A Little TLC For Our Ford Lehman Diesel

With the daytime heat in the 90s every day we are ready to spend time working inside the boat and enjoy the air conditioning. A couple of projects that have been in the back of my mind are perfect for a break from teak and painting. Well, as much of a break as working in the engine room can be. An issue with the Ford Lehman has been the overflow for the fresh water coolant. It is simply an overflow and does not draw the coolant back into the tank when the engine cools down as most diesels do. This requires that it be manually poured back into the fresh water tank as it accumulates and is kind of a pain. The folks at American Diesel, http://www.americandieselcorp.com/ , are the experts on the Ford Lehman engine. If Bob Smith or Brian does not have an answer to any question about these engines, then there is no answer. They do have a replacement neck for the fresh water tank that will allow the coolant to overflow and then return back to the tank. I had ordered one of these and have had it on hand for a while now, so it was time to install it. The installation is pretty straight forward and the old retainer that hold the cap needs to be notched with a hack saw blade so it can be bent inward and removed. The new neck is coated with epoxy where it will go down into the tank and with a little coaxing with a hammer and a block of wood it slides into place. Once the epoxy sets it is ready to be reinstalled and attached to the overflow tank.



While the tank was off it was a good time to replace the thermostat even though we have not had any problems. With everything apart and the thermostat exposed it made sense to replace it since we had no idea how old it was. At the same time we ordered a complete water hose replacement kit from American Diesel and any of the hose that were removed in the process were also replaced and eventually they will all be done. With the tank off we also removed the water tubes that run to the heat exchanger. The hoses there were replaced and all of the parts received a fresh coat of pain since they were off the boat. All of the hose clamps for these sections were also replaced. The whole process took about 2 1/2 days, mostly to allow the paint to dry.

One other peculiarity with the engine was the raw water strainer. Someone had attached a 3 inch brass pipe on the inlet side of the raw water pump, then screwed the raw water strainer into that pipe so the strainer was hanging on the side of the pump. What made this worse was the plastic bowl of the strainer was sitting on top of one of the main stringers. With engine vibration it would only be a matter of time before the bowl for the strainer broke, not a pleasant thought. And if this were not enough the top of the strainer was above the waterline so air could get trapped in the strainer and this made cleaning the strainer more difficult than it needed to be since we had to manually refill it and make sure it was completely full. So the strainer was moved and mounted on a board on the side of the engine compartment near the intake seacock. The mixture of bronze and brass fittings and elbows were removed and bronze hose barbs attached and the water hoses and hose clamps were all replaced.

That has been our latest project. The engine room and the engine will need a lot of my attention. We will take our time and do it right so that we will have fewer problems once we set out for cruising. Our kids are coming down from up north next week so we wanted to get everything done before they arrive. While they are here we will spend some time just enjoying the boat instead of working on it. That sure will be different and we are looking forward to it.

Repairs, Failures, And The Domino Affect

I am thoroughly convinced that most, maybe not all, major breakdowns and failures on a boat start with just one small thing and then the dominoes fall until you have a major if not catastrophic situation. OK, our situation did not become catastrophic, but it became much more than it started out to be, and it became very expensive. It all started innocently enough one very hot, sticky day about three weeks ago when it was necessary to clean the air conditioner sea strainer. The waters here in Factory Creek are very silty and full of all manor of stuff. The strainers requires cleaning at least every two weeks. The AC system was shut down and the seacock closed to keep the water out for what should have only taken a few minutes. The strainer was removed and the bowl and screen sat on the dock for cleaning. When I turned on the water hose, somehow the nozzle came off and the stream of water hit the strainer basket and blew it overboard into the water and it sank immediately. So this meant an hour and a half running around to the marine supply stores to find a replacement screen. Once a replacement was found the strainer was reassembled and the seacock opened. No water would come through the seacock to the strainer.





Now I would like to take a moment here to rant just a bit. Plastic thru-hulls and valves have absolutely no place on a boat in my opinion. You can call them Marlon or a host of other names but to me they are plastic, cheap, break, and especially have no place in the bottom of a boat, especially under water. One of the previous owner had installed a Marlon ball valve for the air conditioner pick up and we had planned on changing it on the next haul out. But right now this piece of crap had closed and although the handle turned, the ball valve inside did not and the valve was stuck in the shut position. Did I add that it was hot and sticky? The heat index for the day was in the hundreds and the humidity was as high as it could be without raining. By this time the temperature inside the boat had risen to 97 degrees and the sweat was pouring off my body. Plus I knew that if Susan came home with no air conditioning, my life may be severely shortened. Hauling the boat immediately was not an option. Besides, it was stuck in the closed position.

Our raw water strainer for the engine has a hose fitting and a valve on top to allow for winterizing in colder climates. This was not ideal but with a bit of engineering I might at least get water flowing to the AC pump as a temporary measure. Putting together bits and pieces and some hose, I was able to make this work and the AC was once again running. But the boat did have to be hauled to replace the broken valve. I drove to the nearest and only haul out yard in our area and they were full with no place to haul us out at the time. So we made arrangements for the first of the following week to haul and do the repairs. I am not one to waste a haul out for simply replacing a valve so we planned to install a dripless packing system while the boat was out. Although this was on my list of things to do, we had not planned to do it so soon. As luck would have it, the time to get the dripless system shipped stretched into another week. Our jury rigged AC water system kept going, but barely.

Once the parts arrived and space cleared in the yard we drove the boat the three miles or so and hauled out. The 28 year old prop shaft in the boat had a lot of rust spots and was very pitted over the areas we could see. I had often wondered what the areas we could not see looked like. Since the shaft had to be loosened and pulled back to install the dripless system, I ask them to pull it all the way out so I could inspect it. To no real surprise, we found the shaft to be even worse than feared. A section had actually looked like it had dissolved the shaft to the point where the 1 1/2 shaft diameter was only about an inch. Sections where we found deep indentations and groves, I could stick a flat screwdriver into about half way through the shaft. This could have been a disaster and most assuredly would have failed in the very near future. So we ordered a replacement shaft.

While waiting for the shaft we took the time to compound the hull, since it was looking pretty dull. We also raised the waterline a couple of inches, which we are used to having to do as liveaboards. We decided that since we were replacing the shaft it would be prudent to also replace the cutlass bearing. It was showing signs of wear, even though only slight. The prop and cutlass bearing tube which had been epoxy coated at our last haul out, received a fresh coat of bottom paint. This had held up well in the eight months since our last haul out. We do plan to install a generator in the coming months so we had a seacock installed for the raw water inlet for the genset. As I said, we really hate to waste a haul out.

The new shaft arrived, matched to our coupler which we had shipped to the shaft folks to match up. The thru-hulls had been installed in the mean time and the installation of the new shaft and the dripless packing system only took a day. Everything went smoothly and once back in the water we had no leaks and the dripless worked as advertised. The boat was returned to our slip in much better condition than it left and our wallet was much lighter also. This is our third experience with the folks at Marsh Harbor Boat Works in Beaufort, SC and we can not say enough good things about these folks. They accommodated us in every way they possibly could, expedited everything within their power and gave us what we considered excellent prices for the materials and work done. Over the past two decades, we have dealt with many marinas up and down the coast and we consider Marsh Harbor one of the best. If in the area and in need of repairs, don't hesitate to contact them.

As you can see, the domino affect was putting it mildly. All of this started as a result of cleaning the air conditioner strainer. We are thankful the prop shaft issue was caught now under these conditions rather than in some other very different situation. We are firm believers that nothing happens by accident and there are no coincidences. After a short break we will be on to the next repairs.