Last Dispatch

Status
Not open for further replies.
Nov 22, 2008
3,562
Endeavour 32 Portland, Maine
From the lost ICW expedition.

Carolyn, Nick, and I had a wonderful trip down which I don’t know now if I’ll ever get around to writing up.

The engine ran beautifully, I checked the oil breather water trap and dipstick regularly. The night before last, I checked the oil in Hadley Harbor and it was perfect, clean looking and right at the full mark.

I anchored last night in Fall River after dropping of my crew and started out this morning under power for Bristol. I was right in the middle of Mount Hope Bay motoring along on a beautiful morning promising a perfect day and thinking that I was finally fully confident of the engine aga…..

The oil alarm went off. I shut down and looked in the engine compartment. There was oil all over the engine and the sides of the hull and the drip pan was full. This time, it isn’t black oil floating on top of water (I’ve been keeping the drip pan cleaned out religiously since in case of such an event) as it was in Solomons. It’s all the grey emulsion of water and oil beaten into a froth by the crank. The dipstick was pushed up out of its tube. Believe me, after all I went through in Maryland, I know it was seated when I last checked the oil. A few minutes later, it had fallen back all the way home without my touching it.

The water in the crankcase breather liquid trap tastes slightly salty although it’s hard to tell for sure with the oil and other stuff that comes out of the crankcase. I pulled the dipstick and it is coated with gray mousse. In my previous oil loss event, it looked normal. No question this time that I have an engine and crankcase full of water. It’s a raw water cooled engine so there is only one place it could have come from.

There are only three ways the oil could have gotten from the cooling passages to the crankcase:

1) Water pump seal failure. Pump was rebuilt last year.
2) Head gasket failure.
3) The raw water cooled engine has rusted through the block at some point and is now junk.

The thing that worries me at this point is that the only way to rule out number 3 is to spend a few boat bucks on a new head gasket and then see if it happens again. I looked in the engine compartment last night and the drip pan was clean although I did not check the oil level. Whatever happened here happened very suddenly.

Ironically, my plan was to end up here today to see Lee and Lynn when they get back from the boat show. Their boat has been at Quality Yacht Services here in Tiverton having some work done before they head south. Because of the wonderful things they have said about the place, one of my objectives was also to meet and get to know the yard in case I needed one in this area. It looks like that was prescient thinking. I sure do need a yard; probably one that can store a boat for the winter and put in a new engine, if I can afford it after doing some hard thinking. Actually, it doesn’t take any hard thinking to know I can’t afford a new engine in any rational sense that would be recognized as financial planning. I could do it but it would be crazy in my situation.

So, I sit here on mooring K 11 unable to get ashore because of the fast current and the need to be here in case the yard notices that there a boat on their mooring and comes to inquire. They are a service yard only so closed weekends but Lee and Lynn said he was around yesterday. Nothing to do all day but sit here and think about dashed hopes and the joy of shoveling snow again this winter.
 
Last edited:
Feb 26, 2004
23,047
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
Shoot. Relax and keep your cool, like you did last time. Remember you got some great, unexpected help back then. No reason that can't or won't happen again.

IIRC, lots of skippers have reported good results with used/rebuilt engines. A friend of mine bought an M25 off eBay, refurbished it a small bit in his garage, and used it to replace the gas engine on his Pearson 30!

It can be done.

Good luck, all the best,

Stu
 
Nov 6, 2006
10,093
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
Sorry to hear, Roger ..Head toward moving parts first.. the water pump seal.. then the cause of the seal failure.. loose bearing fits? bad bearings? .. worn groove on the shaft under the seal lip? Displaced seal ..
Usually (?) a blown head gasket will result in a bad/uneven idle..
Not a fun job to get the geay mayonese out..
Hope ya find the cheap solution..
 

xcyz

.
Jan 22, 2008
174
Hunter 376
My hopes for you is that the water pump rebuild has failed and you'll be able to replace it quickly...
 
Nov 22, 2008
3,562
Endeavour 32 Portland, Maine
My hopes for you is that the water pump rebuild has failed...
Another hope dashed. After posting, I remembered that the pump housing has a weep hole so that water or oil will run out and down the front of the engine to prevent exactly this problem and to let you know which seal has failed. The area around the weep hole is dry and clean so it is not a water pump seal issue.

