New to forum

[Lostsailor13]

Coming up on first year with my willard,she has a detroit 453n with 1700 hrs,holds 500 gallons of fuel 300 of water,burns between 1 and 1.6 gph and has a range of over 2500 miles,she is 1964 number 12 of 39 built,runs and rides wonderfully,over the past year have done new solar setup with 4 6v 370 ah batteries,added a gulfcoast F1 fuel polishing system,insulated foc'sle to about 20 r value,ac,Chinese diesel heater,stidd helmsman seat,raymarine axiom,and now in the middle of building California closet in starboard side of foc'sle with Dickinson Antarctic drip heater with double turn coil hooked up to thermostat bypass and circulating pump to heat block and oil cooler,also have lived aboard full time,and like most plan to cruise her extensively when the time is right,but for now just keep tinkering away and enjoying my first summer with her

[Lepke]

Detroit 53 & 71 engines are some of the most reliable engines ever made. No electronic sensors, no injector pump. Buy a service manual. Learn the maintenance, it's not hard. Stay away from most marina and yacht yard diesel mechanics. They don't understand the injection system, don't wanta learn and will only F' it up so it takes a couple hours to get everything back in adjustment.
I haven't had to touch my Detroits, except for maintenance, in 10 years.

[Lostsailor13]

Lepke ive talked to you on trawler forum a bunch about the thermostat bypass and a few other 453 questions,youve saved the day a few times for me already

[Adelie]

Welcome.

I would suggest updating your profile with your general location and your boat make & model or “Looking” in the "Boat" category. This info shows up under your UserName in every post in the web view. Many questions are boat and/or location dependent and having these tidbits under your UserName saves answering those questions repeatedly. If you need help setting up your profile then click on this link: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3308797

I would happily help more if the link above is not enough.

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by Lostsailor13

Coming up on first year with my Willard.

She's a beaut!

Originally Posted by Lostsailor13

Also have lived aboard full-time, and like most, plan to cruise her extensively when the time is right.

For now, just keep tinkering away and enjoying my first summer with her.

We have a band up here called Blue Rodeo who has a famous (to us) song that, this past weekend, they closed out their show:
Lost Together https://youtu.be/xAnJw9Ctqkc

The song popped into my head when I saw your Forum name...

Welcome Aboard!
LittleWing77