John Straus from JAS Marine came out to the boat this morning and we ran through some test. He is a super nice guy and clearly very knowledgably. He DID own the
compression testing tools!
First thing, we changed the
oil. On Wendsday night while on
passage from
Jacksonville we motorsailed for about 8 hours. Winds were very light and a northeast swell was running. We were broad reaching and motorsailing at 1500rpm moved the apparent
wind back enough to drive the main such that the rolling ceased and everyone could sleep. Anyway, when we checked the
oil we found PLENTY of
fuel dilution. Before I left
Jacksonville I changed the oil again and noted that the oil level was ¼” below the full level on the dipstick. When we checked it this morning it was almost 2” over the full level and clearly badly
fuel diluted.
John says that the only way this could be happening on this level is a bad fuel injection
pump. I tend to agree. We estimated that there was over 3 quarts of fuel in the oil in less than 10 hours of run time.
After changing the oil we ran the engine and cracked each injector. We ran the engine at 1800rpm and began at the front cylinder. The rpm’s dropped a noticeable amount but on the next 3 cylinders the amount of
rpm drop when each injector was cracked was significantly more. John immediately said we had bad compression on #1.
We did this same test in Jacksonville, but the guy from Mobile Marine Consulting did the test with the engine at 1,000rpm and the amount of
rpm drop was not as clearly noticeable.
Next, we did a compression test on all 4 cylinders. The #1 suspect cylinder tested at 180-190psi. The other 3 cylinders all tested at 425-450psi.
We next looked at the valve
gear and checked valve clearances, all were fine. So John tried rotating each valve and spring a bit for the #1 cylinder and we re-tested compression. This was done hoping that perhaps the compression issue was due to carbon being stuck on the valve or seat and perhaps rotating the valve would break it loose. We tried this 3 times and it made no difference.
Next we poured about 2 ounces of 40 weight engine oil into the bad cylinder and did the compression test again. The compression immediately jumped to 425psi.
We put it all back together and ran the engine. We tested cracking each injector one by one again and had the exact same results. The #1 cylinder is clearly down on compression.
Given that the compression jumped up when lots of oil was poured into the cylinder, the issue is not valves or top end. It is rings. Probably a cracked ring. As soon as combustion began again in the cylinder and the oil we poured in was burned or pushed out of the cylinder we again had reduced compression.
So the engine has 2 big problems: a bad injection
pump AND bad compression on the #1 cylinder. The problem was never the turbo.
John is putting together some numbers on costs to have the injection pump rebuilt and to pull the engine apart and replace the #1 piston and liner with new items. He is going to get back to me with a firm quote but we know this is going to run over $3,500 including all the labor and
parts.
I am really pretty pissed about being
sold a turbo. Without doing a compression test, back pressure test or even correctly cracking the injectors as a poor mans compression test it was announced that I had to have a new turbo. When that did not fix the problem it was insisted that there was nothing wrong with the engine and the problem was the prop (oh, so why did I need a turbo again? ). When the prop turned out to not be the problem my
phone calls were no longer returned.
I am weighing having the worked done to this engine against going with a full repower. I am going to speak with the Mastry guys and see if I can get some sort of credit for this turbo. That or I may try to return it completely.
Anyway, that’s where we are. It is MUCH nicer here in Palm Beach that it was in Jacksonville and there is tons more to do. I am sure we will be laid up here for at least 2-3 weeks getting this sorted.
Terry