Re: Crankcase breather squirting oil
Thanks for those very interesting snippets of information, Rick. I think, in one message, you've changed my whole outlook on how to approach the care and feeding of my engine. That stuff you dug up on the trim cylinders is a bit devastating. The $40 Ebay kits are actually only for the seals - not the whole kit. But it is quite likely that it was only the seals that needed replacing. That, certainly, was the presenting problem that lead to them looking at the trim cylinders (I told the mechanics that oil was appearing on the water whenever I tested the trim mechanism in the pen, and they said that would be a seal problem). From what I've read, replacing the rest of the "guts" of the trim cylinders would only be necessary if there was scoring or other damage - which there may, or may not, have been.
In any event, $2151 is a heck of a price to pay for those internal bits (see
http://www.seapower.com.au/products...imming-cylind-k/trimming-cylind-k-872612.aspx).
That engine you located in NZ is interesting - perhaps suspiciously so! $NZ 8000 equals $A 6,100 (and almost the same for $US). So, it would cost me about one quarter the price to buy that engine than to have my current engine rebuilt in line with the quote I received from my mechanics. That, of course, neglects the other costs of getting it here. But as a second-hand engine, I doubt that there would be much in the way of applicable taxes, duties, etc. The main cost would be shipping.
Tempting. But after having my eyes opened - largely by you - to the alternatives in respect of parts, I would be surprised if I couldn't organise a decent rebuild of my present engine for less than half of the quoted $23k. I've already found a reputedly competent, and much cheaper, mechanic to do the work.
This is my first diesel, and I'm still coming to terms with it. With my earlier gasoline boat engines, you were left in no doubt about an engine being tired. Impossible to start - especially in cold weather, from cold; idling and low speed performance positively dangerous when trying to dock - repeated conking; consumption of (almost!) more oil than fuel; exhaust smoke belching from everywhere (not just the exhaust). And so on. Now I find I've inherited a diesel that has far worse compression problems than any gasoline engine I've owned - but is impossible to fault (apart from the crankcase breather problem). I've said this several times before, but I'll say it again: here is an engine that has cylinders around 100psi below the service limit and yet: starts instantly every time in the most freezing weather we get; idles smoothly and NEVER conks; uses essentially no oil at all (when not ejected from the breather); emits no exhaust smoke of any colour (other than the white smoke on startup characteristic of this model); and pushes the boat along very satisfactorily at high speed. If I hadn't found oil being ejected from the crankcase breather, I would never have had any cause to suspect that this wasn't a very healthy engine.
Frankly, I'm puzzled. Apparently, having only owned gasoline engines before, everything I know is wrong and I've got a steep learning curve ahead of me.
Jeff
