Posted: August 11 2011 at 14:11 | IP Logged

Emory

My condolences on your loss.  It looks like the by smile on your face your are taking it in good spirits.  Hope you will be up and running soon.

I mean this with only good intentions, I am enjoying the photos.  Please keep them coming. 

Allen

Posted: August 11 2011 at 15:39 | IP Logged

Tony and Vicki,

Thanks for the ordering info for the Chris Craft emblem.

Posted: August 11 2011 at 21:08 | IP Logged

Bennett,

FYI, when we rebuilt my port engine we used two simple A-frames and a boom.  The legs of the a-frames were 2x6's and the boom was two sistered 2x8's.  The boom was through bolted through the a-frames with support scraps underneath.  The a-frames were screwed into the salon deck for stability.  On the aft end, 4x4 supports were put under the deck framing and rested on the stringer on the inboard side and on the saddle tank on the outboard side (with a piece of plywood to spread the weight.  The forward a-frame was over the engine room bulkhead and needed no additional support.

Two chain hoists were used to lift and manuever the engine to separate and block the gear and raise it high enough to remove the pan and get to the crank and bearings, several inches above the stringer.  Before lifting the block, all of the bolt on parts were removed including the cylinder head.  As you can see from the picture below, parts were everywhere and it was not a happy time.

John

Posted: August 11 2011 at 23:00 | IP Logged

Hi Bennett,

Yes, an awful lot of hard work.  Like you, all of my engine rebuilds were on gas engines, so I found an independent with a lot of Detroit experience who was willing to work with me.  We both turned wrenches and I did all of the grunt work but his expertise was essential.  Yes, the transmission needed to be backed out in order to tear down the rest of the engine.  (The crank is not removed to replace the main bearings, they are rolled in place. )  Keep in mind that I have an in-line 6-71 and not the 6v-92 but they are very similar in design.

My rebuild may have been more complicated than Emory's in that it was caused by a timing gear failure (very rare by all accounts) which was determined to be caused by a collision with submerged debris, 8 years earlier!  As a result, I needed a brand new cylinder head, new turbo and 3 new timing gears in addition to the normal rebuild parts and cylinder kits.  The cost was about $25k with my labor, but the good news is that Boat US Insurance (God bless them) covered the loss, less 85% depreciation on the parts.  Net, net, it cost me $12.5k for a rebuilt engine and I got a great hands-on learning experience.

John

Posted: August 14 2011 at 15:52 | IP Logged

Mr. Hug has stated that the crank looks good.  Not  certain what his plan is regarding the mains.  Right now, I am assuming that the rods will be replaced but not the mains.  Keep in mind, this engine was previously rebuilt prior to my buying and the bearing would have only about 400 hrs. on them.  Based on what the rod bearing looked like, I'm in good shape there.

May have to wait on the seal due to schedules on mechanics part. 

I spent Friday and Saturday cleaning the head surfaces and oil pan.  And let me tell you, cleaning that oil pan without removing it from under the engine!  Of course the gasket was glues between the pan and gasket to facilitate installation back in 2001 (or so).  A regular gasket tool would not get the job done.  I have to use a long-handled razor blade scrapper and could get about 1" or 2" of gasket material off before the blade would brake.  I went through 20+ blades!

Very frustrating but it's done and now it's up to the mechanic to put her together and we'll see how she runs!

Emory

Posted: August 16 2011 at 13:31 | IP Logged

Mechanic discovered the crank was a reman and turned to 10 under, so bearings had to be special ordered.  Hope they came in yesterday and work will begin on Wednesday.

Here is what a clean airbox should look like:

Cleaning the oil pan was more painful than the airboxes!  Trying to get to the gasket surfaces with any kind of scraper (with leverage) was very difficult.  I took me hours to get the surface clean:

Hope none of you go through the year I've had so far.

Allen - thanks for stopping by on Sunday.  You have one of the cutest little girls I've ever met (next to my daughter when she was her age!

