Fordson major Mac 2

[Awinya]

Can somebody give me there thoughts on these engines please, just new and learning,

[Crew of Turning]

I can not offer a lot but here goes. These are basically tractor engines built in and or for the UK market by the For Motor Company. They would have also been exported throughout the Commonwealth. Tractor motors are usually strong and reliable and abuse tolerant to a sensible level. Did not know they had a marine application. Good Info seeking.

[meridian28]

Do you have any pictures?


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Steven UK]

If you want to use a tractor engine then go Kubota or PERKINS much easier to marinise them. And you can repair them much easier. When I left school I worked at a ford tractor dealer. Now I'm closer to PERKINS machines and sisu, sisu make marine engines but there not that popular from what I can see.

I would actively look for an older PERKINS if I were sailing world wide, MF tractors were sold everywhere and most parts are common.

Good luck.

[Awinya]

She has a Simms marine conversion , it's already in and turns over ok , I am working on the heat exchanger and cooling pipes now, I have learnt about how a wet exhaust works as I filled her with water at my first attempt , a story on its own, I will get some photos and post them

[Steven UK]

Well if it's in and working go with it, there are also a lot of ford tractors around the world. The tractor installed units were good for around 4-5000 hours, I'm not sure how that will translate to a boat. I'm sure it will be fine.

Did the engine come out of a Major? Was it rebuilt?

[Awinya]

As far as I no it was rebuilt in 86 and have been told that the 2000 hrs showing should be pretty correct, I did fill it with water but never turned it over, I removed the injectors and drained the oil and flushed it out. I really hope I never damaged it, this happened when I first brought her last Jan , it was then I realised I new nothing about the boat or any thing to do with it, so it really is a great learning curve, guess I'm just after some one to say yeh mate that's a cracker of a donk , I am after a gasket set for it as the rapper cover was leaking when I first saw it, I have struggled to get any history on the boat what so ever, it's s Muir steel hull 14.4 mtrs

[Steven UK]

if i am reading this right you put water in the crankcase? if so flush it with oil i.e. put it in crank the engine and change it again. the engine oil is designed to absorb moisture in the engine, it changes colour when its saturated and then the oil will not accept any more water. its one of the reasons we now have to change it, its better with positive crankcase pressure systems (less breathing). Ford went through a phase of having porous blocks so i got to see a lot of 'milky' oil. but that was 25 years ago and the engines were post Major production by a comfortable margin.

[Steven UK]

back to your question, if you did put water in the crank case the injectors and pump should be fine. everything in the crank case is pretty robust from memory but the quicker you get clean oil in there the better.

[sailor1924]

I had a Fordson Major thirty some years ago on a 40 ton English Ketch. It was a little bull of an engine very strong running and shaft rated at 35 BHP so a very torquey engine. I bought it to replace an identical engine that I had seized by not properly seating the oil filter the first time I changed the oil.
The first time I ran the new engine on a summer cruise I realized I had a bad exhaust riser and kind of often filled it with seawater in a following sea. It had a compression relief on the valve train and it could be drained of the water by turning it over without even having to remove injectors. It never got water in the oil pan from the drownings. After I cleared the seawater from the cylinders by cranking the engine with the compression release open it always started right up. That first summer cruise I got awfully good at draining water out of that engine, and the engine just kept starting and running once the water was cleared. I fixed the exhaust that next winter and kept that engine for the next four years without trouble.
I eventually replaced it with a Yanmar that I was offered a great deal on, swapping out the 1200 pound Fordson for an 800 pound Yanmar allowed me to line the engine compartment with plumbers sheet lead and quieted the engine sound enormously.
I wouldn't be afraid of that engine it's a simple workhorse of an engine that will run if the compression is good and the injectors and fuel are clean.

[Awinya]

