MD5A to Vetus 16hp Repower begins

[Mark.Wilme]

So, the post the other day http://www.triton381.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1845 was about my rebuild / repair / repower dillema. Well the decision is made and the repower has begun. Not having the time or the expertize to do the whole job I have reached an agreement with the marina.

All in cost is budgetter at $10k. I am hoping that by doing some of the work myself I can get this down to $9k, however I am not about to cut corners to save money, so if we have to repalce the raw water intake, rebuild the exhaust or run brand new fuel lines then we will do that.

I have selected the engine (Vetus 16hp from Marine Engines Inc http://www.1800runsnew.com/vetus16hp.htm ) and arranged delivery for this Wednesday, we have agreed that I will remove the old engine and associated "stuff". I will clean up the engine compartment and soundproof it. They will then install the new engine starting on Thursday. Fingers crossed I could be back in the water by 7/3.

The fun began yesterday at 9:30am, I had the engine stitting on the cabin sole inside of 2 hours and by 4:30pm had the first coat of BilgeKote on the engine beds.

[MQMurphy]

Good luck, Mark. Nice looking cabin - what kind of boat is it?

[Tim]

Oh goody! Pictures! I can't wait to follow along, though of course I'm sorry that you have to go through this in the middle of the season. You'll soon forget the cost involved when you have the pleasure of a reliable, modern engine.

Things are looking good so far! That clean, white engine room will be a wonderful thing. You won't miss that greasy old monster.

Thanks for posting the information, and please lead us through the whole process. I'm looking forward to seeing that shiny new Vetus in there.

If there's anything back there in that hole that you can't get to when the engine is in, take the time NOW to inspect, replace, clean, whatever before the new engine goes in.

[Mark.Wilme]

Mike- it's an Elite 32, also known as a Kirie, made by Feeling in France, now part of group Jeanneau / Beneteau. Circa 1984 they have a reputation for being a tad tender but we haven't found her so. She has what I call a 'stub' keel with a swing keel within and a traditional masthead rig with 135% genoa - both sails need replacing but not this year with a $10k repower.

Interior accomodations are awesome for a boat of this era - a proper aft cabin with door (removed in these photos) and of course a fore cabin, she will sleep 6. She has a tiller versus a wheel and I am in the midst of moving the traveller from the cockpit to the cabin top (midst means I bought the gear to do this 2 years ago).



Tim - rear engine access is pretty good, there are 6 screws and you can remove the rear panel from within the aft cabin, take out the cushions and the boards beneath and you have access like in the photo.



I am ripping out the 'egg crate' foam and adding new insulation before the engine goes in. Should be sweet. More pics to come.

Mark.

[Mark.Wilme]

Update :

The engine was due to arrive at the marina and the engine compartment insulation that they (the marina) had ordered for me through Kellogs had also arrived so I decided to drive down Tuesday evening and get the 2 sides insulated so the engine could go in hopefully starting Wednesday (the eternal optimist).

I got there around 9.00pm and the insulation was under the boat as expected, I opened the box and this heavy 'blanket' unfolded on me - wow ! It was close to 2" thick, much thicker than I anticipated, oh well, no going back now and not time to change it - the new engine is smaller thena the old so I knew almost immediately that I had the space for it.

I popped down to HD on Rt114 in Middletown to get some SS screws of the appropriate length and some regular SS washers (they were out of SS fender washers) and got back to the marina around 10pm.

I had made templates of each side out of rosin paper the previous Saturday so I started with the easier side (the one with less cutouts), traced it onto the insulation mylar side (making sure I hadn't flipped it) and then cut out the foam with a 'stanley' knife and a fresh blade - a little ragged but the tape would cover it up. After checking for the fit and adjusting as appropriate I then taped the edges. My mylar tape was 2" wide, as was the insulation so it took 3 pieces to seal each edge and get 1" overlap on the front and back (yea it doesn't stick well on the back). Those inside corners are a bear to get good coverage on.

I secured the side pieces with 3M contact adhesive (aerosol) and after letting them tack, pressed them into place and reinforced with 4 to 6 SS crews with the regular washers -I will need to back these out and replace with SS fender washers at some future time.

The engine was supposed to arrive on Wednesday but it arrived at 1:00pm Thursday. As of today (Friday), the marina has begun installation. They will work on it again Saturday morning (Do all marinas work Saturday mornings ?) and again on Monday. There is an outside chance that it will be finished Monday but I am not holding my breath. I am expecting Wed to Fri next week.

I'll get down there next Friday evening and re-assemble all the cabinetry I removed as well as splice and rerun my 3" vent hoses (does anyone have a good tip for how to splice new 3" vent hose to old 3" vent hose - is there an adaptor or substitute adaptor such as a piece of Sched40 that happens to be the right size ? - Note the 3" vent hose is shown in the photo above, it's that faded green stuff ). I can finish up the remainder of the insulation in the evenings when I am down there, bit at a time.

