Saturday
- Sodium Hydroxide did very little. Other suggestions were (1) diesel
fuel, (2) SeaFoam, (3) Steam at high temperature and pressure, (4)
Butyl Cetolsolve and (5) Muriatic Acid.
I went with (5) because that's just pool cleanser, available from Home
Depot for $5 a gallon, and I could get it in town on a weekend. And it worked,
boiled away and completely dissolved the carbon in an hour or so.
The side water inlet ran clear, and ran only in the downstream elbow
direction - important because water running upstream into the cylinders
will cause hydrostatic locking and wreck your pistons, connecting rods,
and possibly the block.
After cleansing I rinsed it well in hot water, then left it submerged
for an hour in very hot water and a strong mix of baking soda to
passivate any acid left on the part. Then it was back down to the boat,
clean the faces on the joints and engine, and reinstall with gasket and
new sealant. Then, since it takes three hours to set the joint compound
I just cleaned and organized things on the boat, and prepped for a sail
on Sunday.
One bad thing I learned is that some people - people in antique car and
stationary engine groups - think that Muriatic Acid can't really be
100% neutralized, and will keep eating away at the part. So I'm going
to order a new elbow - the general consensus is that NorSea's need one
every six or seven years anyway. Cheap insurance to avoid wrecking an
engine!
By the end of the day I was filthy and exhausted, but at least had made some progress!
Friday
- worked on the inspection punchlist in the morning, but headed down
to the boat in the afternoon to do some trouble-shooting..
A while back I had noticed that no
cooling water was coming out the exhaust - the NorSea has a raw-water
cooled Yanmar 20GM diesel with a water-lift type of muffler. Working
logically, I checked that the inlet sea cock was allowing water in.
Good. Then I checked that it was getting through to the impeller, and
that the impeller was intact. Yes. Then I checked that water was coming
out of the back of the block into the exhaust line. Check. Then I
checked that the exhaust line was putting water and gas into the
cannister. No water!!
A bit of disassembly showed that the water went into a U tube in the
exhaust line, from the side with about a 1/2" fitting (no doubt metric
for a Swedish engine), and that it was coked up inside the U-tube
fitting. I
have pulled that cast iron fitting off, and am soaking it in a solution
of drain cleaner, in the hopes that the Sodium Hydroxide
will dissolve the soot and coke. Because of the shape, and what appear
to be some sort of interior baffles one can't simply run a brush
through.
The cats love the warm garage this time of year - they seem to find
90-95F a pleasant & relaxing temperature. Sometimes, after a
wash, I'll spread large items out to dry on the cars. If I forget and
let the cats out in the garage they think they are in heaven...
Riley, lounging on a newly washed sleeping bag in the garage.
Thursday 23 July
2009
Thursday
- a long day in the field, pushing 90F in Fillmore, but am almost done
with the punchlist for Zone 2.
Wednesday 22 July 2009
Wednesday
- another book read fairly recently was Book #37,
The Long Voyage, by Adrian Hayter (also published as Sheila in the Wind in the UK). This is an early 1950's voyage by
small sailing yacht from England to New Zealand, via the Mediterrean,
the Suez Canal, India, Ceylon and Australia. In the grand tradition of
British yachtsmen Hasler is an amateur, inexperienced, in a
wooden
vessel without any self steering gear. He is poor, things break
continually, and he generally has a good time, generally slumming but
occasionally, as an ex-Army Major of Ghurka's, enjoying the twilight of
the British Empire.
Tuesday 21 July 2009
Tuesday
- back at work.
In the evenings I have been using the laptop to watch Journeyman
on Hulu.com. It turns out to have been an excellent show, canceled
after one season. A bit of a cross between Quantum Leap
and The Time
Travelers' Wife.
I liked the protagonist, his wife, the brother, the friends. Well
written, well acted, good sets - doomed from the start, I guess.
Hulu.com works pretty darn well, I have to say. More recent shows,
those still in production, often only seem to have the last half dozen
shows available, but that seems reasonable enough. There are a few
commercials - sometimes they let you pick one great big commercial at
the beginning rather than multiple small ones, and that's nice.
Monday 20 July 2009
Monday
- feeling a bit under the weather. Too much sun yesterday, I think.
As I suspected, the registration for the little utility trailer I
purchased is all bollixed up. Clearly the VIN and tag belong to a much
larger and heavier trailer, so I need to register it as new. No big
deal, it's $38, but I'll have to make an appointment and bring it over
to the DMV. The idea was to avoid that hassle - the Palmdale DMV is
closed for renovation and the morning line stretches around the
building (twice,
according to the AAA lady). Oh well.
Book #36
was On
Stranger Tides, by Tim Powers. An excellent book - I suspect
that the Pirates
of the Carribean authors....gleaned,
shall we say....some of the inspiration for the movie from this
book.
Sunday 19 July_2009
Sunday
- hot, hot, hot.
My brother had some tickets to the Dodgers vs. Astros game, so we
headed down to Chavez Ravine for an afternoon game. Despite it being
the hottest temperature I've ever seen there, 100F or so, we had a good
time. These were free tickets, courtesy of a friend, and came with free
Dodger Dogs and drinks. It was hot enough to require a (single, I was
driving) beer as
well, and another Dodger Dog, but those we had to pay for ourselves.
The Dodgers pulled it out, with no help from Manny Ramirez, and
actually won
the game, so that was cool.
