Perkins Nightmare

[Target9000]

So glad it wasn't as bad as first thought

[cburger]

Thanks for all the words of encouragement everyone!

[SkiprJohn]

Congratulations! They truly are great engines. I only had mine not start on me once in 5 years of hard use only because I broke an alternator bracket and didn't notice it and it wouldn't crank fast enough with a low battery. Another time it shut down completely when I sucked a tank dry. Both those were operator and maintenance errors. This was a 4-107 which is 99% the same engine.
kind regards,

[vintageray]

I'm curious. If you took out a 4-108 and put in a 4-108, how and why did you spend hundreds of hours modifying and redoing the engine compartmant to accept the replacement engine?

[Dynamo1181]

Didnt you have a fuel pump leak? What was the outcome there?
A

[Target9000]

Originally Posted by vintageray

I'm curious. If you took out a 4-108 and put in a 4-108, how and why did you spend hundreds of hours modifying and redoing the engine compartmant to accept the replacement engine?

Most of the W32s came with Volvos. I doubt the Perkins was the one that was in the boat to start with.

[cburger]

Originally Posted by vintageray

I'm curious. If you took out a 4-108 and put in a 4-108, how and why did you spend hundreds of hours modifying and redoing the engine compartmant to accept the replacement engine?

Origional Perkins had a Boirg Warner gear, new one has a Hurth gear. The shorter setup reguired installation of new stringers. leaking fuel tanks had to be removed and two new tanks installed all new hoses, manifolds, layouts etc. While the motor was out made sense to have a new shaft turned, new shaft log and stuffing gland installed as well. The old electrical runs where a mess of spahgetti so this was all straightened out and everything labeled, old space scrubbed clan and sanded and mutiple coats of new paint applied.

[cburger]

Originally Posted by Target9000

Most of the W32s came with Volvos. I doubt the Perkins was the one that was in the boat to start with.

Actually I don't think "Most" W32's came with Volvos. The early boats came with the volvo powerplants. However this setup was deemed to be underpowered as well as the associated disadvantages of being raw water cooled. The introduction of the 4.108 provided a needed boost in horsepower as well as the advantage of heat exchanger cooling.

My boat was supplied with the 4.108 as the serial numbers matched the year of build 1976.

[Target9000]

Was your boat factory finished or owner finished? I could have sworn I read that the factory boats mainly used Volvos, but then again, they switched up a bunch of stuff along the production run.

[cburger]

She was a custom built boat. Westsail built close to a thousand of the 32's. How are you liking yours?

[Redcoat]

So was the water coming from a heat exchanger or head gasket?

[cburger]

Originally Posted by Redcoat

So was the water coming from a heat exchanger or head gasket?

A wet exhaust system is designed to expell a given ammount of waterr for a given engine RPM. When I made the mistake of completely filling the exhaust with a pressurized garden hose rater than letting the engine draft feed water as it is designed to, water backed up the exhaust manifold and ultimately throughout the engine.

[Target9000]

Originally Posted by cburger

She was a custom built boat. Westsail built close to a thousand of the 32's. How are you liking yours?

We love ours. Haven't had a lot of time on the water yet as we continue our major refit, but we're even enjoying that. We've had the oppurtunity to meet some really cool people through ours as well. POs have the SSCA lifetime award and we've been able to talk to them. Very neat. Also have met and worked with Bud and that is a wealth of knowledge you don't often find. Owners group is great.

=)

[Tellie]

You wouldn't have been the first to hook up a garden hose under presssure to an engines water intake and flood the thing through the exhaust. If all you have to do is drain the oil a few times to assure a clean engine then you got away with a cheap lesson. There are some serious damages that can happen if an engine gets hydrolocked.

[cburger]

Originally Posted by Tellie

You wouldn't have been the first to hook up a garden hose under presssure to an engines water intake and flood the thing through the exhaust. If all you have to do is drain the oil a few times to assure a clean engine then you got away with a cheap lesson. There are some serious damages that can happen if an engine gets hydrolocked.

So true, I have built a shrine in my garage to the god Perkins and place an offering there on a daily basis.