Why is Our Engine Overheating?
We’ve been really lucky with our engine. Sure, we haven’t used it that much, but it’s never failed us, and until recently, overheating wasn’t an issue. For something that’s 43 years old with an unknown number of hours or maintenance history, that’s pretty good. So when the high-temperature alarm for our trusty Perkins sounded, needless […]
Engine Room Insulation
Our Perkins 4-108 is located under the companionway steps right next to the galley and quarter berth and is fairly noisy. There is existing insulation, but it’s now over 40 years old. When we did the sea trial, we used a free phone app decibel meter and clocked the noise at around 80 dB. And […]
Installing a Balmar External Voltage Regulator
While I don’t recommend intentionally frying your alternator, frying ours last summer pushed this project to the top of our to-do list and I’m glad it did. We spent a lot of money on our Battle Born LiFePO4 batteries and with a new alternator and external voltage regulator I feel more at ease that the […]
New Balmar Alternator
Our boat came with an internally regulated, Leece-Neville 105 amp alternator. It couldn’t keep up with the high charge acceptance rate of our new 500 Ah LiFePo battery bank; it worked too hard and got too hot and finally quit on us. Plus, it looked like it had been sprayed with salt water at one time. […]
Perkins 4-108 Diesel Update
Here’s a quick update to some work we did on our Perkins 4-108 diesel. We recently had two different people ask us the same question about the K & N filter we put on the air intake of our Perkins 4-108. After looking into it, it’s obvious some info was left out on the description of […]
How do we gauge our progress?
I wonder what sort of thought process was involved when the American Boat and Yacht Council convened to establish a standardized system of wire color coding. Light blue for the oil pressure gauge? Tan for water temperature? Shouldn’t it be the other way around based on the “color” of the liquid we’re gauging? Black might […]
Leaky Perkins myths dispelled
Some would say “I’d rather be good than lucky.” Others say “I’d rather be lucky than good.” I’d rather say “I’m good, now how’s about a little of that luck y’all keep talking about?” I think I need to buy a Lottery Ticket right about now because, despite my last post, not all diesels leak […]
Snowball Effect (Part II)
When last I posted, I was writing about changing the oil in our 38 year old Perkins 4-108 diesel engine and explaining the inevitable chain reaction of events that are synonymous with nearly every project I tackle on this boat as of late.
One thing leads to another
So goes it with boat projects. Pick a simple project to work on such as changing the oil & filter, and it mutates into something much more involved. The snowball effect. I should know this by now.