Engine Removal: C30 MKIII

[CaptnDean]

l thought that others on this forum might be interested in how I removed my engine from a 1995 Catalina 30 MKIII

I bought my C30 MKIII in April 2014. The engine had not been very well maintained. It was very dirty and rusty. One of the bolts on the steel adapter plate that holds the engine mounts was sheared off. I decided to pull the engine this winter, clean it up, fix the motor mount, replace all hoses, and paint the bilge.


I had seen other posts on this forum about removing the engine. These posts showed removing the sink portion of the counter top and cabinet to allow removal of the engine. However, on the Mark III, there is a one-piece U-shaped molded counter top which is continuous from the peninsula, around the stove, and back over the ice box. I did not want to cut this counter-top, so instead I cut out a section of the dinette seat to allow me to lift the engine enough to slide it out frontwards toward the center of the cabin. I made an A-frame support out of 2x4’s and roller assembly to support the cable hoist so I could lift the motor and move it into the cabin. I had to remove the exhaust riser before I could lift and slide the motor forward.

This is where I cut the front of the dinette seat. I used a vibrating multi-tool to make the cut running the blade tight to a straight edge.




Engine removed and sitting in the cabin. I worked on the engine in the cabin instead of removing it from the boat.



Hoist roller assembly and A-frame.


Engine cleaned and painted, new hoses and new (reconditioned) heat exchanger.




I made new aluminum adapter plates (1/4" stock) to hold the motor mounts, replacing the old rusted steel adapter plates. The mounting studs in the stringers were tight and seemed OK.





Bilge before and after:



Putting the engine back in place.



Oak strips for attaching the front of the dinette seat and dinette section screwed back in place.



Completed, using teak strips to cover seams. I also moved the table support over a few inches to cover the seam on the starboard side.



If I have to remove the engine again, I can remove the wood strips and unscrew the front section of the dinette seat. I also saved the A-frame supports and roller assembly.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Superb. Great work, super writeup. This should be cataloged somewhere, and easily accessible, for the next time one of the C30 skippers, all 6,000 of them, asks.

 

[njlarry]

Well done.
Where did you get the hoist roller and where there any issues with realigning the engine to the shaft?
Thanks for all the pictures.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

Congrats on a superb job of re-conditioning the engine and the surrounding area.

It never ceases to amaze me how PO's can spend tens of thousand$ on a boat and then let it deteriorate.

As Stu has mentioned, please archive your first rate re-condition and write up for others to reference in the future.

 

[Stu Jackson]

As Stu has mentioned, please archive your first rate re-condition and write up for others to reference in the future.

I just sent a link to this topic to Ken Kloeber, who has advised me that he's working with C30 skippers to get at least a C30 tech wiki up somewhere on the internet. Haven't heard back from him yet. Ken's pretty active on our C34 'site because of identical systems and engines. We may just stick a link on our C34 tech wiki/engine so this doesn't get lost, but it would be nice to have the original sized photos and text to make it more readable.

 

[CaptnDean]

Thank you all for the postive comments!
In answer to njlarry's question, the roller is from a caster that I bought at Harbor Freight for about $6. Although it was only rated at 165 lbs, I figured it would be OK. The nice thing was that I could turn the roller by hand and move the motor by very small amounts to get it into the right location.

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-in-non-marring-rubber-swivel-caster-61645.html

As for lining the engine up, I had made some templates out of 1/4" luan plywood as spacers for distance from the transmission to the stringers, etc. before I removed the engine.

This is the template that I made for centering the engine. This was screwed to the front of the dinette. I removed it when I removed the engine, but then I could screw it back in the original position to realign the engine.



In retrospect, I wished that I had made a similar template and placed it under the prop shaft, although the other templates got me pretty close. Then I used a feeler guage between the coupling and the transmission for final alignment. This was very time consuming because its hard to get to all sides of the coupling due to the floor and cabinet.

Hope this helps. Dean

 

[Stu Jackson]

We may just stick a link on our C34 tech wiki/engine so this doesn't get lost...

Done. Under Engines / Miscellaneous Projects

http://www.c34.org/wiki/index.php?title=Diesel_Engine

 

[weekendrken]

I just sent a link to this topic to Ken Kloeber, who has advised me that he's working with C30 skippers to get at least a C30 tech wiki up somewhere on the internet. Haven't heard back from him yet. Ken's pretty active on our C34 'site because of identical systems and engines.

May be just a C-4 wannabe?

Very interesting. Yes, at least two of us C30-ers have removed using a pickup truck hoist from Harbor Freight
http://www.harborfreight.com/12-ton-capacity-pickup-truck-crane-with-cable-winch-61522.html

They bolted down the mount to the keel bolts - works great, and with the swivel you can just swing the iron genny out of the way to work on it.

Ken K

 

[weekendrken]

Dan,

I see that you kept the Sherwood seawater pump? Why for heaven's sake? I would replace that with an Oberdorfer pump before the Sherwood shaft seizes and ruins the camshaft cog. Really - this is not a myth -- I personally know of 3 Catalina owners this happen to.

