She lives!

[Rock-Head]

Howdy folks! The Admiral and I have started to breath life back into our 1978 Lancer 30 and the first item on the docket was attempting to repair the old inboard, a Yanmar SB12. We had an engine failure during sea trial and ended up having to sail back to the dock as the little diesel had motored out into the river just fine but we were on our way back when it died after a only few minutes at WOT. Besides an obvious fuel problem, we also had a blown head gasket with raw water actively flowing tween cylinder head & engine block.

Now, the purchase price changed considerably after this revelation and while the Admiral was not convinced, I assured the seller that we were still all in after a good haul-out and otherwise satisfactory survey. So I had visions of re-powering her with either EP or even a newer diesel but also realized that this would eat a significant portion of our rebuild budget, pushing other important items well down the road... while successfully completing a repair was a big question as I wasn't really 100% certain of it's overall condition, despite my insistence otherwise. I did know the motor had less than a thousand hours on her. I also knew the boat had been overall, relatively well maintained, despite sitting for however many years she may have sat (I suspect many) and while she WAS running, the little diesel ran well. I've little experience with diesel motors but have heard fantastic stories of these little motors and how you just cannot kill them, if they are cared for properly.

Post purchase inspection of the yacht boosted my hopes for a successful repair as we went through every nook & cranny of the boat, I found quite a bit of historical documentation. Everything from the original purchase records and the "unnamed" survey to maintenance logs, service manuals and a receipt for a new cylinder head, gasket, etc- from 1991. The record indicated the motor had 750 hours on it at the time.

Anyhoo~ So I pop the top on the old 1 cylinder and to my surprise I see... clean. Bore looked good, valves looked okay, block & head surfaces looked true I was stoked. I spent the next two weeks hunting a head gasket. I had failed to take into consideration the gravity of buying a 38 year old vessel and maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't catch hell finding repair parts.

Yeah, well I found a gasket but it was a major PITA and they are fetching a premium these days. Back in 91 that gasket went for $2.80. Fast forward to 2015 when parts production for this little pig ceased in 1980. Yip, so that gasket is now $25. Oh, and you have three in stock? I'll take two, thanks!

So anyhow, I cleaned everything up real good, hit it with a bit of paint, and put er back together per specs. Set valve lash cold at .008 and torqued the head to 88ftlbs. Cut gaskets for the raw water and sealed that all up with "Super Gray". I found a good deal of water and sludge in the primary filter and lots of water in the secondary filter but I made sure the tank was clean, topped off the tank, bled out all the watery fuel and requested of the Admiral to grab the key and crank er up.

Purrin like a kitten!

[Hudson Force]

Mt wife likes to read the death & mayham, monster, murder, vampire and lawyer books, but I'm into the lighter, more positive, feel good stories.

Thanks for the Cinderella story! I'm always for the happy ending!

[Tayana42]

I love happy endings!


S/V B'Shert

[brownoarsman]

Congrats!!


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[american]

Better story than what's found in most movies these days

[CS Cruiser]

Awesome enjoy!

[Snore]

Congrats!

You will notice those who are commenting also own "mature" boats. There is a certain joy in owning one, especially if you can do your own work.

[Rock-Head]

Thanks! We're excited to freshen up this old sloop. There's just something about a boat with some history. Not sure if it's the way they look, how they smell, or if it's something more sublime...

Fair seas!

[Shawn67]

Congratulations! It is very satisfying to bring an older engine back to life.

Glad yours acted up on the sea trial so you could get a price adjustment. My Volvo acted up the day I brought her home. The injector pump died as I was entering my harbor after 7 hours of running. After I finally got that resolved I was having overheating issues that got worse as the season when on. Also sporadically problems with #2 not firing for the rest of the season from what I thought was an air leak.

Over the winter I took it apart and cleaned out all the cooling passages (exhaust manifold was completely clogged up) and converted to fresh water cooling. After relaunching her still had problems with #2. Took out and apart the injector thinking it was maybe clogged up but it turned out the needle valve was frozen solid in the nozzle. Swapped it with parts from a spare engine and then she fired right up and ran great. Motored for 3-4 hours last weekend and the engine was flowing coolant so well it stayed at around 130 degrees, never even warmed up enough to open my 170 degree thermostat.

Shawn

[FSMike]

Ain't life grand? Sounds like your oldie but goodie likes you guys. I have a vague memory of the 30' being the best sailing of the Lancers, had a different designer I believe. What's her name?
Enjoy.

[onestepcsy37]

Originally Posted by Shawn67

Motored for 3-4 hours last weekend and the engine was flowing coolant so well it stayed at around 130 degrees, never even warmed up enough to open my 170 degree thermostat.

Shawn

Think you got something wrong. The purpose of the thermostat is to shut OFF the cooling system until the coolant reaches 170 degrees, not the other way around. Diesels usually run in the 170 to 190 range. Not good to run cooler than that.

Check your temp guage and thermostat for malfunctioning. Thermostats are usually cheap to replace.

[Shawn67]

I was measuring temps with an IR thermostat. I don't think anything is wrong. The engine was originally raw water cooled and I think the built in thermostat bypass is based around that fact. It is almost the same size as the water pump feed. It is letting enough water get around the thermostat that it alone is sufficiently cooling the engine. The 130 was around the head, the block was about 150.

I am going to flush the system (again) soon. It is possible I have a bit of gunk in the engine bypass loop. If that is gunked up it would increase flow through the thermostat bypass which would increase cooling more before the thermostat opens up. But I've read a few places that the MD7 tends to rarely open its thermostat and that was with the original 140 degree thermostat.

Had her out again today and saw similar temps.

Shawn

[onestepcsy37]

Shawn, better ignore my advice. I was giving you temperatures for fresh water cooled engines. I have no experience with raw water cooling so you may be correct.

[jwcolby54]

Nice to hear success stories. Life is good!

[Shawn67]

"I was giving you temperatures for fresh water cooled engines."

Yup, I converted to fresh water cooling and spent a lot of time finding a hotter thermostat that would fit in my thermostat housing. I'm not terribly surprised that it won't get up to that temperature though based on how it was originally designed. At this point I'm just thrilled I'm not seeing the temps I was last season.

Shawn