4 Kidneys and a Wonky Leg

Last year, we embarked on an epic voyage around Great Britain. The boat ran well for the most part, but a bearing in the transom was starting to make noise. We decided to have the bearing replaced over the winter.

We took the boat to a local boatyard, and the job started off well. However, the engine mounts were also found to be faulty, so they had to be replaced as well. The engine had to be realigned anyway after the transom bearing job, so the boatyard decided to do it all at once.

The engineer asked to see the engine running after the work was completed, so he could check for vibration and misalignment. The engine started up first try, which was great after a six-month layup. It started again when the engineer came back to check it. Everything seemed to be in order.

We launched the boat the following week, and I tried to start the engine. It wouldn’t start! The engineer came back and took a look, but he couldn’t get it to go either. The boatyard said it would be three to four weeks before the engineer was free to have a look at it again.

In the meantime, I called a friend of a friend named Neil. Neil is an expert on diesel engines. He came over and took a look at the boat. He couldn’t get the engine to start either, so he did a compression test. The manual states that the operating pressure should be 23 atmospheres, or about 350 psi. Cylinder 1 had 350 psi, cylinder 2 had 230 psi, and cylinder 3 had only 120 psi. This meant that only one cylinder was working properly.

I took the cylinder head off and had the valve seats recut and reground. I also replaced the injectors and glow plugs. Once everything was back together, the engine started up without any problems.

We were lucky to have found Neil when we did. If we had had to wait three to four weeks for the engineer to come back, we might have been stuck on the shore for the summer.