The engine idled and ran perfectly this morning and the exhaust was normal so there is no gasket failure that involves the combustion chambers. I just looked in the oil filler cap and the grey froth is all the way up in the valve cover and coating the rocker arms.

The fact that I've been seeing a lot of condensation in my crankcase vent discharge is ominous. I thought that the liquid trap was just letting me see what was there normally. It now seems a likely scenario that a cooling passage has been rusting through and I've had a very small leak, pin hole or smaller. This could explain a lot of strange things that have gone on with the engine since the Solomons incident.

If I were a betting man, I would put the price of a new engine down on the felt square that says, "Thin area around the pinhole finally and suddenly broke through this morning." The very small initial leak would have been very prone to plugging up with anything passing through the cooling system. This would account for the inconsistency of what I've been seeing in the liquid trap. Some days, a bit of water would be leaking into the oil, others it wouldn't. A massive amount of salt water suddenly leaked into the engine this morning.

What are the chances that this would happen two miles from an excellent yard and friends who I had planned to visit later? It could have been in the East River in front of a tank barge. My great luck continues and I'm going to find it very handy in my new life driving a RV around the mountains of the west.
 
Last edited:
Feb 20, 2011
8,060
Island Packet 35 Tucson, AZ/San Carlos, MX
What are the chances that this would happen two miles from an excellent yard and friends who I had planned to visit later? It could have been in the East River in front of a tank barge. My great luck continues and I'm going to find it very handy in my new life driving a RV around the mountains of the west.
Yes. Luck is the word. Here's the engine I'm dealing with this morning, but it's a simple problem with the pawls on the pull start mechanism.
I'm very lucky, too.
 

Attachments

May 24, 2004
470
Hunter 33.5 Portsmouth, RI
Sorry to hear about your new problem Roger. Hopefully it wont be as bad as you think it might.

If you are on K-11 mooring, that is the last mooring on the outside row of pirate Cove marina. It's family owned and operated by Brandon Kidd. Their phone No. is 401-683-3030. They have an excellent diesel mechanic "Chris" who may be of some help. He is good at diagnostics.

Dick, S/V Puffin (on K-15)

That's our home marina and I have had engine work done there by Chris and have been very satisfied. It cant hurt to give them a call Monday morning.
 

CalebD

.
Jun 27, 2006
1,479
Tartan 27' 1967 Nyack, NY
Roger,
Tough stuff.
We have a 1967 Atomic 4 engine that began to run on only 2 cylinders that made it an anemic Atomic 2 engine this summer. We replaced the head gaskets(s) (- 2 for an A4 @ $36/pair). Fixed our compression issues and who knows when it was last done?
All I'm saying is that replacing the head gaskets should not cost you more then 1 boat buck (a lot less if you DIY) and way less then a new/used engine.
Old engines want attention, good oil, clean fuel and ...
I believe you will overcome this.
 
Nov 6, 2006
10,093
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
Ooops.. this is the one time when a dripping weep hole would have been good news.. (do check it when running, however)... Head gasket, where I am sure you're heading, is the next logical one.. one of the places where there is a water passage next to an oil return (low press) passage in a place where it would not affect compression..
If the block zincs have been maintained, there should be no reason for the water jacket to have holed through..??
 
Apr 8, 2010
1,606
Frers 33 41426 Westport, CT
Roger, very sad to hear about this... Keep me posted, but unless you have some pretty good news in the couple days, I won't be holding me breath about making that passage south with you in 2 weeks... Hopefully it is just the head gasket and you can replace it and get under way without serious damage...
 
Jul 30, 2012
43
O Day 28 foot Fernandina Beach
Roger, Sorry to hear of engine problems. Expensive one it sounds like. Some how an answer is always found and in the long run it is beneficial. Many good answers.
 
Sep 17, 2012
1
Nauticat 515 Bear DE
Roger, sorry about the engine. Just thought you might be interested in a used engine. I just finished a repower for my Endeavour 32 and sold the still running Yanmar 2Qm20H (everything except the IP) to Mack Boring in New Jersey. It was just shipped on 9/14. Call me if you would like to discuss further. 248-703-9926 Dennis
 
Nov 22, 2008
3,562
Endeavour 32 Portland, Maine
Head gasket, where I am sure you're heading, is the next logical one.. one of the places where there is a water passage next to an oil return (low press) passage in a place where it would not affect compression..
Hopefully, you will win the tee shirt. See my imminent post.l
 
Status
Not open for further replies.