How I flooded the old girl was totally not knowing any thing about how a wet exhaust worked, when I brought it the mission was to get it on the water , and sail if into the sunset, ha , the boat stood for 7 yrs on the hard and the engine room was my first point if call I had a sparky and rigger friends with me in the day and we decided to fire the old girl up, so first garden hose up thru the hull into the salt water cooling pump and turned it in, water started pissing out of the filter but any way I turned the key , I had a 5 litre container of fresh diesel with the fuel hose stuck in that, it turned over and gave a cough and then roars into life I could not believe it, blowing a huge cloud of black smoke out the arse end, but then the pump decided to seaze and snap of its hold down bolts sending it spinning in the engine room, as the belt decided to go for a run around the cabin , it revved very hard and when I turned the key off nothing happened and here I am with this old engine running a hundred mile an hour with out any water going thru it, any way got it stopped , that's when ignorance and no knowledge and trying to be in a hurry caused the next circus act, my sparky mate wanted to run it again so he could check the refrigeration on board, so idiot hear said no worries I'll just bypass the pump and shove the garden hose on the exit pipe of the pump, we had a chat looked about worked out how to stop it and stuff, but as I was about to turn the key the air filter fell off and all water started coming out of the air intake manifold, how lucky was I that I never turned that key, but from that I learned I new nothing about my boat and how it worked what went there and so forth , I also have a decompression handle on the donk but did not trust it , so took out the injectors and cleaned out all the water, cleaned out the sump and filled and drained twice with oil, the compression of that motor is insane, as I turned it over the pressure that came out of it was amazing, any way that was my fist day at starting this new life , but I finally worked it all out by sitting in the engine room looking and trying to understand how I got water there but of course I worked it out once I learned how it worked , the hose under pressure sent the water straight into the heat exchanger and straight into the exhaust box filling it up then traveling up a bit more in the pipe Work then into the head and thru the ports or what ever they are, but I no what happened , that's the main thing, sorry guys raving on but that's what happened ,

[Steven UK]

Actually I know much more about tractors than I do about boats so I may have done the same thing... Probably won't now though...

[sailor1924]

Yes the first time I drowned the engine I removed the injectors to drain the water too. You can tell if the release is working by turning the engine over by hand and opening the release lever when you hit compression resistance.
I don't remember who did the marinization of the engine but it had a water jacket on the exhaust manifold that connected to the engine coolant circulation then to the heat exchanger. The raw water connected from the inlet strainer then a pump through the other side of the heat exchanger and then through a huge cast iron exhaust riser and elbow and then overboard through the hull.
There was a really cool site glass for the raw water that was supposed to act as a siphon break, it had a cork ball that bounced when water flowed through it. The boat had a very long overhang aft and no true transom (see photo) so the exhaust faced down toward the water. When I finally got it figured out it turned out that a following sea combined with the stern wave of the hull could actually submerge the exhaust outlet and if the engine was running and shut down when this was happening, water would siphon back into the engine.

[Awinya]

Hello sailer 1924, it sounds exactly the same as my set up on the exhaust pipe work, I will rennet how to check the compression relief valve from now on, u got me thinking about sound proofing, at the moment there is nothing present in the engine room for this,, only a thick rubber bottomed carpet that sits on the floor, also I'm after a good insulation that is not a fire hazard at which I have now, the insulation that is press any in some sort of polyutherine and ignites very quickly when touched by flame, I have stripped it all out of the mezzanine ( not sure of spelling or technical terms yet , dumb old boiler maker) I had to do this to carry out weld repairs of numerous thru hull s/s screws , and also rust effected fuel filler caps, 3 in total , my question is,were is a good place to look for sound proofing and insulation

[sailor1924]

Originally Posted by Awinya

Hello sailer 1924, it sounds exactly the same as my set up on the exhaust pipe work, I will rennet how to check the compression relief valve from now on, u got me thinking about sound proofing, at the moment there is nothing present in the engine room for this,, only a thick rubber bottomed carpet that sits on the floor, also I'm after a good insulation that is not a fire hazard at which I have now, the insulation that is press any in some sort of polyutherine and ignites very quickly when touched by flame, I have stripped it all out of the mezzanine ( not sure of spelling or technical terms yet , dumb old boiler maker) I had to do this to carry out weld repairs of numerous thru hull s/s screws , and also rust effected fuel filler caps, 3 in total , my question is,were is a good place to look for sound proofing and insulation

To answer the question first: Soundown - peace and quiet for architectural, marine, & industrial applications

This is very good material to reduce sound transmission. It's kind of expensive but unless you can find a source of scrap lead sheeting it's the best choice I found. In an RV I used a similar automotive product it had no lead in it and was far less effective.
I found that it was necessary to start at the beginning of how the sound is transmitted to do a really good sound reduction and that means the engine mounts and shaft connections as well as preventing air transmission. When I installed the new Yanmar it was cost effective to use soft mounts and a soft shaft coupling along with the sheet lead and tight gaskets at the access panels. When creating an engine air intake I created a baffle system to prevent reflected sound paths, sound will bounce so absorptive surfaces are needed.
My engine was directly under my bunk and I actually got the sound down enough so that I could sleep with the engine running. I think you will be able to reduce the noise but that engine has a lot of deep vibration, low frequency and it's hard to stop that without lots of mass and very good decoupling of sound paths.
Good luck with your refit. I've always tried to keep my project scopes in small enough chunks so that managed to sail the boat every season. It helped to keep myself interested and feeling that I was making progress and having rewards for the work.