On another topic: I called Mini Craft in Florida to place an order for some gel coat.  What cost me about $63 a quart several season ago is now $134 !!  When I commented on the price the owner, Paul, said that it goes up almost on a daily basis.  He also stated that 3 years ago he had six salesmen and a total staff of 30 employees.  Today, he employees 6 people....TOTAL!  Main Reasons?: EPA over-regulations which is driving up the cost of everything and the economy.  People are not fixing the small damages, nicks, dings, etc.  He also stated that after being in business for 40 YEARS, he will close his doors if this administration is put back in power for another term. 

You cannot believe how many small businessmen I'm hearing this same story from.  I am 64 years old and have never seen my country in such an mess.

But that's just my opinion.

Emory

Posted: August 16 2011 at 22:17 | IP Logged

Hi All,

Yeah, I had to replace three batteries in my Connie last week.  Getting them was no problem.  But finding someone to install them was.  I used to do it myself but have been having some hip joiint problems so lifting a 140 lb. battery was out of the question.

Normally, I'd call on the boatyard for that kind of help.  But the yard is working on a skeleton staff these days because of the slowdown in business and didn't have anyone available to do a battery installation.  It took me five days to find someone and by that time I had about a foot of water in the bilge.  Had to spend an hour pumping out before I could even start the battery switch.

I've noticed quite a drop in the number of Connies for sale.  I think the problem is that while people want to sell they don't want to give their Connies away so they are just hanging on to them in hopes that better times will raise the prices.  But in the meantime they aren't repairing them, improving them or using them. And they've lost hope of selling them at a decent price so they aren't even advertising them.

Pete37

Posted: August 16 2011 at 22:40 | IP Logged

Pete,

What is leaking that would give you a foot of water in the bilge????

Posted: August 16 2011 at 23:06 | IP Logged

Hi Dave,

I wondered that too.  Five days is 120 hours. The pump took about 45 minutes to pump out at 15 gpm.  So that's 675 gallons.  In 120 hours that's a leakage rate of 5.6 gph or 135 gpd. The stuffing boxes leak at about 2.88 gpd (0.12 gph) for the pair so the stuffing box leakage is negligible. 

The bilge pumps are 1500 gph units so 5.6 gph leakage would only run them 5.6 x 3600/1500 = 13.4 seconds per hour.  With piping inefficiencies it might be 20 seconds per hour.  That's only about one bilge pump cycle per hour.  Not a very high leakage rate but if it goes on for five days it adds up to 675 gallons.

I'm going to try to track down the source of leakage but with the relatively low rate it may be hard. 

Pete37

Posted: August 18 2011 at 05:48 | IP Logged

Hi All,

Subject: Bilge Pump Problems

I’ve concluded that the foot of water in the bilge was due to an unusual set of circumstances that isn’t likely to happen again.  One of the two house batteries had a bad cell which shorted out.  And since the two house batteries were in parallel it took the other battery down with it leaving me with no house battery bank.  It's kind of a freak occurrence.  I’ve never seen it happen before.  Anyway, with no house batteries the bilge pumps didn’t work and in five days I wound up with a foot of water in the bilge.

Apparently the leak rate was about 6 gph which gave me 675 gallons of water in the bilge after five days. I know that leaks from the stuffing boxes are considerably less than 1 gph so that means I must have some other leaks.  The question is “Are these leaks dangerous?”

A 6 gph leak would only cause one of the 1500 gph bilge pumps to run for about 20 seconds per hour.  In the five days (120 hours) that would be about 40 minutes and at 5 amps the pump would burn only 3.35 ampere hours (0.67 ampere hours per day).  If fully charged, the 450 ampere hour house battery bank should run the bilge pump for nearly 335 days before even reaching half charge.  So even if the battery charger quits the house battery bank would keep the bilge pump going for months.  A 6 gph leak is dangerous only if the bilge pumps loose power.

There are five bilge pumps on a Connie and it is unlikely that more than one would break down at any given time.  The other four should easily keep the boat afloat.  The weak point in the bilge pump system is the house battery bank.  The two batteries in the house battery are in parallel and if a cell in either battery shorts out it could shut down the entire bank leaving you with no power for your bilge pumps.  This causes no immediate problem but if you are on vacation for two weeks and have a 6 gph leak rate you could find your boat on the bottom before you return. 

