Securing an engine in a rollover

[GILow]

Originally Posted by GordMay

A very interesting article from Yachting Monthly magazine:
Crash Test Boat – Capsize
What really happens during a capsize? How can we make the saloon safer?
Read more at ➥ Crash Test Boat - Capsize

Thanks for that link GordMay, it's a terrific series, though part of me is pretty uncomfortable at seeing any boat subjected to what they do to that poor, poor test boat.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Matt,
... and I would expect the area will stay pretty clean.

Your faith in my refit is touching, but possibly misplaced. So far I have already found one new diesel leak since the engine bay rebuild, which was heartbreaking, to put it mildly. The darn drain tap on the bottom of the fuel filter has started dripping, about two drips per day. Diesel all over one side of my spotless white bilges!

Sigh.

Matt

[Arthur Garfield]

Could someone explain if automotive engine mounts are detrimentel ?
If they are not I would use these.
As to rollover engine retention- rachet-straps seem to hold everything in place.Though they do chafe if not protected or looked after.

All the Best

[Cheechako]

Mil spec boats sometimes require cables to hold the engine when the rubber mounts part. I forget what they are called and who makes them.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Arthur Garfield

Could someone explain if automotive engine mounts are detrimentel ?
If they are not I would use these.
As to rollover engine retention- rachet-straps seem to hold everything in place.Though they do chafe if not protected or looked after.

All the Best

Every automotive engine mount I have seen has been very specialised, usually incorporating some strange chassis angles, wierd mounting points etc. I recently fitted our bus with a Nissan RB30 engine and the engine mounts on those required a 45 degree "V" shape from the bearers on the chassis. Needless to say the bus chassis did not provide such a shape and there was a fair bit of fart-arsing around to make a virtual Nissan Skyline chassis within the bus chassis. Worked ok in the end.

The mounts I bought for this marine engine mount conversion could easily have been used for the bus conversion, but not the other way round, though if I had used them for the bus, they would have had to have been matched to the engine weight and HP, and new brackets would have to have been fabricted on the engine side of the mounts, so I would have been no better off when it came to that part of the job.

As for rachet straps, well the implication is that there would be constant tension on the straps, which would defeat the purpose of the engine mounts which are specifically matched to the engine weight and are therefore expecting a particular downwards force, no more, no less. Each of the solutions I have seen, and those suggested here, are such that they do not affect the net load on the engine mounts under normal operation, but are there simply to "catch" the engine should the mount fail in a rollover or a rope entaglement.

Clear as mud?

Matt

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Mil spec boats sometimes require cables to hold the engine when the rubber mounts part. I forget what they are called and who makes them.

I note you say when not if.

Interesting.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Cheechako]

There are a multitude of aftermarket mounts sold by the weight you want to use on them. A lot cheaper than "special" mounts labeled by the engine manufacturer....

[sanibel sailor]

Originally Posted by GILow

Jim, this is a bit of a sensative subject at home right now. I had to drill 30 holes in total to make the new mounts, all with my faithful 40 year old drill press. That's 30 holes in 12mm plate, most of them 13mm or 19mm holes, so a fair bit of swarth.

Well, this morning my son fished the third bit of swarth out of his socks before going to school, and my wife gave me one of those looks that happily married men learn to take seriously. (I didn't admit that my shoes were troubling me at the office yesterday, and on inspection I pulled two nice long lengths of swarth out of my socks too.)

So, removing the mounts to drill them again, while a very simple process in itself, has some ramifications for home tranquility that would be ignored at my peril. I could sneak the press down to the boat, but I suspect the club would frown at the sight of me staggering down the pontoons with a 200kg drill press.

As it is, I have been instructed to vaccuum the back garden. I will do so, I know the value of a happy wife.

Matt

Swarf

[GILow]

Originally Posted by sanibel sailor

Swarf

Bugger, there goes my chance to hold the moral high ground on spelling.

:^P

Matt

P.S. One online dictionary gave a definition of "an apparition of a person about to die", which, given the look on my wife's face, was probably close to the mark.

[GILow]

Small update, not that it changes anything. I carefully inspected one of the mounts today and realise that it does have reasonable rollover protection. The stud that holds the engine is backed by a very large "head" on the underside of the rubber pad. This head is significantly larger than the hole in the metal bracket that supports the rubber pad and so, in theory, cannot pull through.


But, as I said, this does not change anything for me, I will still be fitting a supplemental restraint as I do not feel like trusting the single point of failure represented by the engine mount. There's just too much at stake. If the engine were to break free it would be a catastrophe, and more than likely fatal.


Matt

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by GILow

Jim, this is a bit of a sensative subject at home right now. I had to drill 30 holes in total to make the new mounts, all with my faithful 40 year old drill press. That's 30 holes in 12mm plate, most of them 13mm or 19mm holes, so a fair bit of swarth.

Well, this morning my son fished the third bit of swarth out of his socks before going to school, and my wife gave me one of those looks that happily married men learn to take seriously. (I didn't admit that my shoes were troubling me at the office yesterday, and on inspection I pulled two nice long lengths of swarth out of my socks too.)

So, removing the mounts to drill them again, while a very simple process in itself, has some ramifications for home tranquility that would be ignored at my peril. I could sneak the press down to the boat, but I suspect the club would frown at the sight of me staggering down the pontoons with a 200kg drill press.

As it is, I have been instructed to vaccuum the back garden. I will do so, I know the value of a happy wife.

Matt

HA HA!!!!
Thanks for the laugh Matt...
(a fellow finder of all manner of metal slivers in the oddest of places)

Originally Posted by sanibel sailor

Swarf

Sanibel... I think Matt meant SWARTHY
Darkened from the engine room antics?

Full Definition of SWARTHY

: of a dark color, complexion, or cast

Examples of SWARTHY

1. <a dark-eyed, swarthy young man with killer looks>

Originally Posted by GILow

Bugger, there goes my chance to hold the moral high ground on spelling.

:^P

Matt

P.S. One online dictionary gave a definition of "an apparition of a person about to die", which, given the look on my wife's face, was probably close to the mark.

I know the look...

[GILow]

Originally Posted by HappyMdRSailor

Examples of SWARTHY

1. <a dark-eyed, swarthy young man with killer looks>

Yeah, that's it, sort of... in my case a darkly smudged red-head husband RECEIVING killer looks.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by GILow

Yeah, that's it, sort of... in my case a darkly smudged red-head husband RECEIVING killer looks.

He... Hee...

We do the best we can... With what we've got...
I think that is why we get the "tolerated" but undesired behavior vibe...

[GordMay]

Having discovered several effective secondary (after the “fail-safe” captive mounts) methods of securing the engine against a rollover; perhaps, it would be worthwhile to discuss methods of securing other potential “missiles” against a capsize.
Ie:
Refer’ Compressor
Batteries
Tool Boxes
Canned goods
etc

[GILow]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Having discovered several effective secondary (after the “fail-safe” captive mounts) methods of securing the engine against a rollover; perhaps, it would be worthwhile to discuss methods of securing other potential “missiles” against a capsize.
Ie:
Refer’ Compressor
Batteries
Tool Boxes
Canned goods

...Crew members....