Major Perkins Maintenance, Classic 34' Mainship, Perkins T6.354

[Gdavid]

Progress, finally and limited but progress.

The standard size thrust bearings I ordered were completely wrong, wrong radius, too small just wrong, I also ordered a 0.007 over set, not sure if they are going to be right. The thrust bearings are separate horseshoe shaped replaceable sets of 4; pieces, most other engines have a shoulder or flange on one of the main caps. The main caps I was waiting for are correct it is just this components which can be replaced with the crank in place

I have the crank partially installed, it is suspended by main caps 3 and 5, it is temporarily installed with the old thrust bearings but I will roll the correct in when I figure things out. The rod bearings I ordered were wrong, they didn't have any holes but should have a hole to feed oil pressure up the rod. They are also offset to one side, I have what should be the correct ones coming. I am learning the hard way but there isn't much left about these engines I haven't wrestled with.

My father was on hand to help me lift the crank into the block, we took it very slow and cautiously but I think it went well. Got a late start and knocked off before getting too tired to make good decisions.

 

[Gdavid]

Steady and slow progress I have all but one of the main bearings installed, all the rod bearings. I have been ordering my parts from heavy duty pros, for some reason they keep sending me the wrong set of standard thrust bearings. I ordered an oversized set which is the right radius but too thick. All of the standard set are for a completely different engine in the wrong radius. I'm probably 2 weeks out from having it all together.

I think all my dockmates think I'm crazy at this point and I also have a duck with eight eggs living on my fly bridge. Clearly she expects this repair to take a bit longer.

 

[Gdavid]

Still getting it out back together, managing about 2 hours progress a day. I keep reminding myself that at least I am spending time on my boat, even though stuck in the slip. I really should be documenting the hours and days spent as they can count towards sea time for licensing purposes. I let my license expire due to laziness and not wanting to jump through hoops for a medical condition but would like to reconsider in the future.

Project status wise, I have time timing gears all set up and the timing cover back on as well as the rear main seal, adapter plate and flywheel. Remaining tasks are a long list but I am trying not to rush as an oiled or coolant leak would really frustrate me. The entire fuel system, cooling system, bot manifolds and transmission remain to be installed. In addition to painting the engine bay, I am hoping to be done in a couple more weeks.

 

[CharlieO.]

Still getting it out back together, managing about 2 hours progress a day. I keep reminding myself that at least I am spending time on my boat, even though stuck in the slip. I really should be documenting the hours and days spent as they can count towards sea time for licensing purposes. I let my license expire due to laziness and not wanting to jump through hoops for a medical condition but would like to reconsider in the future.

Project status wise, I have time timing gears all set up and the timing cover back on as well as the rear main seal, adapter plate and flywheel. Remaining tasks are a long list but I am trying not to rush as an oiled or coolant leak would really frustrate me. The entire fuel system, cooling system, bot manifolds and transmission remain to be installed. In addition to painting the engine bay, I am hoping to be done in a couple more weeks.

I thought sea time only counted if you're off the dock? Just curious because I do keep track of our time on the ship travel log and wouldn't mind getting license for employment purposes.

 

[Gdavid]

I just looked it up and you are correct. Not sure if it changed or I pulled a fast one on the CG last time I filed. I have plenty of time on the water but fail to log it as I should.

 

[Gdavid]

I humbly submit definitive proof that I have indeed replaced my damper plate.

 

[BruceK]

Great progress! May your damper plate never get actually damp. Tad concerned about duck and ducklings, getting from FB to water

 

[Gdavid]

Great progress! May your damper plate never get actually damp. Tad concerned about duck and ducklings, getting from FB to water

We had some friends with a wildlife research background, specifical to waterfowl stop by to check the viability of the eggs and just chat in general, and they assured us the ducklings will just follow mom off the flybridge into the cockpit but we may need a ramp for them to get to the water

 

[Gdavid]

No new pictures but plenty of progress. I am kicking myself with all of the time I am spending on things that I should have been knocking out while waiting on the crank to get machined. I should have had all fasteners, cleaned organized and replaced as needed, instead I'm doing that as I go along and finding plenty of my paint prep to be lacking and in need or additional cleanup.