I may swing by first thing Tuesday morning and check on progress (it's an hour each way) and try and be back home mid morning to salvage some of the 4th. If I do I'll grab some photo's at that point.

Mark

[Figment]

There's a HD in middletown now?
Jeez, I really have been away too long.

Is it possible to just replace the whole length of vent hose instead of splicing? It's not very expensive stuff, and it gets really brittle with age.

If the existing is in good shape and you do go for splicing.... just thread the new into the old for 6" or so, then do a light "clamp" of electrical tape near each end of the splice.
I dunno if that's how it's supposed to be done, but that's how I've done it in the past.

[Robert The Gray]

Mark

Access to both ends of the engine that allow you to swing a standard ratchet handle? No deep bilge pit of screw and socket death under the engine, unreachable except by lithe and wily 4 year olds with freakishly long arms? Very nice. Very nice indeed. There are so many wonderful solutions to boating design challenges, it is too bad they cannot all fit into one boat.

r

[Mark.Wilme]

Yes, there's a HD in Middletown, right on Rt 114. You know the "coast road" that comes out of Melville and comes down the edge of the East passage before looping back onto Rt114 - well it's aboiut 300 yds South of there. Handy too.

M

[Mark.Wilme]

She is not yet back in the water (anothger weekend lost) but should be by this weekend (better be by this weekedn !).

I went down yesterday late afternoon to check out progress to take some photos and also to get some more insulation installed. Well oops me, only like 4 shots in the camera and no spare card with me so photos are limited.

First things first they have the old LH 2 blade prop off and the new prop should arrive Tuesday or Wednesday. It's a 3 blade fixed 13/8 bronze sailor prop.



Inside the engine mounts have been modified and the engine installed but not plumbed.



You can just see bottom right the top of the new thru hull that had to be installed exterior shot of said is boring (yawn).

Engine bed mods are interesting - that's 3/8" Aluminium - a flat bar stock across the top and a right angle piece beneath for a total of 3/4" thickness. Those of you who saw this similar block (this one is the 16hp) go into Windsong will once again no doubt marvel at the color.

If you compare this to the prior pictures of the MD5A you will see she sits a lot higher and should enable me to get a battery box cover on there whereas previously this would have fouled the flywheel. At the rear of the engine the drive shaft is lined up beautifully.

Top right in the picture are my kill switches fopr the engine - we will be removing these as they foul the air intake on the Vetus.

I did get the insulation edges here cleaned up with mylar where they are scraggy as well as running new air intake hoses behind. I also added insulation to the rear cabinetry but like I said ran out of room in the camera for that.

They did install the engine panel, of course I could have done it but they did, simple as that. We still need to figure out where to locate the tacho I asked them to add. I left some notes and stickies for the mechanic with possible locations.



I got one photo of the rear but it's blurry - I'll get a better one later on.



You can see the new Racor waiting to be installed, the old vent hoses that I replaced last night and the back part of the insulation. Again in this shot you can see the drive shaft coupling also.

This week (maybe even today) they should :

>> Install Racor and feed/return lines
>> Attach exhaust
>> Install new bronze raw water strainer (the one they got is massive so they need a smaller one) and connect up the raw water intake
>> Install vent loop (This is behind the panel you can just see top right where the battery switch is - we may need to build that out a touch to accomodate thicker hoses
>> Complete the electrical hookup including removing the kill switches
>> Re-install the batter box (sits in front of that sump)
>> Install the prop
>> Light up the engine and test
>> Splash the boat

More later.

M

[Tim]

You sure have nice access to the engine from all sides on your boat. Very nice.

Glad to see the progress, even though it's slower than you want! Soon, all will be well. Hope things go well the rest of this week. There's not that much work remaining and they ought to easily be able to be done this week...assuming they work on it!

[dmairspotter]

from yachtworld.com

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/ ... =1876&url=

if his is worth 129,000 imagine what yours will be worth with a new motor!

Of course, he did spend nearly "a quarter of a million dollars" in improvements!!!!

[kendall]

Yeah but Marks doesn't have that nifty stained glass sailboat so I'd say $97k tops.

ken.

[Tim]

Good lord! His boatyard must LOVE him.

And despite that rather large "investment", the exterior is drab with that faded, nasty-looking pacific blue canvas.

[Mark.Wilme]

No kidding ! Actually we have seen that boat before. Not only do I question the $250k of "improvements" I am not even sure they are in good taste. The cabinets alone above the bav and galley really seem to chop up the space. Also I am not convinced that there is legitimacy for a TV on a 32ft sailboat.

Mark