Back to Routine

The leak" is fixed.

I haven't paid the bill yet but I have had a service done on the engine as well. There were a few things found on inspection:

a) The coupling bolts were loose! Nylock nuts needed replacement.

b) Gearbox oil filler cap unsecrewed! Re-tightened.

c) Air filter hanging off by the rocker box vent tube! New rubber sleeve fitted so that the air filter pan could grip the inlet manifold entry boss.

All in all worth having Tooley's man have a look. Potentially all the above could have caused serious difficulties. Its not too good if your drive fails! Nor if the gearbox oil disappears. Nor if oil continually flows from the rockerbox vent into the oily bund under the engine. It was a rocker box gasket leak that has led to another boat on our nooeings being towed to Tooley's after an engine seize. Oil is pumped up to the rocker box and is supposed to drain through the engine to the sump. A leak at this juncture causes a severe lack of oil!

So we are ready for winter. Antifresze checked, clean oil, no deisel leak, full tanks and clean filter.

"Dusty" came by this week too, so we are stocked up with coal.

Now all we need is the snow. No! Cancel that order, we can so without that!

Spot the Difference

I popped into my local boatyard for some of the essentials: pump out, gas, engine oil.




I looked around the chandlery and said,"No Morris SAE 30, then?" Ray indicated, in his inimitable style, that I must be blind. "It's over there!". I looked, and looked again and then noticed the modern plastic packaging. "You need to modernise", he said, "don't you like the new style?"

To be honest, I am a Luddite. I don't see the necessity. I like the metal oil can. You can re-use it as a petrol can. It cannot be a money saving exercise because the price has gone up from £16.00 to £17.50 for 5 litres.

Down the Hole

I don't really like being down the engine hole. It is not really my idea of fun. I love playing with engines but the position of this one is too far down! I am too old and stiff to bend to reach the bottom of the engine now. The engine is also fitted just underneath a bulkhead so that even taking the cap off the cooling water header is difficult. This also means that the water pump, drive pulley and alternator are very hard to get at.

But today, I had to change the oil and oil filter. I usually do this after a Summer cruise. It is probably well over the recommended interval. 250 hours cruising is equivalent to 7,500 miles motoring and BMC recommended an oil change every 3000 miles in 1962! As canal usage is generally at under 1500 revs/minute, I feel that an extension is not unreasonable. A modern diesel engine would be working most of it's life at about 2500rpm and accelerating and braking a lot more than a narrowboat. Another consideration is that one does not really want to be up to one's elbows in oil and grease in the middle of one's holiday!

Still, it's done now.

However, an engine full service at the local boatyard costs £130. This is becoming more and more appealing every time I do it!