I have the transmission back on the bell housing, the motor mounts back on the engine (not the vibration isolation ones that go on the stringers) and the motor positioned to allow the oil pan to go back on. I believe I will set my valve clearances before I put the pan back on, it is simple to reach up and feel the lobe position and set the slack valves that way. The oil pump is back on. I cleaned up the engine compartment and got most of the first coat of paint on before running out, i should have gone with a gallon, I believe two quarts will do but a gallon would have been about the same price. I can apply more coats outside of the stingers once the engine is back in, it is just easier now. I am regretting not sending the injector pump out for rebuild during the down time. The pump was reportedly rebuilt about 6 or 7 years ago, and the motor runs fine but I can't find any specific receipt for it and would prefer to rule out any internal leakage. I will probably install as is and closely monitor my oil levels and have the oil tested during break in anyway.

I am hoping to get the engine back in place this coming Saturday, hopefully test fire it but at the minimum crank it over to confirm the oil system is charging. I am leaning towards lowering it without the manifolds, starter and heat exchanger to reduce weight and bulk while maneuvering it back in place, they are pretty easy to reach access with the motor back it it's home. I raised it up with a chain falls on each end of the block but am probably going to lower it with one as I can twist and tilt the engine easier this way. The lift points are offset to opposite sides of the cylinder head this causes it to twist when each lift point is independently connected to my "gantry" above whereas using a chain bridle gives me flexibility.

 

[Gdavid]

Bilge painted, oil pan back on, planning to lower the engine home on Thursday and be ready to fire it up by Saturday

 

[Gdavid]

Motor is back in position. I have not started alignment yet but will start that fight tomorrow.

I had to touch up the bilge paint tonight so I didn't want to disturb to much while the paint was still wet.

Hopefully I will get it aligned tomorrow after work and start installing all the system back on it. Hope to at least crank it over on Saturday.

 

[Gdavid]

The last pic is the pulley for the serpentine belt kit. The damper gets installed in front of it and sandwiches it in place. It would be very difficult to install with the motor in place on my boat. I couldn't figure any install pictures of this kit on the Perkins 6 cylinder engine, I should have taken more pics.

 

[boomerang]

After enduring an engine and engine room with years of oil and grime, it sure brings a smile to your face to have all of that stuff clean and freshly painted, doesn't it!
Nice job.

 

[Gdavid]

After enduring an engine and engine room with years of oil and grime, it sure brings a smile to your face to have all of that stuff clean and freshly painted, doesn't it!
Nice job.

Yes, hopefully I can keep it clean. I tried my best to clean every gasket surfaces before assembly and I like the gasket shellac that comes in a brown bottle, I have placed a lot of faith in that. I am sure I will struggle to maintain the mess of bleeding the injector lines, but hopefully it will clean up easily.

I will try to post some more pictures of the serpentine conversion kit I am installing. In theory it should greatly reduce belt dust in the engine compartment. The kit I am referring to is Balmar 48-PSP-6.354,but consists of a multi-groove pulley for the crankshaft, water pump and alternator, as well as the new belt. The new multi groove pulley is large in diameter and covers the forward v-belt grove in the crank pulley. You could continue to run the stock v belt on the water pump and stock alternator and run a second, larger alternator off of the serpentine belt, assuming you have the means to build a bracket to hold it. This kit never became very popular, perhaps because the 6.354 was getting less common by the kit was developed, I also suspect a lack of spring tensioner in the system is a fail. Modern serpentine belts stretch less than most v-belts and are not forgiving at all any lack of tension. I am planning to adapt a spring tensioner, perhaps from a Cummins 6bta and mount it to the camshaft gear cover. It is steel so it should be easy to fabricate this. I don't think this is necessary until I upgrade my alternator and set it up to charge the house battery as well, but I will have to closely monitor the belt tension in the mean time.

Background on choosing to go with this kit: when I bought the boat, it only had 2 lead acid group 27 batteries serving both the house loads and the engine. It had an inverter fed by this too, it was ridiculously overtaxing this bank. I don't think the boat left the dock very often. When I first increased my battery size, I didn't separate the engine load/bank, and now 4 group 31 AGM's were overloading the alternator. The bank was charging it via a single belt to the alternator and it was wearing through belts and making a mess. It was too much of a load for that system and ultimately burned out that alternator. I separated the engine and house system a couple years ago, which greatly reduced the alternator load, belt wear and the need to constantly adjust belt tension.

