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26 Command Bridge '91

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Re: 26 Command Bridge '91

Postby Viper » March 26th, 2021, 6:43 pm

Did you hear that Phrancas, he just said that what you did was luxurious! ;-)

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Topic author Netherlands
Phrancus
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Re: 26 Command Bridge '91

Postby Phrancus » March 27th, 2021, 3:11 am

Luxury.. well, all is relative. :lol:
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Topic author Netherlands
Phrancus
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Re: 26 Command Bridge '91

Postby Phrancus » March 28th, 2021, 10:44 am

So here's the view with the renovated covers. No more caulk that dissolves in diesel

56497.jpg


Here's what was inside, this was half way after cleaning... so imagine how much was in there. Top of the picture is the 'wall' (anti slushing) that they cut. Not realising that the other hole is not giving access to the area behind this 'wall'. There is another 'wall' and yes; more dirt trapped between...

56472.jpg



And the filterhousing emptied, note the small black 'chewing gum' things. These are caulk that dropped into the tank and got picked up and then got caught in the route towards the filter. So before the filter, thus obstructing fuel flow.

IMG_20210328_145920.jpg


One filter/separator done (top left) and one to go (bottom right).

56453.jpg



Both done today, and apparently the left one is just above the fuel tank level as it flows half empty when I open the top.

Made a mistake when I pumped the right one's fuel supply line, stopped after the first gush but should have gone on a bit longer as i had to vent the system a couple of times to keep the engine running. Lessons learned: prime longer as the hassle of air in the system (diesel!) is worse than a bit more fuel wasted. How to vent the fuel system when the diesel engine stalled and diesel engineers were stupid not to include a self-venting system on these engines (like they do use with cars) and finally: the last owner was a a**hole not to keep this stuff in shape.
and lastly: starboard engine drips cooling water when cold.... oh well, lost of water outside and the bilge pump works. Next project......
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Re: 26 Command Bridge '91

Postby km1125 » March 28th, 2021, 12:17 pm

Wow. All that time spent is worth gold when not having to deal with that junk flowing through your system for the rest of the time you're running that boat!!! It would probably scare a lot of us if we had visibility into what's inside some of our tanks!! :)
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Re: 26 Command Bridge '91

Postby Phrancus » March 28th, 2021, 1:20 pm

What I found when I had the tank open was that the fuel pick-up tubes were about a finger from the bottom. I did insert a scope (a little camera connected to my smartphone) through the fuel-level sender hole. Didn't know back then that that was only part of the story as the aft compartment was even worse.

So yes, you may get scared when you see this in your boat. But rest assured: this is for the main part a diesel bacteria that thrives on a tank with old fuel and some water. We don't consume as much as you guys up on the lakes. So my tank was filled a few years (!) ago and no anti-bacterial add-on was used. As far as I know, petrol does not have this problem, especially not when you refresh the content of your tanks regularly (once or twice a season at least)

Over here I have two options to fight the bacteria: add some poison with eacht filling or switch to synthetic diesel (gas-to-liquid). The first is easy (a shot glass per 100 liters) and the second is tempting (it also does not smell and smoke as bad as regular diesel) but not every engine likes it that much. This is due to some sealing rings that may start to leak (regular diesel makes them swell, GTL does not, so it leaks). I can replace those but can't have that extra work on my hands right now. Something to test in the future.

The fuel lines are rather worn and the attachments to the engine quite rusted so I leave those alone for the moment, I'd rather replace the whole lot but again, no time for that right now. On the list for next year, I expect to have the boat inside then so I can take it all apart.
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Re: 26 Command Bridge '91

Postby Phrancus » April 2nd, 2021, 11:23 am

Another day at the floating office. A bit cold outside to polish so had a good look inside at the front. There is a 'bed' with cabinet doors and a drawer. Under a board there were the relays for the anchor winch. Relays rusted, footpedals corroded so threw that out to be replaced by a solid relay block with remote controls.

Further investigation today revealed that the footpedals holes for their cables leak into the anchor chain locker. And I thought that was it but it is not: some idiot led the cables through the BOTTOM of the locker....

The rusty anchor chain chafed and probably blocked the drain hole up front. The water then ingressed through the cable hole that over the years was not waterproof any more (old caulk), behind the cabinet/bed down to the front bilge where a bow thruster was mounted.

Mounted by another idiot who used standard, non treated ply wood for a floor.

You've guessed it: floor rotten half way, fungus all onder the carpets and no way to dry out completely forever.

Grabbed, hacked and crabbed a whole garbage bag of soft wood out of there and cut off all the moulded carpet parts.

Next job: remove the OK wood panels to access the floor and then put a new floor in from waterproof panel material with access holes.

In addition / while at it: cut the large bed floorpanel in two pieces. There is no point in leaving it in one piece. To hard to handle. And add some access covers for inspection/luggage dumping.

