It’s been great having the boat so close to home and not having to make that awful hour-long drive through Swamp suburban traffic. I’ve been rigging the boat in my new slip, cutting the dock lines to just the right length so when they’re all attached, the boat floats in just the right spot so I don’t need fenders.
But I also found a problem in the bilge: there was a half gallon of diesel floating on top of the water that came in through the shaft logs while we were transiting from the marina in Deale to our current place. After splashing the boat the second time, I had adjusted the shaft logs just to the point that dripping stopped at the marina in Deale. But over the course of the trip, more water was coming in than was necessary to lubricate the shaft packing. Nothing to be concerned about, the bilge pump only came on twice in almost eight hours under way and kept up just fine. And my bilge pumps are designed to leave ~1″ of water in the bilge, so no diesel was pumped overboard.
The first clue I had that something was off was a strong unburned diesel smell in the engine room.
Second clue: starboard injector pump was covered with fuel
Diesel had collected on everything near the starboard injector pump
Diesel accumulated in the bilge
Problem identified: loose injector nut on cylinder #1
When I started the engine, everything looked fine. But when I aimed a bright flashlight toward this injector, I could see fine droplets of diesel spraying from the top of the injector nut. After shutting down the engine, I tightened the nut.
Leaky injector nut resolved
Presumably, the mechanic who sold me these engines loosened the nut to prime the system when I came by to see them run. This is similar to the loose starter bolt I found on the port engine when it wasn’t starting. But fortunately, nothing was harmed by the sloppy workmanship. I pumped most of the diesel from the bilge into a bucket, then floated oil absorbent pads on the water overnight to pick up the rest. This also gave me an excuse to clean the bilge.
While I do that tedious task, I’ll post about things I did previously but never got around to posting. Gotta clear out my camera’s memory card one of these days.
Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Mud Dauber Screens
1969chriscraftroamer46 
Combustible drama! Glad for the simple fix, for a change….. you need the rest.
I agree with that assessment 100%!
Cheers,
Q
So far nitnoy details, and none attributed to your workmanship. Do you have a fix in mind for the gauges that aren’t reading correctly?
Word has it that oil pressure and coolant temperature senders aren’t immortal. So I’ll eventually probe the outputs to see if they’re out of spec, which I suspect they are since they’re original to the boat and were underwater at one point in time, at least. But for now, that’s not a priority.
Cheers,
Q