 

[Gdavid]

It was a humbling weekend, no bad news but I just really overestimated my projected productivity. I wasted much of Saturday chasing down fuel line parts. I was planning to convert my lift pump to secondary filter line to a hose with banjo & crush washer style. My old steel line was in horrible shape but I either failed to order the banjo bolts or misplaced them and they aren't available locally, backtracking to the steel line approach meant buying the new tubing, bending into place, locating the long misplaced fuel line olives. It was frustrating but is over. Half of the manifold gaskets I ordered were wrong, I'm kicking myself for ordering from anyone but TADiesels, they would have saved me the trouble, I have corrected my ways and placed an order with them today along with my misplaced coolant overhead sensor.

God showed me some pity and limited my frustration by conjuring up seemingly 10-15knots of wind all weekend, so I didn't feel I was missing out on any time on the water. I think I'm a couple days away from getting finished up, but I've been wrong several times already.

I did get the serpentine belt installed; it fits well but I need to upgrade my belt tensioner/adjuster at some point. My plans for a spring tensioner will take a bit of head scratching.

 

[Gdavid]

She lives

 

[Gdavid]

I tried to load a video, it appeared to have worked but isn't showing up. Yesterday was an emotional rollercoaster working on this old girl. I had fought through the last of trouble shooting the engine harness and had tracked down the mystery wires when I realized my starter battery was dead. I don't have a dedicated charger for the start battery, it charges via a automatic charge relay (ACR) off the house bank when on shore power or via the alternator underway. I had blown a fuse in the ACR circuit last fall and didn't realize it. Somehow there was a small load on the engine battery oner the winter it only had 5.6
Volts when it was time to test the wiring harness. Not a huge deal, even if the start battery doesn't come back from the dead, but I was surprised the house bank didn't start it when I jumped the tied it in. I was really starting to suspect the engine wasn't turning over as easily due to a lower end error. I was also surprised that my battery charger was staying in float mode and not recognizing the load of the dead battery drawing down the house bank.

Eventually I kept assembling the cooling system and bleeding the fuel system while waiting for the start battery to recover. I was tempted to just go replace it, as it really should be at this point anyway, but the nagging thought that I may have fouled something up and the engine would still refuse to turn over with a fresh starting battery was just too painful of a possibility to face because the boat is really worthless without a running engine, and I would have just dumped more money into it.

Throughout the day, I did try the starter and it would turn the motor over a little more each time, just enough to give me hope, reveal it was making oil pressure, and eventually enough to bleed the injector lines. Finally, with the injectors bled and it turning over at a normal speed, she came right to life. I still need to put some hose clamps on the engine coolant side of the system and fill it up, connect the controls and begin the epic cleanup ahead.

 

[boomerang]

I could hear the sigh of relief all the way down the Bay. I'm glad for you!

 

[Dwk]

What a job to be proud of! I’ve followed from the beginning knowing you would get all things right. Congratulations George!

 

[Gdavid]

I appreciate the encouragement, spent the day cleaning up and chasing a couple gremlins, the water temp and tach weren't working. Got the tach going, still need to figure out what is going on with my temp. I ran it in the slip enough the gauge should start to come off the peg, might have a bad sending unit or mixed up wiring.

I have a spare sending unit at the house but the marina is so busy today that I hesitate to give up my great parking spot. Art has been stopping by with progress checks and words of encouragement.

 

[jleonard]

Do you have a temperature gun? That will tell you what you need to know. I know I could never get any engine temp at the dock with the Perkins I had. If I ran it in gear at the dock at idle I could barely get the needle to move.

 

[Gdavid]

Do you have a temperature gun? That will tell you what you need to know. I know I could never get any engine temp at the dock with the Perkins I had. If I ran it in gear at the dock at idle I could barely get the needle to move.

I do have an IR gun but I really hate running from the lower station. I ended up taking it for a spin and the temp did come up a little bit but probably not displaying accurately. Somehow it is off.

 

[Gdavid]

I replaced the temp sender and it seems to be reading correctly. I failed to confirm with an IR gun, will do that tomorrow.

