3.31.09 clean parts

Jim has been busy the last few days….here are the parts he has been working on.

It’s a shame I didn’t have a before and after of each one.

The heat exchanger had seperated from it’s base. The solder or lead that was holding it had broken. Jim used JB Weld and fastened hose clamps to the base to hold it securely. Now it’s waiting to be painted.

This piece of the exhaust where the water mixes with it….had a thick layer of carbon and diesel fuel in it. About 20 % blocked…  Looks pretty good now.

Now he’s getting antsy….hopefully the block will be here Fri…but he’ll still be on hold…the gaskets havn’t been sent yet.

3.30.09 mystery solved

Well…..Jim was right….all that stuff in the heat-exchanger ..was old impellers.  Today he took the raw water pump apart and the impeller was still in there.

In his right hand is a piece of the trash he took out….and in his left is the impeller. He replaced it with a new one.  Here is a close-up of the reason why.

It is already showing signs of cracking. So……..if you’ve checked your impeller…. and pieces are missing….take the inlet side of the heat-exchanger off…..that’s where they are. We cant tell if these are what’s left of one impeller or the remnants of many impeller changes over the years. With the way it is designed, Jim feels at least half of the water-flow was restricted. 

From Jim’s days of racing, engine building and truck-driving…he has learned to check his gauges regularly….. He never say any signs of over-heating …but it may have in the past, when the last impeller failed.

Here’s another look at the end of the heat exchanger and all the stuff he got out of that top third..evidently that is where the greatest flow is. Jim checked the thermostat by putting it in a pan of water with a thermometer …heated it up …and made sure it opened at the correct temperature….it did.

Since there hadn’t been an over-heating problem…Jim almost didn’t take this apart…he just likes to see how things are made and work….sure glad he did.  I wonder how many old impeller parts it would take to shut the water flow down completely. Engine running hot…and you cant figure out why?…..might want to check here.

This might all be old news to most of you Nissan LD28 owners….but this is our first and we were quite surprised. Jim says he is learning a lot more than he really wanted to.

3.29.09 cleaning header

There was a lot of carbon buildup in the intake/ exhaust/water manifold.

This was just the easy stuff.

3.28.09 busy feeders

You never know what you will find on this blog….just had to share some of the pictures I got of my birdfeeders. They are just outside the window of the computer room…maybe 10 ft from where I am sitting. I’ve been trying to get pictures of the Indigo Buntings but they are pretty flighty. There are 2 Painted and 2 Indigo buntings is this one.

You can see that one is much bluer than the other….they havnt completely colored out yet…

The green one in the picture below is the female Painted Bunting. 

I have seen 4 Painted Bunting pairs and 3 Indigo Bunting pairs at the feeders. The brown ones are the female Indigos. Oh….here are the “twins”….they come in early evenings to finish up what the turkeys havnt gotten. We love the “critters” that pass thru here. At times we get overrun….

One year we had wild hogs that came in each night…I started tossing corn out into the underbrush that needed clearing and they did a great job. But they can be really destructive. 

3.27.09 engine tear down

Most of the morning was spent cleaning the oil pan. It will be put on the rebuilt block. Jim has been wanting to tear the engine down to see what the problems were..even though we are going to use a different rebuilt long block. 

It was pretty interesting. I got a lesson in engines while taking pictures. One of the tricks of the trade….see that short hose?..he puts one on each bolt before dropping the piston out so the threads wont score anything. Heres one of the pistons.He could see where there had been blow-by…and found a couple of other things…..when he got done he decided to scrape the paint off of the heat exchanger… He’ll repaint it later…but the real surprise came when he took the end cap off….. all of that “stuff” was packed into the third section at the top of the picture.  He’s thinking it is impeller parts from the water pump…that will get torn down tomorrow. We never had an over heating problem so it was a big surprise..Perhaps the water pump impellers had been replaced at some point. So…..if you are missing some impellers on your water pump you might want to look in here. He’ll know tomorrow.

3.26.09 What a difference a day makes

This is the engine compartment right after the engine was removed yesterday. Jim spent a great deal of time cleaning it today.

3.25.09 engine get lifted out

Well….Jim has something to do now, besides mow, chop, weed and fill in the holes the critters make in the lawn…

One of the locals here in the Black Hammock, has a big truck with a lift. He came over this morning to see what the boat looked like..said he could do it…came back an hour later…and did it… This was definately the way to do it. He controls it with a hand control.. so he was able to work it up and out from inside the boat where he could see just what he had for clearances. Once out…they pulled ahead and set the engine on the tractor barn floor. From there Jim put it on his engine hoist… Once he got the parts off the back he put it on an engine stand. He spent the rest of the afternoon pulling parts off. He’ll spend the next few days cleaning everything up…I guess this is a side of boating most people dont see.

3.24.09 he’s started on the engine

Didnt want you to think Jim was sitting around..bored..here in the jungle. Nope..got a new chainsaw…been weed eating…mowing…lots of fun stuff. Oh….and he’s started removing parts of the engine and getting it ready for the lift out. There is a tractor dealer with a big lift that will do it. We’ll tow the boat down there, 3 or 4 miles,  and they can sit it in the back of the truck.  From there Jim can get it with his engine hoist and move it to the engine stand. I’ll try to remember the camera…should be interesting.

3.19.09 hauling out

This is the ramp we used. You wouldnt think we could back in far enough and not drop off the end of the ramp…but we did.  We backed the trailer in at low tide to see how far we could go. It looked like it would be ok so we came back at high tide and all went well.

