Friday, May 6, 2011

Engine Overhaul

As part of my overhaul and refit I wanted an expert to look at the Yanmar engine.  It has about 2600 hours on it and as far as I could tell was working OK.  I am so dependent on it working properly, particularly entering a port in bad weather at night, that I wanted to make sure that it was in good shape.

I was directed by the local cruising community to Harvey Smith. (phone 252-637-3874, email: nbdiesel@aol.com.) Apparently Harvey and his wife ran a marine engine business in Annapolis, MD for many years.  They were highly respected, but they decided to retire to New Bern, NC.  Harvey said "that lasted about 2 weeks."  His customers caught up with him.

Harvey came down to Reboot.  What a great guy.  Not only did he check out the engine but he explained step by step what he was doing and looking for.  Not only did I get expert advice but I got an expert's education at the same time.

The bad news is that my exhaust riser is rotting out.  The good news is that the rest of the engine is OK.  Harvey is going to come back and fix the riser.  He is also going to walk me through routine maintenance: we are going to replace the impeller, change the fan belt, refresh the antifreeze and so forth.  I am looking forward to it.

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