A 6 gph leak rate is about equivalent to one bilge pump cycle per hour.  So if your boat pumps more than once per hour make sure your house battery bank is in good shape.

Pete37

Posted: August 18 2011 at 08:20 | IP Logged

Pete et. al.,

I too had a shorted cell in a house battery a few weeks ago that prompted replacement of the two house batteries.

I have dripless shaft logs on my boat, so do not see any water from that location.  My sumps almost always seem to have a bit of water, but takes many days to fill enough to start the pump.  I know rainwater enters through the anchor chain opening and maybe there is another similar leak I'm not aware of (yet).

At 6 GPH into the bilge, I agree that is 'way too much for shaft logs, or even rudder posts, but you have not mentioned checking these yet.  I'd suspect some sort of fresh water leak, but I do not believe you leave a charged fresh water hose attached when you are not on board.  Do you leave an AC unit on for humidity control when not aboard?  Last year I had a broken thru hull on one AC that dumped water into the bilge when operating... a possibility to consider/check out.

Finally, I agree with your logic re the pump energy use, but question the exact numbers.  A "1500 GPH" pump gets that rating with no discharge hose and no head pressure (lift).  In a typical installation, you have a couple of feet of head pressure, plus the friction of the hose (often corrugated tubing which really slows down flows).  The "1500 GPH" pump may only pump 500 gph  or so "as installed". Accordingly, the figures may be off considerably; however the conclusion is still sound.  A set of fully charged house batteries should keep a bilge dry for at least several months without attention or recharge.

To Emory:

Hang in there... the end is in sight!

Jim

Posted: August 18 2011 at 17:34 | IP Logged

Pete,

I sure would not be comfortable with your leak (leaks???) situation reagrdless if you feel it accumulated "due to an unusual set of circumstances". Also, I would not find much comfort in thinking that the bilge pumps will take care of it. If I had that amount of water flow in my boat I would consider it dangerous!!! I'll say it again, get those leaks checked out and  keep the bilge dry and bright white....  

Posted: August 19 2011 at 01:17 | IP Logged

Hi Jim, Emory, Ron and Dave,

Subject:  Bilge Pump Problems

Jim:  I checked my shaft logs a couple weeks ago and adjusted them to 20 drops per minute each which is the rate recommended by one of the packing manufacturers.  That works out to a total of 2.88 gpd.  They may have shifted some since then but that’s probably about what their leak rate is today.  That’s only 0.12 gph which is only 2.1% of the 5.6 gph estimated.  So I can probably ignore the shaft logs.

I haven’t checked the rudder shaft logs yet but it’s on my list.  I’ll also recheck the engine shaft logs.  They may have changed.  My Connie is kept under a shed so we can probably discount rain.  I don’t leave ACs on when I’m not aboard so any accumulation from that source would have to have happened while I was aboard.  Seems unlikely I would have missed that but I’ll recheck.  I never attach the fresh water system to shore water and the capacity of the fresh water tank is only about 160 gallons so that can’t be the problem.

If the pump were operating at 100% efficiency it would take only 14 seconds to pump out 5.6 gallons.  I increased the time to 20 seconds (42%) to account for piping losses.  Perhaps it should be more.  However, any way you figure it the house battery bank should keep up with a 5.6 gph leak for months; and, if the battery bank is hooked up to shore powered charger, forever.

A 5.6 gph leak rate isn’t much.  It’s only 0.093 gpm or 1.49 cups per minute. In order to get a visual check on the size of the leak, I took my wife’s measuring cup and experimented under the kitchen sink. A 1.49 cup per minute stream from the faucet which translates to 5.6 gph and 134 gpd is a stream less than 1/16” (0.0625”) in diameter and just above the point where the stream transitions from distinguishable droplets to a steady stream. I checked this number against the US Navy Salvor’s Handbook Flooding Tables and found that the diameter should be about 0.052”.  Since these two numbers are pretty close I’m going to use my “kitchen table” number as adequate for the accuracy of these calculations. Both numbers are smaller than the head of the average sewing pin.

