Uber newb. Freedom 28 yenmar diesel

[GreenMM]

Hi all.
Hoping this is the good place for learning and sharing info.

We just got a boat! And totally new to boating and diesels (although I know carbed motorycycles pretty well and cars decent. I can wrench w manuals)
We have the Yenmar operation manual too.

Looks to we scored a 1984 Freedom Yacht 28 from original owner. Owner had to sell due to age / health.
Yanmar diesel 2GM F (fresh water / liquid cooled) 15 HP 2 liter oil capacity.

Many questions.
We started boat at crusty mechanics insistence yesterday for 10 seconds.
Motor runs. All fluids good levels. We will change them all after warm up since stored for 3 years.
Last registered 2008 but serviced parts as late as 2010 w new pump and exhaust coolant hose dated on devices.

So wondering about this Kingston cock and water inlet.
Water exhaust / out should be thick tube to stern outlet with "water lock" chamber there.
Looks like "left" side of boat (is that starboard) has inlet on bottom by keel for water in to engine.
Let me post a pic to show what I'm thinking is water inlet.

and insert red face here. Uh. On the inlet and Kingston cock and plumbing in general is it like household plumbing?
Do the shut valves close in a perpendicular position to the hoses and open inline to any hose direction?

Also hoping to run motor for 5-10 minutes to see its running ok and warm up oil to change it.
Can we run several 5 gallon buckets of water to the intake and catch it at the exhaust to do this?

Do we have to worry about the impeller being cooled or does the fresh water engine I take take care of that?

Thanks for any help you can shed!!

[GreenMM]

Here's some pics of the motor area.
The 1st pic is I think a grey water dump to the ocean drain (?)

The 2nd pic is of the diesel tank area. I just figured out today there is a diesel fuel sending tube and a return one??? To my brain, what the heck? Is this normal for diesels? The Yanmar diesel books shows fuel inlet and outlet runs from the motor. Wow, I might be learning something about how diesels work (ha).

On the 2nd picture with the red hose, I am wondering if that fuel lever that is turned 'inline' (parallel) to the tube - that should be 'ON' position yes? And if turned perpendicular it's "OFF"?

The 3rd pic is the spot I think is the kingston cock for the cooling water inlet.
I will also post more pics tonight as well.

[Sailmonkey]

Yes, the valves operate like house plumbing , handle parallel to hose allows flow, perpendicular is off.

The second photo shows the fuel tank, and yes, the engine while only burning a quart an hour will move roughly 3 gallons an hour through the system and back into the tank.

Your question about running the engine.

If your on stands, the easiest would be to pull the hose off of the seacock and put it into a bucket of water. Start the engine and keep filling the bucket from a garden hose. Without this water the impeller as well as the exhaust hose will be toast in short order (impeller much sooner than the exhaust hose though).


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[Cheechako]

Normally, the lever on the seacock or valve is parallel to the hose outlet if open. Some seacock handles can go on at 90 degrees though. Not sure who would do this but maybe if there was interference in turning it.
Does the boat have a water strainer between the seacock and the engine intake? If so, it's easy to run the engine with a garden hose in the top of the strainer (take the top off it) Adjust the flow to keep up or even slightly run over the top... your bilge pump can take care of overflow.
Run it as long as you like, but don't put it in gear.
Yes diesels have a fuel return tube, excess fuel is sent back to the tank.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

If your on stands, the easiest would be to pull the hose off of the seacock and put it into a bucket of water. Start the engine and keep filling the bucket from a garden hose. Without this water the impeller as well as the exhaust hose will be toast in short order (impeller much sooner than the exhaust hose though).


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Here's how:

Winterizing an Engine on the Hard (Thanks to Maine Sail) - NEVER connect a hose to your raw water pump inlet - NEVER!!!

Winterizing A Diesel Engine On The Hard | SailboatOwners.com Forums

[four winds]

Is that a grey plastic elbow on that seacock in the bilge? Not sure that a good idea.

Where does the blue striped hose go?

In the same pic the seawater intake hose is visible at the belt driven pump, behind the pump bracket. Where does that hose come from? Could be from a strainer, the seacock, or maybe even the trans cooler.

BTW, I see two seacocks in the bilge. Start there and trace them through the boat. It'll be fun. :-)

[Badsanta]

Do not put 2 liters of oil in that engine. It should be about 2 quarts unless it has some kind of external reserves.
No insult but get a copy of Chapman's.

