forward lipseal on combi stuffing box leaks

[sjfcanada]

Hello all,

I been working on my VEGA 2226 for few months now, and just got it in the water, everthing was kinda of good for first 100 mile trip (engine smoked heavy think had too much oil because took some oil out and it stopped) and my forward lipseal on combi stuffing box leaks heavy when motor is run.

Before I put boat in water from the hard I took out as much grease I could from the forward lipseal on combi stuffing box and repacked it, and when placed in water no leak, then after I run her the stuffing box leaks bad at the forward lipseal were grease goes in at the fitting. The only way to stop this leak is to put more grease in the zirk grease fitting after running motor every time (pain in the A**). Please help

What I would like help with is:
Does my combi stuffing box need the rebuild kit from Steve with all the ORINGS and seals, would this most likly fix issue of bad leaks?

Is there a chance my shaft is not aligned with my motor volvo MD6A and this is causing the leak, how can I tell if shaft is aligned bad or good?

Or any other ideas?

Thank you all who roam around here and give help,

Stephan

 

[j.hunter9999]

I'm not sure I have all the answers, but here's some from experience.

First, make sure you've greased the prop boss. That will take care of a lot of the water coming in through the stuffing box. If she's already in the water, you'll have to wait until you haul out, or get a scuba setup, or a mask and hose to breath through to grease it.

Second, the upside is that the stuffing box might just need new bushings and seals. The downside is that you have to remove the prop to remove the stuffing box and replace the bushings. I had the same problem, almost filling the bilge over the batteries before I noticed. I had only been motoring for about 4 hours, but he bilge filled up quickly.

If you remove the prop, you can take the stuffing box into a machine shop and have the bushings and seals replaced. That and a little grease fixed it for me.

Of course, if you are going to pull it anyway, maybe you want to consider a dripless shaft seal? But I haven't had any problems in 3 years since I replaced the bushings.

Do you have a lot of oil leaking after you run the engine? Does that oil pool at the fore end of the engine pan area? I've been running with that problem for about 2 years. I could fix it by replacing the seals (which you could order from Steve Birch); however, we rarely run the motor, so it isn't much of a problem. To put this in perspective, I have a 6 gallon file tank that was 2/3 empty last fall after 3 years, so I added a couple gallons of gas.

Does that help?

Jack

 

[sjfcanada]

Hi Jack,

Very informative information!

So I will try the stuffing box thing when I pull her out of the water, I did pack the prop boss good before putting her in the water (I thought).

I did not know I could install dripless stuffing box, thought because of variable combi prop I was stuck with the one I have, any how I ordered the rebuilt kit from Steve to rebuild the one I have, hope that works like you.

I don't really notice any oil leaking in fore of engine just aft at combi area (think because not correct grease put in), do you have the MD6A diesel Volvo penta engine as well?

Thank you for your help,

Stephan

 

[j.hunter9999]

Hi Stephan - Yes, I have the MD6A. You'll know if you filled the prop boss enough because grease will squirt/squeeze out the prop interfaces and parting line. You should have no problems rebuilding the stuffing box with new bushings and seals.

Jack