119. What Went Wrong with my Engine Service

hi and thanks for joining me I hope you're all keeping safe and well you're about to see me carry out my first engine service on the boat all I will say is that things didn't quite go according to plan take a look see what happened I'm about to service my engine this is the first time I would have done this last year I got an engineer to do it for me the reason for that was I wanted to watch someone do it first and see if I could pick up any tips now years ago I used to service car engines or fairly straight forward and the principles are not difficult there are three filters to change one or filter and two fuel filters and they tend to screw on you know it's it's not difficult but it is still a bit daunting when you're doing it for the first time I'm gonna start with changing this diesel filter what's interesting about this is that when I watched it done last year I was told to be where the the small oring in in this package there are two smaller rings one of which I know I need to use and they were two of these one of them I've fitted in here already and this one seems to fit around the rim but I don't remember two rings being used last year so that's fitted nicely in there whether that's it and I don't need this one it don't know yet so I see what happens when I take it off before I take off the old filter I'm just gonna smear some oil around you ring in this filter this bar in the middle I find very useful when I'm moving around but I think it might make sense just to move it out the way I'm really not clear where that little o-ring goes at the moment so just take this off here I don't think I said that I have already turned the fuel line off not really sure this is easy when you watch someone else do it when you do it yourself I can see the o-ring now it's actually on here it's a bit fiddly actually oh that's good I'm glad I found that well back it easier for me move around frustrated from the elbow tuft it's taken me an age to get this sniffle um oh ring off I've been picking at it I was trying to use this little hook and hook it down and I think I've realized that there is probably an that to using it because I was trying to hook it down straight like that and I think I should have gone in an angle anyway it's off and I've got the new one to put on so I'm gonna do that now well that's soon done I didn't think that part would take long so now I can get ready to screw the new filter in I actually had the larger rings round the wrong way so what I showed initially was incorrect it didn't fit into the top of the filter it was actually to go at the bottom of the filter and the other one went at the top I have corrected it but I didn't actually show doing so I should say I have also changed the air filter it was just a question of undoing the two clips on the air filter cover taken out the old one and popping in the new one well that's the first filter in place the second one fortunately is a lot easier you just unscrew it and screw on the next one so I'll do that now this is the next oil filter to go on of the ring finding it difficult to get a grip on the filter it's just awkwardly place to put your hands on it and turn it so I'm gonna use this new filter wrench and I've bought they're going out and packaging getting that yes making progress now no mess with this one and there is some diesel in here I can see it floating around this should just be hand tight just need to get my hands in the right position to do that I think that's sufficient I don't think I mentioned it's raining outside it was spitting this morning but now there's some proper rain coming down it's not heavy but it's continuous so what I'm gonna do now I'm going to tidy up a little bit because I need to switch the fuel line back on and pump some diesel into the engine so that I can start it because I'm gonna do the oil now and I need you off to be warm before I pump it out [Music] well it's two days later you would have seen that I had a problem starting the engine I just couldn't get it too far up I realized that the system needed to be bled I did the best I could I was able to bleed the primary diesel filter there was no bleed screw on the secondary filter I looked around couldn't really see any other bleach crews anywhere and wasn't really expecting to find any because it is an electric pump and the pump should pump the fuel through the system in a loop and expel any air that is in it but I was a little downhearted when I couldn't run the engine the next stage of the service was to deal with the engine oil and filter and the gearbox oil and I wanted to warm the oil up but obviously if I couldn't start the engine that wasn't gonna happen so I finished that day and I did a lot of research online looking at YouTube videos looking at manuals couldn't actually find the answers that I wanted that covered my engine I had another look yesterday and didn't get anywhere with it this morning I decided to ring River canal rescue of which I'm a member I have been for two years I've never made a claim before but I have home-start included in my membership so thought well I'll give them a ring and see if they can help I rang just after 10 o'clock they said they'd ring me back in a few it's which they did and I was told that an engineer would be with me by 11:30 and shortly after then lo and behold an engineer turned up so I was very very pleased to see him the first thing he actually did was to look at the alternator belts and the one driving the starter alternator was in very poor condition so he said well we're gonna have to replace that one unfortunately he didn't have a spare belt with him he has spurred on a temporary belt which is a little narrower than what the standard belt is but he said it would do until I can get a replacement he also examined the other alternator belt for the leisure batteries there is a