 

[weekendrken]

Dan,

Which engine do you have there? It has the profile of an M-25/25XP, but with the engine mounted lift pump and solenoid - haven't seen that. I would have thought an XPB would be in the MK-III, but that isn't.

Ken

 

[George Da Porge]

We had to replace the tranny in our 1990 Catalina 30 last summer. Which, of course, required pulling engine. Have the 2-piece counter. Was able to remove the section above engine after I figured out the stove was installed last, and the counter was notched to fit the stove face frame.

Anyway, our mechanic (with our help) just used a chainfall slung to the boom. Worked great - and boom was able to swing the engine out onto the dock. We did attach the main halyard to the end of the boom in conjunction with the topping lift, for safety.

 

[CaptnDean]

[/QUOTE]
Which engine do you have there? It has the profile of an M-25/25XP, but with the engine mounted lift pump and solenoid - haven't seen that. I would have thought an XPB would be in the MK-III, but that isn't.

Ken[/QUOTE]

The tag, which is barely readable, says M-25XPA.

Regarding the Sherwood pump, I'll check into that. Thanks! Probably would have been easier to change it when the engine was out. LOL.

 

[Stu Jackson]

The tag, which is barely readable, says M-25XPA.

Regarding the Sherwood pump, I'll check into that. Thanks! Probably would have been easier to change it when the engine was out. LOL.

The C310 guys had a recent discussion about the Oberdorfers:

http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=168363

It was for a different M25 series engine, yours would be much easier. IIRC, there was a link I provided in that discussion to our C34 tech wiki on engines, which covers the M25 and M25XP that has the same rw pump location as yours: http://www.c34.org/wiki/index.php?title=Diesel_Engine

 

[dj2210]

Very nice work. A clean white engine compartment looks great. I replaced my Sherwood with the Ober and it was a piece of cake. The Sherwood was such a pain with the back side screws

 

[George Da Porge]

By the way - you did do an awesome job with cleaning up the hill. I had a small crack in the hull under the tranny that I repaired, the applied a couple coats of BilgeKote to that area. Then my wife and I thoroughly scrubbed every nook and cranny we could get to. Had I a season more experience I would have applied BilgeKote to all of it (similar to what you did). Oh well - maybe I'll coat the "bilge proper" with it this spring. Will make it a lot easier to keep clean.

Anyway - great work on everything you did!!

 

[George Da Porge]

I also see it in my future to make the engine access on the settee side larger, as you did. It's a real PIA to get to the oil filter and other stuff through the factory opening. Yours looks great!

 

[CaptnDean]

George, thanks for the great idea!

I think I will make that whole front section hinged, including the top rail with the dinette table support, so that I can easily remove that whole section, including the factory access door for better access to the engine. I think I'll use "take apart" hinges at the bottom and barrel bolt latches on the inside at the top.

http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?path=-1|10918|2303361|2303371&id=21038

http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?path=-1|10918|2303361|2303367&id=20777

Thanks, Dean

 

[Bob S]

Dean,

Great post, I dreaded the day I might have to do this but now it seems a little less daunting. I'm curious how your oil pan looked. It's one of the items I would have replaced when she was out.
Congrats on your new boat.

Bob

 

[Anonymous 121765]

I'm a bit late in this thread but,

Maybe it's just me, but when I removed my 5411 (roughly 300#), I did it in a simpler manner. The engine is not that heavy.

You did a stellar job but, cutting the panel out I believe weakens the structural design integrity somewhat. The molded one-piece sole is constructed in such a way for added strength without flexing.

With my boat tied tightly to the dock, I took off the cabinet, used two halyards & the boom that was additionally supported by rope, lifted the engine w/a come-along, when up, slid it back on the boom thru the companionway opening. Swung the boom out as far as it would go to the dock & three of us easily set it in a dolly. Installing the 3M20 was just the reverse albeit, alittle heavier. I did attach two 2x4 boards in a tent-like shape along the top of the boom for added support.

Besides the topping lift, I tied another line around the mast at the spreaders about 1/3 the way back for added boom support.

These are Just my thoughts on this.

CR

 

[CaptnDean]

Bob,
I was concerned about the oil pan, which was one reason that I pulled the engine. It was rusty in places but it wasn't leaking. When I removed the engine and checked the pan it appeared sound, so I cleaned up the rust, applied rust treatment to the areas, and then painted. Universal wanted $430 for a new oil pan and $70 for a gasket, which I thought was outrageous. Through the info on these forums I was able to get the part number of a Kabota oil pan, which was only about $68, but it didn't have the place for the oil dip stick. Also, the dealer said that if I ordered the part and it wasn't the right size, he would not give me my money back because it was a special order.

Since the pan wasn't leaking, I decided to reinstall the engine and keep an eye on the pan for leaks. If it ever does start leaking, pulling the engine again will be easy, now that I have access in the dinette seat, the A frames, hoist and roller.

I did notice that the engine has a small rubber plug on the side of the block just below the alternator that appears to be for a dip stick when used on the Kabota tractor. I wonder if anyone has used this instead of the side tube that Universal used, if they replaced the oil pan using a Kabota pan. The price for the Universal dipstick tube was $426!

Dean