Posted: April 22 2008 at 08:45 | IP Logged

After a complete cleaning and flushing of my exhaust system last weekend, this is what I returned to on Friday!   Unbelieveable, huh?  I cleaned and removed at least a half garbage bag full of this crap from the elbows and flushed repeatedly, then back-flushed repeatedly, then flushed again.  I got the exhausts on both side of the boat clean.  I got up Saturday morning beaten, brusied, but nonetheless, ready to do battle with the installation of the elbows, only to discover that overnight my "little friend" had paid yet another visit and he must have been pissed because I had destroyed his condo.  He deposited another mass of leaves and twigs and trash in my exhaust OVERNIGHT!   This time I'm off to the hardware store for some wire mesh to contstruct exhaust traps.  FINALLY, once I felt confident in my "critter blockers"  (sounds medical doesn't it?), I went about tearing my body up re-installing the elbows.  It took my all day Saturday and Sunday to accomplish the task.  Success!  Both engines are running and sounding great (at least sitting still in the slip).  Given all the crap that came out of the elbows and the fact that the port side had two beers cans in the elbow for what appears to be a good while, I am in the firm belief that I have improved the engine performance.  I also cleaned the turbo shower heads.  Some of the openings were clogged with what appears to be calcium deposits or such.  The water flow out of my exhausts is more than I've every noticed it to be in the past. I also cleaned the blower bypass valves plungers.  They were gunked up with carbon, etc. as well as the sleeves they slide in.  I hope that every little bit will help here.  I'll keep everyone posted on that as well.

I really don't know why I'm doing all this.  I won't be able to move the boat anyway this year given the cost of fuel.  I guess Rock Hall will be a major trip now. 

Oh yeah, the critter?   It's Musky Muskrat!  After the dock owner swore that he had never seen a muskrat in his 15 years there, Shirley walked our dog at dusk and returned to the boat and just happened to decide to take a look-see aft and there he was, trying to figure out how that wire got in his cave opening!  The owner has now said that he is going to buy a muskrat trap!  Oh well, at least there was no engine damage.

Emory