Care And Feeding Of The Ford Lehman Diesel

The time is finally growing short for our departure on our next great adventure. Since we sold our dear friend Sea Trek, our Mariner 40 ketch, we have been preparing Beach House for our Bahamas/Great Loop adventure. The first thing we did was join the AGLCA, America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association, to glean as much knowledge and information as we can from others that have done the Loop in the past or are in the process now. The number one thing we learned was that the engine and transmission would be our top priority and the most important equipment on the boat. With that in mind, we've spent many hours and dollars preparing our Ford Lehman 120 and the Paragon transmission for the 6,000 to 8,000 mile journey. If you have followed us here, you are probably well aware of the upgrades and repairs we have made. We found some minor problems when we bought the boat, added some important safety equipment we wanted, and corrected some deficiencies inherent to the engine.

From the very beginning we replaced any potential problem parts and repaired things as they broke...

• Replaced all water hoses plus oil and transmission coolers.
• Replaced leaking fresh water pump.
• Installed fresh water recovery tank and necessary replacement neck for FW coolant tank.
• Cleaned heat exchanger.
• Replaced water heater engine hoses.
• Installed oil change pump.
• Speedseal cover on raw water pump.
• Replaced aging Racor 500 filter housing.
• Replaced poorly designed original raw water pump with new style Johnson Pump.
• Removed head, taken to machine shop, reworked and re-installed with new head gasket.
• New injectors.
• Valves adjusted.
• All new engine mounts.
• New alternator, old one repaired as a spare.
• Replaced fuel lift pump, old one kept as a spare.
• Replaced traditional stuffing box with PYI dripless system. 
• New prop shaft and cutlass bearing.
• Transmission removed, inspected, new seals, clutches and damper plate.
• Fresh coat of paint.
• Fluids and filters changed at appropriate times.
• Tachometers recalibrated.
• Raw water flow alarm installed.
• Props reworked and balanced.

I'm sure that there will be more work to be done in the engine compartment before we are ready to shove off. Items on my want-to-have list are...

1. Heat sensor on the exhaust discharge.
2. blowers for the engine compartment.
3. Generator install.
4. Finish rewiring of the house battery bank.
5. Install one more large bilge pump.
6. Finish painting.

We'll keep on posting as each of these projects are finished. I have just completed the installation of a Garmin GHP 10 Autopilot and that will be my next post. Except for a few hiccups, the installation was pretty straightforward. So come back and visit for the latest.