Dead in the water

[captmikem]

I am going to be kind here.

This is a boat, it is not a car. If you wish to have a used or new boat that you can go places in you will need to be able to do basic maintenance or be prepared to spend a lot of money, some of it uselessly to have people do things for you.

Here is an example:
I was laying at a marina in Jekyll island, a couple on a 38 or so foot sailboat where towed in, a few days later they were still laying at the dock and I happened to ask them how they were doing. They told me the story of how they had run aground on a sand bar in the intracoastal. They had spent time with the motor trying to get off but were unable and the engine had died, they were towed off to the marina, the engine would not start, a mechanic had looked at it and told them they had damaged the engine (a Perkins 4 108) when they had run aground, he said it had no compression and they needed a new engine. They were perplexed and trying to figure out how to come up with the $12,000 they needed to buy a new engine. Well, this did not sound right to me and I said so, and asked if they wanted me to have a look at the engine. They said ok, so I pulled the air filter off, put my hand over the intake and asked them to crank it, it had good suction so it had to have compression. I looked at it a bit and noticed the fuel shutoff solenoid was not moving, I freed it up, and asked them to crank it again, they did and it immediately started and ran fine. They left the next morning.
I am not a mechanic, I am just a sailor, when you say both the fuel filter was clogged AND THE AIR filter were clogged that sounds strange.. Also, there are TWO fuel filters, a primary (the racor) and a secondary, it could be clogged as well. ALSO, if you drew air into the lines, which is easily possible, the air needs to be bled out. Once again, you can PAY people to do these things for you, but be aware the people you are paying to do these things may not be that knowledgeable and you may end up paying for things not needed. Your fuel tanks may or may not have a lot of sludge in them.

If you are going to have a boat, it is worthwhile to pay someone to show you how to change filters, how to bleed the air out of the engine, how to change impellers and belts. It would also be handy to know how to change oil and filters, and zincs. How to check the water in your batteries and top them up. It would also help to put vacuum gauges on your Racors.

M