little bit of wear in that certainly not as severe as the other one and I will replace that as well it looks as though the alternator has been changed at some time because it's a sort of tight fit he had to do a lot of fiddling around in fact I had to sort of take off the larger alternator in order to do what I needed to do with a smaller one but he got that all sorted out I had always had a suspicion that the problem was to do with the fuel pump some boats have a mechanical fuel pump but my boat has an electric fuel pump and I had expected when I switched the ignition on to here it pumping and I hadn't heard anything so I did wonder if it was to do with that I'm sure last year when I had the engineer serviced the engine that when he switched the ignition on I heard it pumping but I didn't anyway the engineer that visited found that it was the pump that had failed it was pumping but very very weak and fortunately he did have a replacement pump with him so he was able to fit that he turned the ignition on and the engine fired into life and what a lovely sound to hear it so I'm now in the position that I can run the engine warm the oil and carry on with the service so that's exactly what I'm going to do I'm gonna start the engine now [Applause] to be honest I'm not really sure how long to run the engine for to warm it up having run it I'm giving it a little while to cool down does that make sense I'm going to start with the gearbox because I think the gearbox should be cleaner because I haven't got to remove a filter or anything like that I have to use a suction pump to take the oil out of the gearbox and I have bought one especially for the purpose which I'll be using I did test it the other day using some water first of all I couldn't get it to go and then I realized what I was doing wrong we're not wrong I had on the pipe that I was putting into the hole in here wasn't sealing it properly but with a larger connection it pumped straight away so I'm hoping that the contents of there will fit in here it is designed to do that so that's where I'm gonna start what I need to do is to remove this what looks like a bolt here it is actually the dipstick and I'll do that now yeah I got that nice and loose very fine line at the bottom here as to where it should be filled up - there's no flex at all in this hose I'm going to attach a thinner hose at this end here to put into the gearbox so this end is going to go into here because this is so coyly as it were you know very rigid I'm going to insert a smaller tube there and run it into the gearbox the last year the engineer actually used he had a very thin copper pipe and I thought that was a very good way of going about it and my idea was to do the same but I've not obviously been able to source a copper pipe so I'm gonna have to use some flexible pipe this is actually too long but I'm going to cut it once I know roughly how much I need there we go what's going in there now need to rest that somewhere that's so good isn't it dear dear dear I can see why proper tube would be better that's what I'm doing it's gonna be difficult to get all the oil out difficult to know whether I'm touching the bottom or the gearbox well I'm ready to pump so I'm gonna give it a go building up I shortened the coil of pipe cut it off because I wasn't getting anywhere and now I don't know if you can see but it is coming through I don't know how long we have to keep dumping for yes it is coming in the bottom here oops let's not to talk while I'm doing this I think can't get it to siphon the game there's no doubt having a long tube that you can put down into the gearbox and suck up from would be a great help because then you know that you're in the oil with my coyly flexible tube I don't know that I'm in the oil but it did start to work but I've only got very small amount out very small indeed I'm just gonna leave that for a minute and concentrate on the engine oil I think as the engine is Marron eyes and the all can't be drained from the sump as usual a pump has been fitted to the side of the engine for that purpose yes that's coming out nicely the engine takes five and a half liters and there's five liters in the top when you buy it I'm not sure how much of the engine all you actually get out I think I've got out as much oil as it's going to come out you can hear when I pump now there's nothing there to come anymore so I'll bring the bottle out and remove the filter good that part of the operation has gone fairly well I'm just putting the stopper back to make sure it doesn't get lost best to do it whilst I think of it I can't see any oil showing on the dipstick I'm just going to use the filter wrench again to remove the oil filter I'm finding it very difficult to get a rag or anything under the filter because it is so close to the steel that the engine is mounted on just smearing some oil around the seal I thought some oil was gonna spew out when I took off the filter but it didn't so that's good well I'm ready now to refill the engine with oil I did say it should take five and a half liters we haven't taken out even five liters probably four liters so I'm gonna be very careful with putting the all back I don't have to pump it out again so I'll put some in and keep testing until I get it right I don't know if the camera can pick it up but there's a hatched section from here to there so minimum and high but when I slide it out you get a smear of oil coming along here as well it's just making it very difficult to see that's three litres I've put in so far I'll just put a little bit more in I'm now gonna check the dipstick just to see where we're at I've just stepped inside the cabin because this camera isn't coping too well with the bright sunshine I've taken out somewhere between I'm just looking at the bottle three about three and a half litres I've put back just over three litres a measure on the side of the