Time to re-power

Looking great, yellow and black fits that's engine compartment beautifully!

Mate,
The whole install looks the goods.
I bet you can't wait to get home to give it a blast
Cheers
Benn

The yellow looks great.

What engine is it ?

FF said:

What engine is it ?

Click to expand...

Its a 42hp Vetus (Mitsubishi)

Tidahapah said:

Mate,
The whole install looks the goods.
I bet you can't wait to get home to give it a blast
Cheers
Benn

Click to expand...

Yeah Benn,
I guess you know what its like working FIFO, leaving it all to go earn some cash to pay the bills. It makes it all so much sweeter when you get home again.

AusCan wrote;
"Since I have a very short driveshaft and no shaft bearing, it makes alignment easier than on some boats." Very much so. I enjoyed that on my Albin 25.

Well - I finally managed to spend some time on the old girl to finish off the engine hook up. I have to keep myself on track. This project is morphing into a re-wire job as well as a re-power job. Another thread for that later.

This week I got a spacer plate fabricated to allow a flex coupling to be used on the gearbox output flange. I was then able to drill out and install engine mounts and align the engine with props shaft.
Throttle & gearbox linkage was connected up and adjusted. I didn't bother rejigging for the gearbox linkage to suit the LH prop. I would try things out with the controls reversed.
New exhaust hose connected. New mount for water muffler.
New primary fuel filters installed, fuel lines were tied in, engine wiring completed, & a new helm engine panel was installed.
Lube oil, gearbox oil and coolant topped up.
With the electric fuel pump, priming the fuel filters and lines was a snap. I didn't even have to manually fill the water separator filters.

Time to try an engine start. A few seconds on the glow plugs, then the big moment. - The new Vetus/Mitsubishi fired up instantly, and idled smoothly at 840 rpm. No leaks, everything seems happy.

So - time for a sea trial. A short little run. New engine is certainly quieter and smoother than the old Volvo.

With the new gearbox ratio of 1.93:1 compared to the former 2.34, I expected to be slightly over propped. It turned out I was substantially over propped.

I reached a top speed of 7.3 knots at 1850 rpm. That's all the revs I could get of of her. In neutral, no problem getting to 3000 rpm. So definitely over propped.
I didn't want to push too hard with a new engine, so I mostly kept the revs around 1400 rpm for 6 knots where she ran sweetly.
Almost had a little mishap in the lock returning to my berth, when I forgot about the reversed linkage.

It seems my 16 x 16 LH prop will have to be replaced with a 16 x 10 or 16 x 11 RH prop.
Other than that - it all going well.

Almost had a little mishap in the lock returning to my berth, when I forgot about the reversed linkage.


As soon as I heard about going with reversed linkage, I was worried. Glad it turned out OK. Hope you get it re-reversed before your next trial.

Man....that must have been a good feeling when she cranked up right away. Must also have been a pucker moment there in the lock. Great progress!

AusCan,
Yes they (Mitsu) start instantly after heater the heater plug. I never start w/o the heater. Seems to me it was reluctant to start at all years ago. I use 6 to 10 seconds of heat depending on engine temp/weather. My glow plugs are 10 years old but I've never applied power for more than 10 seconds. I took one out to look at it w power applied about 8 years ago and it did get "red hot". When cold my S4L2 is smoother at about 1000rpm. My thermostat is so effective she heats up by the temp gauge to 180 degrees in about 3 or 4 min. Probably closer to three. And for a diesel it's not as noisy as the direct injected engines like the Yanmars. You will like this engine a lot.

Al, Larry - yes, the reversed linkage certainly is a bit of a worry. I can re-jig things to hook it up the other way, but it's a fair amount of work so I'll just wait until I get the RH prop. There's no problem when there is time to think about it. The problem arrives when fast action is required, and the brain reverts to old habits. I'll limit my use until I change out the prop.

It sure is nice to have a semi-mobile boat again. It may have been quicker to pay for someone else to do the re-power job, but I certainly got to know my boat a lot better by doing the work myself. Another plus was getting many other issues sorted out, which were not directly related to the engine replacement.

Well - I finally got the boat propped the way I want it (with the shift linkage operating the way it should) and I'm very happy with the results.

I ended up installing a 17" diameter x 10" pitch RH prop, and took her out for a good sea trial.
In calm water this is the rpm vs speed.

1000 rpm 4.0 kts
1200 4.6
1400 5.0
1600 5.5
1800 5.9
2000 6.3
2200 6.7
2400 6.9
2600 7.2
2800 7.6
3000 max rated rpm

I've got the speed adjustment limited to 2900 rpm in neutral, so 2800 was maximum in gear. I'm a little surprised at the

Overall - I'm very happy with the performance. A bit of extra speed, quieter, more dependable, no overheating issues, more working space around the engine, shinier.

It was a great couple days out on the water, except for the 40+ knot winds coming home, (but that is another story).

AusCan,
So glad to hear it. That's about exactly where I am. Almost overpropped 100 rpm. I'll take a bit of blade off the leading edge of the prop blades and have it re-ballanced. If I gain 100rpm I'll be spot on.
You get a bit more speed probably due to lighter weight.
My max (on the goveror at WOT) out of gear is 32 - 3300rpm. I like that as I can prop up to 100rpm underpropped.