Oil pressure are a little underwhelming but a definite improvement. Runs about 45 psi at hot cruise and high twenties at hot idle. Yesterday I don't think I really got it up to temperature due to being leary of the temp gauge being off. I think that last year I was getting about 30 psi at hot cruise and 15 at hot idle. I lowered the idle speed today, so that is somewhat of a factor, at 1000 rpm, which is my no wake speed, it is 35 psi hot.

On oddity that I failed to mention earlier, And I don't know if this is specific to the contra rotation engines, but my engine has no cam bearings, it rides right in the block and there is no room to insert them.

 

[jleonard]

Oil pressure sounds fine to me. That was similar to the new Cummins I repowered with and my current Ram/ Cummins truck.

 

[Gdavid]

Ran the boat with my family and 3 guests today, performed well.

My back is off due to the decrease in pulley size, the tack is reading about 150% of actual. Not too concerned about it but would like to find a reasonable solution, considering disassembling each tach and replacing the background card.

 

[jleonard]

Many tachometers are adjustable. You’ll need a hand held tachometer to get an accurate reading on the engine, then adjust the boat tachs. Small screw hole in the rear of the tachometers.

 

[Gdavid]

Many tachometers are adjustable. You’ll need a hand held tachometer to get an accurate reading on the engine, then adjust the boat tachs. Small screw hole in the rear of the tachometers.

Mine both have a little jumper wire that you connect to a pin for alternator source, 6-cylinder ignition (gas) or 8 cylinder ignition. Ther may have been adjustment screw I missed, worth double checking. I think I can find someone with a stroboscope to borrow and dial it in.

I need to dive on the boat and cleanup up the hull and prop prior to giving is a hard run to WOT, I don't they are terrible but probably a few barnacles on the prop just based on gps speed and my finely tuned ear for exhaust noise.

 

[Gdavid]

Overall, the project has resulted very well. I'm happy with the improvement in oil pressure and the engine looks much better. Aside from the valve cover leaking with its brand-new cork gasket, I'm currently fighting an air leak into my fuel system, I'm pretty sure it is at the intake connection of my lift pump. The motor develops a surging in RPM's after running 1 hour at cruise speed, the harder I run the motor, the quicker the symptoms develop and vice versa.

Both fuel filters have been changed, and the problem resolves after bleeding the injection pump. Foolishly, I confused my diagnosis process by changing multiple things at once. I have an electric fuel pump which I had disconnected power from it when I was first trying to diagnose the issue, this may have made matters worse but I'm not even sure if it is running and may bypass it completely to reduce the number of fittings in the system. The fitting into my lift pump is kind of crusty looking and the fuel line between the electric pump and lift pump is of unknown age, so it may dry rotted with splits in the end allowing air in.

I'm pretty sure I can overcome this minor issue with some new fittings and hose. I plan to change the oil filter and send off the oil for analysis this week. I'm probably only at 12 hours of run time and was planning to wait till 50 but I'm going out of town next week and it would be nice to get the results back before I put some more hours on it.

 

[jleonard]

What do you do when the surges happen?
Meaning how do you get it back to running smoothly again?

 

[Gdavid]

What do you do when the surges happen?
Meaning how do you get it back to running smoothly again?

The surges are generally 1 second or less in duration but decrease in frequency if I reduce throttle. The first time they occured, I had been running harder and I headed back in and changed the primary fuel filter which was fouled. Thinking I had solved the issue I headed out the next day and the surging started pretty quickly after running only about 1400 rpm, I backed off a while, trolled around for a bit but the surging started occuring at about 1000 rpm after which I limped in and the problem was getting worse all the way to the slip almost as low as idle speed. At this point I changed the secondary fuel filter, which was clean, switched fuel tanks and ran the boat in gear tied to the dock up to about 900 rpm. The primary fuel filter had not picked up any debris. The boat ran well in the slip with a load on it. We went back out, ran about 1 hour at about 1800 rpm with no noted surging, then we trolled between 700-900 rpm for about 1 hour during which it started surging again. Ran home at about 1700 rpm with occasional surges that seemed to diminish as the sea state flattened.

I checked the primary fuel filter back at the dock to find it clean. I am assuming that I have air getting into the system and the rate is tied to fuel rate and consumption. The air is accumulating in the lift pump and when I changed the secondary fuel filter, it requires bleeding the injector pump which was solving the problem. That is my working assumption and as long as I can eliminate this air intrusion, I should be set.