I’m going to start a serious leak search tomorrow.  But as I mentioned this 5.6 gph leak is going to be difficult to find.  I’m going to be trying to find a pinhead sized leak in a 54,000 lb. 50’ long motoryacht haystack.

Emory:  Glad to hear that your engine repairs are progressing so swiftly.  Hope that translates into lower costs.

I have a friend who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer three years ago.  He’s still in pretty good health and living comfortably.  He’s somewhere in his 70s.  So there’s hope for your friend.  Complete cures are even possible.

Ron:  As I’ve said above I’m going to start a serious leak search tomorrow.  But a 5.6 gph pinhead sized leak isn’t going to sink the boat as long as the house battery bank has power.  And the battery bank now has new batteries.  It’s also connected to a shore powered battery charger.  Normally, I check the boat every few days.  So the possibility of a repeat of this problem seems remote.

The reason I check the numbers is to get an idea of the size of the problem.  I want to know whether I’ve got a gusher or a dribble.  As it turns out it’s slightly larger than a dribble but enormously smaller than a gusher.

I suspect that most Connies have leaks of this size but never notice them as long as their house battery banks are working.  The moral of this incident is that if your house battery bank fails (unlikely but possible) attend to getting some sort of power to the bilge pumps right away.  Don’t assume that you can let this problem linger for a week.

Reducing the leaks is also important and I’ve been planning on replacing the stuffing box packing with Gortex packing. However, it hasn’t been done yet.   That should help but it doesn’t seem that the shaft logs are the problem.  Unfortunately, the leak isn’t likely to show up as a single 1/16” stream of water.  It’s more likely to be a number of things.  I suspect loose thru-hulls may contribute although I don’t know of any at the moment. Boat US says that thru- hulls are the most common cause of sinking. I’ll be checking them this week.  The above waterline thru-hulls never got close to the waterline so they don’t seem to be the problem either.

I’ve been checking into bilge pump counters as a tool to find the leaks.  They start as low as $65 and go as high as $260.  I think I’ll start with the $65 model.

Dave:

I think you are making a bit of a “Tempest in a Teapot” over a pinhead sized leak.  There is no indication that 675 gallons of water rushed into the hull in the course of a few minutes or hours.  They leaked in over a period of five days (120 hours) or perhaps a bit longer.  The leak rate was about 5.6 gph which one of my Rule 1500 bilge pumps could handle in 20 seconds of pumping per hour.  I know what the problem was; the house batteries were dead.  And new batteries have been installed to solve the problem.

All: I think that the biggest problem in explaining this is that no one can believe that a pinhead sized leak could cause 675 gallons (a foot) of water to be in the bilge. At first I didn't either.  The attitude is that "It must be something bigger to cause that much water".  But the numbers show that the pinhead sized leak does cause that much water to accumulate over five days.  I've checked them a dozen times.  And now that the batteries have been replaced the problem is gone.

Pete37

Posted: August 19 2011 at 10:31 | IP Logged

Pete,

I feel your leaks are more then a "pinhead sized leak", but lets just leave it at you are locating and fixing the problem, which obviously is the right thing to do, before this discussion goes the wrong way.

My experience with a rudder leak is the water ends up in the bow area of the bilge. You can tell which, or if both, are leaking by checking the drains under the galley hatch. First look under the master state room bed side bottom drawers to see if any water is in the rudder area. Wet vac any water out and put a paper towel on the rudder nut and one or two larger 3M sponges in the forward area from the paper towel. That should control the leak to find out if you also have leaks elsewhere.

Once you have a dry and bright white bilge, finding a future leak, even if it is "a pinhead sized leak in a 54,000 lb. 50' motoryacht haystack", you will be able to locate it very quickly.

Posted: August 19 2011 at 10:55 | IP Logged

Hi Dave,

Yeah, in spite of the compartmentization most of the bilge water seems to wind up in the forward bilge area.  And as I said, no one can believe that a pinhead sized leak could cause a one foot accumulation of water in the bilge.  That's because we are so used to having our bilge pumps take care of everything.  But when they aren't working the bilge water builds up quickly. 