Also considering mounting a watertank up front to replace the old square box aft. Rerouting some pipes and thus getting a fresh tank, better weight up front, and lots more room in the engine room for access and storage.
We don't need a huge tank, in fact better to have a smaller one as that gets refreshed timely. It's not for showering (marina's all over here) anyway.

Pictures later on, must re-locate my spine assembly parts first after all the manouvering in close spaces today. Cheers.
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Re: 26 Command Bridge '91

Postby RGrew176 » April 3rd, 2021, 1:08 am

Hopefully you can bring her all the way back to her original glory.
Rick Grew

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Topic author Netherlands
Phrancus
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Re: 26 Command Bridge '91

Postby Phrancus » April 13th, 2021, 2:24 pm

Closed the floor today, in the past days I removed one bucket full of rotten wood, one square meter of plywood and a handfull of rags with oil/water/mould crud.
Water has been entering for years throug the window frame(s), the hatch up on the front deck and the anchor locker. And it could not travel all the way to the bilge as the route was blocked by the crud so it stayed moist for way too long.

So, took out the rotten parts. Which mainly focussed just in front of the 'dinette'* so now the floor is new 18mm waterproof plywood with a little door in it for the bow prop (there's a fuse on top of that thing) and I've now learned that there is a route from front to under the fuel tank for bilge water to travel. Tomorrow I'll check for the route from fuel tank to engine room bilge.

Put all the woodwork back into place, only have one latch left over so that's quite a reasonable score as it's all tight and fits perfectly.

Next is to order a polyester set to encapsulate the hole where the anchor winch cables go trough the bottom of the locker. I considered re-routing the cables but that would cause problems due to their current length and I'd have to laminate the hole closed anyway. So why not build a small 'tunnel' so high that water will not enter.(**)

found a used anchor online and awaiting it's arrival. Then the anchor and chain can be installed and hopefully the winch-relay will arrive soon so the whole thing can be tested.

If the winch is functional, I'll get on with the laminating job and perhaps a bit of service to the winch itself.






* this is not completely true, a bit of floor under the bench is also very soft but I leave it for now. Removing all that is a job for the winter.
** unless the water ingress is so abundant that it will overflow the hatch and thus flooding the boat and when that happens there's so much trouble that it does not matter any more....
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Topic author Netherlands
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Re: 26 Command Bridge '91

Postby Phrancus » April 20th, 2021, 11:56 am

small update: Port engine (the one with issues) ran hot last trip. Expected impeller remnants again but nothing there, added coolant so perhaps only a vapour lock due to wrong filling procedure (don't know any).

Starboard engine: found impeller pieces in the filter :-O the engine that never failed us! replaced the impeller and hope all is well and that it will backup the port engine reliably till I get that one up to standard.

The impeller was hard to change due to the watertank placed right against it. removed the tank last week and out of curiousity and opportunity checked the impeller today.... lucky I guess. Perhaps never changed before as it still had 'volvo' printed on it and the previous owner was a cheapskate and would not have used OEM parts.

Also the pipes into the intercooler are leaking (sea/fresh/outside water, not coolant) and had some liquid gasket remnants. I'll order the proper O-rings and hopefully can take care of that. I am not looking forward to pumping out the bilge too often in the future due to fresh water mixing with sludge in the bilge and thus having to manually pump it out an dispose. Rather than just flicking the bilge pump and dumping the (clean) water en route.


In the time of the cleaning the bilge however, I did find one of the plastic pieces that 'receive' the feet of the 'couch' on top of the engine room hatch. One found, one to buy/3D-print/get from salvage/I don't know help!? Also found some US (non-metric) wrench parts, various screw bit (?) and an engine part that I had not found as missing plus some bolts in the bilge. Man, I hate people who do not take simple measures to keep things in shape!

Do not ever leave quick fixes and bypasses in place! And if you do because you think it's better for the world and beyond: DOCUMENT!
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Topic author Netherlands
Phrancus
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Re: 26 Command Bridge '91

Postby Phrancus » April 21st, 2021, 12:56 pm

Took the aftercooler pipes out and its top off. Someone used liquid gasket and did not replace some of the O-rings..... No wonder it leaked.
So, scraped all the crap off and used proper sealing gaskets. Cleaned, greased the bolts and washers. The tubes have a flange, on the cooler side there are two O-rings planned and a plastic ring. The ring and the flange are held in a groove by the bracket you screw on top.
What probably happened is that the heat exchanger was looked at without having the right gaskets at hand. So while taking it apart some things dropped into the bilge (foud some under the oil-film in a far corner recently) and they could not get the pipes into their seating right. So had to force them in and plaster it all with liquid rubber. That does not hold obviously.

Hopefully now the bilge will stay dry or drier than before.
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