On A Mission

Over the last few weekends we have been continuing our mission trying to get to the bottom of why the starboard engine is running warmer than the port engine.

One thing to factor in is that the starboard engine runs the power steering and the hot water system so it will run a bit warmer than the port engine anyway, but we wanted to exhaust all possibilities to try to get it to run a bit cooler than it does at the moment. We have tried several things such as replacing the raw water pump, rodding out the heat exchanger, replacing the recently installed aftermarket impeller for a genuine Volvo Penta one, all of which have made a marked improvement to our recent woes. We now feel confident that unless we really have to push Moonshine to the limit at sea the alarms shouldn't rear their ugly heads. 

However, when we are lifted out in November we plan on having both outdrives overhauled by I.V.S.S Marine in Kent, which could possibly bring other things to light such as mussels in the water intake or exhaust (which can result in back pressure), but this won't become evident until they are stripped down.
 

On Friday we ventured to the low side of Pollington Lock for an overnight stay. The fuel filters were changed ready for our holidays, also the horrible task of cleaning the shower drain box fell to Peter... which has decided to pack up yet again. The Rule 800 bilge/shower pump was replaced back in July 2014 so this hasn't lasted long at all. These seem to be very problematic, so we have had to bite the bullet and have ordered a Whale Gulper 220 12v shower pump from Cactus Navigation who appear to be far cheaper than anywhere else. We actually have one of these in our engine room which we obtained from a friend which has worked faultlessly since the fitting of a new seal kit. Also one of the engine room cameras has decided to pack up, but this is no big deal as the remaining camera can be resited to cover both engines. If in the future this decides to fail we will invest in a better quality unit as this can prove to be invaluable if anything major occurs within the engine bay which can be rectified before things become critical. 

Hopefully nothing else will fail within the next 2 and a half weeks leading up to our summer holidays, of which we have big plans for, that is providing the engines run fine and the weather is kind!