That's probably the most important thing this incident brings out.  If your house battery bank goes down you need to replace it or hook the bilge pumps to another source of power quickly.  By quickly, I don't mean in minutes or hours but certainly within a couple days.

Looks like we've got a couple of good cruising days coming so I'm going to use the boat.  The "Great Pinhole Leak Search" can wait a couple days.  But I'll be keeping a close watch on the bilge.

Pete37

Posted: August 19 2011 at 12:12 | IP Logged

Pete,

I don't know how you rigged your pump before the new batteries were installed but any current drop could dramatically affect the pump's efficiency.  In that case, the actual volume would be considerably less than your estimate.  Was the foot of water visible in the engine room or just the forward bilge?

John

Posted: August 19 2011 at 20:58 | IP Logged

Hi John,

Subject: Rigging of the Pumps

The rigging of my pumps was the standard CC factory setup as shown in the CC drawings.  I haven't changed anything in the setup and the CC setup is just about the same as in every other boat I've seen or owned. The setup with the new batteries is the same as it was with the old. 

The problem was that the old house batteries after 9 years of use were dead.  The bilge pumps were not running below maximum output; they were not running at all because they had no power.

The engine room bilge was full of water up to a level just below the tops of the battery boxes.  Other compartments also had high bilge water but I didn't measure it.

Took the boat out again today for the second time after the battery incident,  No water in the bilge and the pumps are working fine

Pete37

Posted: August 19 2011 at 22:02 | IP Logged

Wow! That's a lot of water.

I was actually asking how you temporarily rigged your pump since you had dead batteries.  You said you dewatered for 45 minutes before you put in the new batteries.

John

Posted: August 20 2011 at 00:12 | IP Logged

Hi John,

Subject: Temporary Rigging of Batteries

The positive +12 volt terminal of the starboard battery of the house battery bank broke off.  I think this was because the the cell it was attached to had shorted out and had melted off the connection to the +12V terminal.

A check of the house battery bank voltage on the console showed it was very low (6 to 8 volts).  Since the house bank batteries are wired in parallel I just removed the cables that put the batteries in parallel.  That left me with a house battery bank with only one battery (the port battery). The voltage then came up to about 10 volts. But it was enough to power most of the critical items on the boat.  With the engines on the alternators should have started to recharge the port battery.

I then returned to the dock and assumed that the battery charger (now plugged into shore power) would bring the port house battery bank battery up to full voltage.  But apparently it didn't because when I came back five days later the house battery bank voltage was nearly zero.  The short in the starboard battery may have damaged the port battery as well.

When I replaced the batteries, I first pumped out the bilge with an AC powered dewatering pump I got from the marina. It took 45 minutes at 15 gpm (675 gallons) to dewater the engine room bilge.  I know the pump rate was 15 gpm because I put the hose into a 5 gallon bucket and measured the time necessary to fill the bucket.

There was also some water in the forward bilge that I pumped out but I didn't time that.  However it was much less water.

Pete37

Posted: August 20 2011 at 08:09 | IP Logged

Pete,

Water almost to the top of the engine room battery boxes in only 5 days is not a "pinhole" leak as you characterized, but a major issue in my book!  Whether it was 500 gallons, 1000 gallons or whatever, no Connie should have that much water in the bilge in only 5 days, even without any bilge pumps operating.  What may be "double trouble" is your statement you had the battery charger on the single port house battery in that 5 day period... the charger alone should have powered the bilge pumps, even if the battery was dead as indicated. I recently did this for a week until I changed out my batteries... As the charger did not power the pumps - now you have two separate issues to deal with.

FIX THE WATER LEAK(S) PDQ, then look at the12V circuits.

Jim

Posted: August 20 2011 at 13:55 | IP Logged

Hi Jim,

A pinhead sized leak produces 1.49 cups per minute.  That's 0.094 gpm or 5.63 gph or 135 gpd or 675 gallons in 5 days.  Now what is there about that which you can't understand?

