K.I.S.S.

I did it. The primary fuel filter set-up was so complicated that it was far more likely to keep causing me problems than to ever save me some grief, so I got rid of the second filter unit. And for good measure I have then moved the two genset primary filter units up with the main engine filter so they are no longer down almost in the bilge and everything is conveniently together.

From this:

 

  To this:

Still have to tidy up, and then paint everything of course, but much tidier and simpler.

It's Labour weekend holiday, and we are not sailing. I consoled myself yesterday because the weather was crap; today it's fantastic. Oh well, a few more weeks and we should be ready to head out - so hanging out for it!

The Sound Of Not Silence

Now this is satisfying.

I have also isolated the vacuum leak in the fuel lines down to the primary fuel filter assembly - no surprises there. The whole contraption is so complex and convoluted I am considering removing one of the filter units altogether, which will greatly simplify the plumbing. The chances of me ever having need of a hot-swap of filters while running the engine is pretty much zero provided I change the filter regularly.

It's Alive!

Ran the engine for two hours last night. All seems good. (Puhleeeeze be good...)

On the assumption (I will not declare victory yet) that the oil cooler is now all good, now I have the joyous task of tracking down the air leak in the fuel line. But hey, at least we're making progress.

Update

Feeling a little (lot) anxious. Summer is almost upon us and the boat is nowhere near ready. Gotta prioritise those jobs...

The gasket makers have finished the new oil cooler gaskets, so you can guess what this weekend's job will be.

The pressure relief valve on the hot water cylinder packed up and started spewing water, so I have now replaced it and also plumbed the discharge so it goes back into the water tanks instead of the bilge.

Sharon has sewn up a cushion that was missing from the starboard cabin, which is great, but now there's just the small matter of an entire cockpit's worth of squabs to do before summer...hmm.

Besides that, I need to:

• Finish off the galley oven installation (bench and varnish).
• Varnish up all the running rigging blocks.
• Get the jib down - the self-furler swivel is jammed up.
• Service all the winches etc

And of course, once the engine is running again I still have to track down the air leak in the fuel lines...

Like water through an oil cooler, these are the days of our lives...

Having once more gone through the process of assembling the oil cooler, fitting it, and then ending up with an oil sump full of water again, we took it apart and had the cores checked again. They did find one more very small leak in the core that was not repaired, and fixed that, but basically we could not believe that was responsible for all the water pissing straight into the sump.

So, for the fourth time, today we reassembled everything, crossed our fingers, and filled the cooling system again. We could actually hear the water piddling into the sump as we filled. (weeps....)

Now in a zombie-like state, I stripped the cooler back off again, and carefully prised everything off. We had figured by now there had to be a fault with the seal of the gasket that was allowing water to flow between the oil side and the water side. And sure enough....it's the wrong bloody gasket!!!

The Cummins V8-300 has oil transfer cases on both sides, and in the 300M (marine) version one case is replaced with an oil cooler. The gaskets for each side are identical...almost. It turns out the gasket we had from the set was for the transfer case side, not the oil cooler. The correct gasket is nowhere to be found.

Gasket in place after removing oil cooler. Notice in the right-hand end the elongated hole at top - which is water - and the smaller hole underneath it - which is oil. Notice the absence of gasket between them. Duh.

So, the big question is this: Am I a complete f***king moron? I will answer with a qualified "maybe". The cores leaked, that was the original source of the problem, but three more strip-and-reassembles to find the fault indicates that perhaps I'm not the most observant mechanic in the bay.

And the great news, according to the Cummins website the gasket is no longer available. Off to the gasket makers we go...