throttle wide and quickly, even then it lasts but a short while. The smoke is always white.

Should say that the boat has remained idle for about a year as the owner regrettably passed away.

[Tony Brooks]

There may be a glow plug fuse hidden away somewhere, The supply cable on the ignition switch should be one of the the largest ones on there so it time to get a voltmeter out and starts tracing how far you have electricity. The check the voltage at the plugs with the working in case you have a massive voltdrop along the cable or a bad connection somewhere.

[Traveller]

Had not thought there might be a fuse. Is that the norm, Tony?

One question, is/should a preheat be required this time of year? Would have thought the temperature this time of year was sufficient to render the glow plugs redundant.

[Tony Brooks]

Had not thought there might be a fuse. Is that the norm, Tony?

 

One question, is/should a preheat be required this time of year? Would have thought the temperature this time of year was sufficient to render the glow plugs redundant.

 

What is "normal" for engines that have been fitted into boats for over 50 years?

 

In the late 60s we certainly fused the glow plugs but nowadays it seems they have one fuse for the whole engine electrical system. Yours is not the latter because if it was it probably would not even start.

 

Depending upon who supplied the engine and when and who fitted it you may also have a multi-plug on the engine wiring. These can cause problems as well.

 

Unless a questioner can supply an authenticated wiring diagram nothing is certain. Basically you are relying upon peoples experience of what you might have, what you probably have and then working a possible/probably cause.

 

Very few indirect injected engines start very happily from cold (unlike direct injected diesels) so you have to decide if flogging the engine over on the starter is likely to do more to your batteries (and starter motor) that using the glow-plugs for up to 30 seconds (BMC 1.5 Time) and getting a fast start. Although not all 1.5 glow-plugs follow this typically they draw a steady 12 ampsish each giving a maximum draw of about 50 amps per 4. I think some later plugs may start higher and quickly drop as they heat up.

[Traveller]

Thanks. It will be looked at this week and I shall let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for the pointers, I fully understand that is all the advice can be without the detail being available