Thanks for the input guys, I was rather confused by it all. The
propeller is almost certainly a bit dirty, but I doubt it's that bad, the
hull is also far from clean.
The only smoke I see is white, and only after I've been idling for a while and then rev'ing hard. For example, in the
Panama canal we weren't allowed to turn off the engine and had long long periods of idling followed by very intense moments of maneuvering.... large clouds of white smoke came out of the exhaust for a few seconds and then back to normal.
I'll take the hose of the
elbow and have a look, it's been about a year since I last looked so it's worth it anyway. I checked, cleaned and replaced the air-intake a few months ago and it all looked good. I'll check it again to be sure. We don't have a turbo.
She sounds smooth enough when running and not much loss of
power. With a perfectly clean
hull and propeller she will max at about 2800 rpm, now she caps out at 2600 which I put down to fouling. Boat speedwise she is a little slower, but again, I assume that is fouling.
There is no significant additional loads on the engine, she is 55hp and only running the factory standard 60amp
alternator. What's more, we'd just left
shore power so the batteries were at 100% and I doubt there was any load on the
alternator at all. No additional devices like fridges etc.
I'm leaning on injectors. I've no idea the last time they were checked or cleaned. It shouldn't be too hard to find someone to
service them in
Fiji - I just remember reading something about the MD22P injectors needing special care when removing, or replacing. I need to
research more.
Cheers!