bottle I'm having trouble to see exactly where I am on the dipstick because the oil is smearing along the length of the dipstick so instead of seeing it fully across where it should be if you understand and then a smear it's sort of smearing all the way from the bottom up so it's making it very difficult for me to know exactly where I am I'm just gonna give it a little bit of time to settle down and I'll test it again well I've just checked the dipstick again it's very very difficult it's not defined easily as to where the oil is obviously it needs time to settle down run through the engine and everything I think I've got sufficient oil in it to be safe so I'm gonna leave that for now and run the engine and I'll probably I think I probably check it when it's cold and tomorrow or something like that I'm just measuring out the oil that I've taken out from the gearbox so I can put at least the same amount back and possibly a little bit more I can't think of any other way of working out exactly how much to put in so I've taken very little out from the gearbox I don't think on this trip to the gearbox to service it that I'm going to be able to get any more out I need to better sort myself with a with a pipe or something attached to the siphon so that the pipe can go right to the bottom of the gearbox and then I can pump it out using the flexible hose just doesn't work so this is the plan at the moment what I've actually done is I've put a very small funnel down there then I will fit in from another funnel so I'll pour from here I'll clean this ouch there and then I'll put the clean oil into a larger funnel that will pour into the smaller funnel that will go into the gearbox because what you need is a funnel with a very very long neck before you get to the funnel part and I just don't know anything like that it's strange all the thought I've given to doing the service and pumping out the gearbox on and that sort of thing I have not given one thought as to how I'm going to get the oil back in and it is tricky with everything that's in the way it's not just the air filter there are other things down there as well I'm now pouring some new oil into the gearbox using my double funnel arrangement so I've just poured the oil into the gearbox I've now got the dipstick I'm going to see what level is that there's a very tiny mark at the end of the dipstick just some tightening it again I've just tested it the oil is just beneath very marginally the mark on the dipstick so I'm just gonna put a drop more in and call it a day on that aspect that's better it's slightly above the mark now may have attached too much well that's the finish of the engine service as far as I can go today anyway so the filters have been done we've had a new fuel pump I've changed the oil filter now change the oil in the engine not had a great deal of success with the gearbox but I did manage to get a little bit out and I put some back so I'm pleased as far as that goes I need to sort out a better method for suctioning out or siphoning out I should say the oil so there you have it for the moment I've got a lot of tidying up to do and I've got a few phone calls to make so I'll leave it there I'll catch up with you later I say bye for a moment so that was a little disappointing for me in that I couldn't complete the engine service in one day I was really downhearted when I couldn't get the engine to run again I don't think well I really sunk no I have to say I lost my usual spirit that I have but it came back a couple of days later I have revisited the gearbox and tried again I managed to source some copper pipe from a Chandler's and I straightened it out and I tried to put it down through the gearbox but it's obviously hitting the gears it needs to go in at a slight angle or maybe I need to turn the gearbox over whether that will move the gears in such a way that I can get access but basically I had the same result as when I first tried I've got exactly the same amount of oil out so at least there's been some more oil taken out and some put back so some fresh oil has gone into it I've ordered two new alternator belts as both need changing there is one for the alternator that deals with the engine starter battery and the other alternator deals with the leisure batteries the engineer that came from River canal rescue did advise that both will need changing he did put a temporary one on to the engine Automator but it's too narrow and should be replaced he did say it would be okay to cruise with it but I've not been out since it won't actually stop me going out but I've been busy with other things so once those who have come in I have actually already found one belt but as I need to I'm waiting for the next two to come in I then have three so when I fit - I'll have a spare that's the plan so hopefully that won't be long now they were ordered over a week ago I shopped around but I couldn't find many sources to get these particular belts so I'm just being patient but hopefully they'll come in shortly I'll get the belt sorted out and I'll be ready to cruise so meanwhile it just remains for me to say many thanks for watching as always keep yourselves safe and well take care and bye for now [Music] you [Music]

Channel: My Narrowboat Venture

Views: 15,123

Rating: 4.969748 out of 5

Keywords: Yelvertoft, My, Narrowboat, Venture, Foxton, Staircase, Canal, Lock, Bridge, Tiller, Towpath, Tunnel, Water, Windlass, Junction, Cruise, Barge, Waterway, Stove, Flue, Chimney, River, Leicester, Line, Steam, Winter, Marina, Fire, Grand, Union, Narrow, Boat, Sort, Of, Interesting, Cruising, The, Cut, Pumping, Wash, Hole, Trust, Repair, Novice, Storm, Devon, Ciara, Dennis, Jorge, Napton, Kindling, Repairs, Coronavirus, Lockdown, Anchor, Warp, Tackle, Engine, Service, Bilge, Painting

Id: V_u2Qc3LRJk

Length: 28min 11sec (1691 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 27 2020