[four winds]

For a 2gm20f,

Engine lube oil capacity, 1.3 litres (8 degree rake)

Trans lube oil capacity, 0.25 litres

[tkeithlu]

Make that an earlier edition of Chapman - the latest are comic books with lots of errors. Also get Nigel Calder's Boat Owners Mechanical and Electrical Manual. Some diesels circulate a lot of fuel because they use it to cool their injectors. Left side is Port. Never run an impeller dry. They melt. You're getting some advice from very knowledgeable engine people. You may be more at the level of needing to inspect this engine and everything around it very carefully, and learn about it in the process. A boat that old with one owner may have very old hoses, stuck seacocks, and a bunch of other problems that need your attention. For example, I think I see a couple of fuel hoses there with just one hose clamp.

[GreenMM]

wow, thanks for all the replies people!
I am reading through them now.

The blue / black hose as best I can decipher is the cooling water inlet / inflow. It goes to a clear vertical mounted filter thingee just in front of and above the engine mounted on the wall there, which I think could be the saltwater strainer or a substitute (upgrade?) for that part.

You're correct -- as long as that is the water inlet -- then yes there is a grey plastic elbow in there in the bilge.

Yes, the boat is on dry land on stands in a storage yard right now. Been at the boat the past 2-3 days and go back tomorrow to try to run motor for a bit.

We got an oil change pump kit as I guess this model you have to suck the oil out of the dipstick area and the dipstick area for the gear oil. It shares the same oil.
We are gonna run Shell Rotella T6 15w40 oil and hoping to get the ultimate filter - my favorite and the only one I run in my Kawasaki Ninja - a Purolator Pure One PL14610. Not everyplace sells them though, so might get stuck w a Fram for now. The manual says this engine has a 2 qt. capacity and a 1/4 qt capacity for the gear (transmission) case.

I / We were told there is no water access there. Although I did spy a garden hose several hundred feet away on a building. We are planning to haul in 5-15 gallons of water, have 5 gallons there already.

[GreenMM]

Here's where she sits. And we need to get her in the water quickly.

[GreenMM]

Here's a wider pic of the engine area and where the Blue / Black (with white letters) tube connects to: that filter thingee.

After the filter, the tubes run to the back top of the motor and where the coolant / heat exhanger thingee is. (Gotta love my knowledgable boat terms huh?)
That's where there's a rad. cap and it's full of coolant right next to where this water tube goes into.

[Badsanta]

If you crank the engine to much without starting as the motor turns you are pumping raw water into the exhaust and it collects in the lift muffler it's the exhaust gasses that push the water out. If you keep cranking water will fill up the exaust and back fill into the engine and can cause damage look up hydrolocked. This can happen afloat or ashore.

[GreenMM]

Yes, I do think there are several hoses with single clamps.
I noticed many with double clamps and wondered about that, must be a boat thing - redundancy etc...
Well, the Yanmar manual is difficult to make sense of. I've spent about 6 hours altogether reading / deciphering it. Has some really bad 'engrish' in there, and some contradictory things. But I think I have at least the basics that the book points out on the motor mostly understood.

[GreenMM]

Sadly, I know about hydrolocking. In fact, $55,000 of damage to a colleague's brand new BMW M5 who ran over 'a puddle' according to him (was more like a 1 foot plus river I heard later). 3 bent con rods, and one destroyed motor later...

I have also hydrolocked my Kawasaki several times. Not a warm cuddly experience, so thanks for pointing that out. Will try to avoid that condition.

The crusty mechanic who has no time for us and was insulted by me apparently mentioning something about how a Purolator Pure One 14610 filter is very good, said he could only maybe look at the boat in 3 weeks. Too late.
He did however, in the 5 minutes he graced our presence with, insist on trying starting the engine (no water in sight or on hand), and he did get it to run in about 20-30 seconds of trying the starter.
The motor almost caught several times and then ran pretty easily.
Today, I noticed the manual levers on top of the engine had been set on one to 'no compression' and one on 'compression' so I was thinking that's good, if it started and ran like that for 10 seconds tomorrow it should easily start with both levers properly set.

My friend? Well, he's gonna live on this thing in the harbor and needs it in the water within the next 7-10 days I think he's saying. Yeah, it's a lot nuts.
And I'm appointed chief mechanic even though I mostly repair car basics or whatever comes up and motorcycles - all gasoline engines. (Except for my latest CNG van - don't ask haha).