Get your wife's measuring cup and adjust the kitchen faucet for a 1/16" stream.  BTW, a pinhead (not pinhole) is about 1/16".  Then measure how long it takes to fill the cup.  It should be about 60/1.49 = 40 seconds.

The bilge pumps get their power from the house battery bank.  The charger maxes out at about 80 amps.  What's the voltage of 80 amps across a dead short?  The charger certainly would have powered the bilge pumps if it hadn't been attached to a dead battery.

Pete37

Posted: August 20 2011 at 20:17 | IP Logged

Pete,

I don't give a d_ _ _ what you want to call it (a "pinhole leak"), or how you rationalize it with volumetric measurements, I (and others) believe a foot of water in the bilge over five day time is a serious issue requiring prompt attention. Whether the bilge pumps can handle it is another question, but why would you want to "bet your boat" on that???

As the the charger not powering the pumps across the "dead shorted" battery, if the charger was actually putting out 80 amps into a true dead short, the battery would have probably boiled dry and melted or exploded from the heat in 5 days...  as you know, there are a number of reasons why a lead acid battery will not hold a charge, but not be a"dead short" as you describe. If it really were a "dead short" maybe the foot of water around the battery actually helped cool the battery and prevented the meltdown. 

If the charger was operating and there is 12V on the battery posts, the bilge pumps should have worked when the water got high enough as the house systems load are connected at that point.  Could you have inadvertantly disconnected the house load wires from the battery terminals as you switched wiring onto only the port battery?  Otherwise, I believe the pumps should have worked with the charger on...  mine did.

Jim

Posted: August 20 2011 at 21:04 | IP Logged

Hi Jim,

Subject: Pinhead Sized Leaks

Let's solve this problem in stages. 

A:  Do you agree that if you had a 5.6 gph leak and had the bilge pumps turned off you would accumulate 675 gallons of bilge water in five days?

B: Do you agree that a leak producing a stream about 1/16" in diameter would have a flow of about 5.6 gph?

C: Do you agree that the size of the average size sewing pinhead is about 1/16''?

If you agree to A, B and C then the only question is whether the bilge pumps had sufficient power to run.

Pete37

Posted: August 21 2011 at 09:04 | IP Logged

Pete,

Please re-read the first paragraph of my note from last nght:

"I don't give a d_ _ _ what you want to call it (a "pinhole leak"), or how you rationalize it with volumetric measurements, I (and others) believe a foot of water in the bilge over five day time is a serious issue requiring prompt attention. Whether the bilge pumps can handle it is another question, but why would you want to "bet your boat" on that???"

It is your boat - I'll not discuss any more.

Jim

Posted: August 21 2011 at 13:51 | IP Logged

Hi Jim,

Sorry you don't want to discuss this problem in an orderly manner.  As an engineer, I dont rationalize; I analyze. 

A foot of water in the bilge is a serious matter and it did get immediate attention.  Within one hour of the time it was discovered the boat was pumped out.  And within two hours after that a new set of house batteries had been installed to correct the problem. 

Since the new batteries have been installed, the bilge is dry and everything related bilge pump operation is working normally.  The boat has been out a couple times and no repitition of the problem has occurred.  The problem appears to have been solved.

I had expected some water in the bilge and that's why I had the batteries on hand..  I just hadn't expected that much.  However, the calculations showed that the amount of water in the bilge was consistant with a 1/16" trickle of water over five days.  Therefore, I don't think a panicky search for "monsters under the bed" is required. 

But I'll keep my eyes open for anything abnormal. A 5.6 gpm leak rate though not dangerous is a bit high so I'll try to find the leak and plug it.

Pete37

Posted: August 21 2011 at 13:57 | IP Logged

Hi Allen,

Yeah, I'm aware that I have a small leak.  But I don't think I have the gusher Jim keeps looking for.  So I'll be looking for the leak.  Not sure how easy it will be to find such a small leak.