Once on the trailer we stripped all the canvas off and stashed everything for the ride. This will be the farthest we’ve towed. Fernandina Beach to Oviedo, FL. It’s only about 180 miles to the house. Good trip. No problems…truck handled it well. We look forward to traveling to other places. Really want to do the Land Between the Lakes (KY) one of these days, or maybe even the Arkansas River with Larry and Diane.

3.17.09

Yesterday didnt start out the best. Had trouble getting the engine to run and when it did…it poured smoke.  Shut down several times and Jim tried a few things…finally got it running well enough and without a great deal of smoke so headed to Fernandina Beach. Carole and Ed of Southern Cross, suggested a couple of marinas so we ended up at Tiger’s Pt. Marina.  They had a mechanic on duty…he couldnt pin point anything…fuel injection pump..timing belt..rings …all the things Jim has thought of so we will be towing home. It was disappointing since it ran so well at the start of the trip….seemed quieter…smoother…We were happy with the new injector tips.

Carole and Ed invited us over for an early St Patrick’s day dinner of corned beef and cabbage. I need to get a pressure cooker (as soon as we have a boat that runs)…it was a fantastic meal and prepared in less than an hour. It looks like the way to go to save time and fuel. I’ve been reading about them but never knew anyone that used one.

Jim’s brother, Carl, came to the rescue. He picked Jim up and is taking him to the truck and trailer. We will be hauling out tomorrow at high tide.

This will be the last picture of Slow Motion and Southern Cross, together, for awhile. We are sorry we wont meet the other Albin owners…sorry we didnt get to say a proper thank you and goodbye to Gordon..and to Karen and Jerry.  We did get to see an Albin 28 cruise in and turn around ..we thought he was going to dock so I didnt grab my camera…It was Restless…(my old CB handle), but he continued on out the creek. I hope he’s headed for the mini get together at Cumberland Island.

It was fun running with you, Ed & Carole..we really enjoyed your company. Let’s do it again next year. Maybe we’ll even finish the trip next time….for now…our next cruise will be “land cruising” to NY.

3.16.09

Good cruising day…but the engine started doing funny stuff….smoke…oscillating..just plain not running right.  Jim changed the fuel filter…drained the glass..hopeing we had bad fuel or water in the fuel….We’ll see how she runs tomorrow.

3.15.09 going to Fernandina Beach

Another beautiful sunrise.

We covered 56 miles today. Our speed varied from 4 mph to 8 mph…depending on the tide.

There was a beautiful sunset… and then we watched the shuttle launch.

We were able to see the booster rocket separation and watched them fall until they were out of the sunlight. It’s always a thrill to see it go up.

Cumberland Island tomorrow.

3.14.09

Left Palatka and headed to Green Cove Springs for the night.

Carole and Ed have a good friend, Gordon, who lent us his van, complete with 2 cats, to run to the store for supplies. “Thanks, George…see you on the return…

His boat is currently “on the hard” while he does repairs. He built it and sailed it from England. The yard in Green Cove Springs is full of boaters working on their pride and joys..big and small. Some absolutely unbelievable. Lots of dream boats in there for us.

We had a pre-supper snack aboard our boat and enjoyed stories and a couple games of “R L M” . a dice game where you pass chips to the R the L or to the cup in the middle.  The last person with a chip is the winner. a good game that requires very little concentration so you can still visit.

Nice night for sleeping.

3.13.09 Silver Glen Springs to Palatka, FL

Walk the dog and say goodbye to friends….. everyone finds a way to enjoy the water.. This is Muscrat Love..an Albin 27 (like ours), it is a rental boat. Jim wants a hardtop like this …but a bit higher for more head room…….

Southern Cross makes a pretty picture as they cruised by us.. then we caught up to Karen and Jerry aboard Tursas… We all stopped in Welaka at the city dock and enjoyed lunch together at “Shrimp R US”.

Continued on to Palatka city dock for the night.

3.12.09 Moonlight run

We had a good night on the river. We used to sail alot at night on Grand Lake, OK.

That was where we met Larry (River Nomad). He was a die-hard sailor and poked a bit of fun at our 26X, with it’s 50hp motor. Now we both have trawlers.

Larry, Diane & River Nomad made it safely back to OK. We’ll look forward to meeting them again for a cruise.

At the entrance to Silver Glen Springs..we anchored and took the dingy in. The moon was still up . But the sky was getting pink in the E. That’s Slow Motion, in silhouette, on the horizon. Jim saw this flock of birds. I was trying to get a nice shot of the boat in the sunrise and accidently got this. The camera focused on the palm leaf.

Using the oars, we checked the depth over the bar to see if we could clear it.  Looked like we had 2 inches more water than needed. Once back at the boat we proceeded in …slowly…no problem…

Carole & Ed with Southern Cross…were already here. Ed was doing a bit of cleaning up when we rowed up to say hello. George was visiting with,Kerry, one of the owner’s of Tursas. She and Jerry  have just come up from the Keys…and are heading to NY aboard their Albin 25. We were invited aboard Southern Cross for strawberry shortcake with Carole & Ed. Kerry & Jerry joined us. Ed is waiting to help us tie alongside. Some exceptional people spend lots of time aboard boats.

Dont let anyone tell you Florida doesnt  fog the mosquitos.. Just kidding….there was a fire burning to the W of us. the smoke stayed high and didnt bother us.

We are heading N to Cumberland Island, GA, in the morning.