Pete37

Posted: August 21 2011 at 19:46 | IP Logged

Hi All,

Subject:  Leak Problem Solved

Well, the "Great Pinhead Leak Search" is over.  I found the problem.  The starboard stuffing box was leaking about a cup per minute.  That's 0.0625 gpm or 3.75 gph which is  67% of the 5.6 gph leak I was looking for.  I had it tightened up to about 22 drops per minute a few weeks ago but apparently it shifted.  The port stuffing box also shifted but it went from 22 drops per minute to only a couple drops per minute.

I still have 1.85 gpm unaccounted for but I'm not going to do anything about it for the moment.  About a month ago I bought some Goretex packing which I planned to use to restuff the stuffing boxes.  But Bennett recommended a better packing so I returned it.  Didn't get around to ordering the new packing but I will now.  I'll check the leakage again after the new packing is in.

The whole episode shows that even a tiny leak can produce an awful lot of bilge water in five days if the bilge pumps aren't working.

Pete37

Posted: August 21 2011 at 20:10 | IP Logged

"Mr". Emory:    Sliding the new hoses (or old) can be made easier to fit onto the the fitting, by placing a SMALL amount of lube grease, onto the fitting, and/or, inside the hose,  then tighten, FIRMLY.  Ask your mechanic, if you desire for his approval. 

Removing old hoses, can been accomplished with inserting a APPROPRIATE-sized FLAT screwdriver between the hose and fitting. And then work screwdriver around the fitting, as you spray some WD-40 into the space between hose and fitting, as you work your way around the fitting, to get hose off.  If you feel more comfortable using a PHILLIPS screwdriver, that is ok also.  BUT, of course a person must take care not to cut, nor stretch the old hose beyond it's limits.  Hose may or may not, crack or split. But if hose does, then it most probably, would have been not far from replacement  anyway.  I have removed, and replaced many hoses, in this manner.  Just my thoughts.   

Fly Bridge  Dan  (Catalina forum).

Posted: August 21 2011 at 20:19 | IP Logged

Emory,

I just checked and I have Shields 2 3/4" hose on both of my engines, each end double clamped.

I am tickeld the engine is now completed and running.  Pls let us know the results of the sea trial. 

Jim

Posted: August 21 2011 at 21:45 | IP Logged

Hi Emory,

I checked with my vernier calipers and the pipe the hose goes on is definitely 2.625 OD.  The hose says Seaflex which I think is a Shields brand but I haven't been able to find an exact match on the web.  Seaflex now appears to be a Japanese brand name.  Don't know the relationship (if any) with Shields.

The Shieldsflex II Series 250 with the 2.625" ID looks like the best fit.  The 2.75" ID would work but it might be a little loose

Congratulations on completing (We hope) your engine overhaul!

Pete37

Posted: August 22 2011 at 09:51 | IP Logged

Toni and Vicki, Pete and all,

Thanks for the kind words, Tony and Vickie. Wish I had known you were going to be in the area we could have met up. We enjoyed a great cruise and ended up anchoring out Saturday but didn't spend the night since they were calling for a possible severe storm later that night or early am (it did come thru). We stopped at Skipjack Marina for a snack and drink. Bewteen our anchoring and stop at Skipjack and returning to our slip at the Sassafras Marina, we had to be near you. Did you try to call us on the radio? We plan to be back to the boat this Friday, so if you are still cruising, and will be in the area let me know. Enjoy your run!

Just an update to all. Since the port turbo section was replaced last year there has been no soot on the transom. Guess I should knock on wood (fiberglass?) before saying that. It has been a delight not to have to clean all that mess off!! Hope it stays that way. So far it has been a superb boating year.

Emory, glad you are getting the engine back together. Good luck on the sea trial and hope you enjoy the rest of the boating season and many more without problems. You've more than earned it!

Pete, once you get that total dry bilge you WILL have a safer boat. You will be able to spot just about any leak and find the source in minutes. What starts as a "pinhole" leak could be a warning of something major getting ready to go that even good batteries and pumps could not keep up with. How could you see this warning with your current situation? Glad you will be joining the dry bilge club. Think of all the analyzing, calculation and mathematics time you will save that can be applied to real boating.

Sorry all, forgot to increase the font size for this post.