Two days ago, I hopped down the hatch with my screw driver and some wire cutters, and took the rubber hose off the exhaust after cutting some cable ties that held the bilge pump hose and the water line for my shaft bearing. After pushing that out the engine hatch, I turned my attention to the exhaust elbow, which was bolted onto my turbo housing by 6 bolts. But before I could do that, I had to unhook the pyrometer wires and remove the fiberglass wrap (which insulates the elbow so it doesn't catch the stringer on fire, but evidently there was a little gap between the two blankets and the glass is scortched, so I have to address that too....) so that I could get to the bolts. Since my ratchet wouldn't fit into the space between the exhaust and the bolts, I was forced to go in search for a wrench, which took a while to aquire, once found though it was simple to start removing the bolts, which were tightened down quite snuggly. After removing five of the six, I focused on the last one, which had given me some grief so I did the others and saved that one for last, applying more pressure on the wrench, making it slowly turn...... and the damn thing twists off! *saddness* So there is part of the bolt still inside the turbo housing, which is a bad bad bad thing. And so, with that, I decided to call it a day and walk away from that project. Then yesterday, I grabbed my trusty ratchet and crawled under the deck, to attack the transmission oil cooler. Using the ratchet on the hose clamps, I removed all of the hoses from the water strainer to the cooler, then from the cooler to the engine (which I had to get a screw driver because the hose clamps were a different type on the engine). Then I wondered how to take the cooler out. When the boat was built, I made a panel out of fiberglass and glassed some strips around the cooler to the panel, then I used some very strong marine grade adhesive and stuck the panel to the bottom of the boat, so it would be a task. So I found a hack saw blade, and back under the deck I squirmed (there isn't very much space under the deck, and I have to crawl between the stringers which has even less space, maybe 12 inches?) and I began to saw under the plate, which wasn't easy. After a while of doing that, I crawled out, got a plastic wedge and a breaker bar which I used to pry up one side of the plate so I could saw away with greater ease, finally getting it cut all the way through so I could remove it. After that I went up top and removed the banjo fitting onto the water seperator and when I looked inside, I saw lots of hairs! Looked as if a mouse had crawled inside the fuel line it was so hairy. So apparently, all the errant strands of fiberglass that missed removal in the tanks have now been removed, which is good. No more blockages. Then when I removed the fuel line from the return side of the injector pump, the bilge I was trying to keep clean, was invaded by diesel fuel, which upset me, but that's ok too. And I called it a day after that. Today I took the line off of the coolant over flow jug off and found the socket for the four engine bed bolts so that this weekend I can take the transmission off and lift the engine out, and repair some damage to the hull when it fell in last year, and also put in a drip pan *joy*. So stay tuned for more.
posted by Suicide at 8:41 PM

Boy, I certainly don't update this like I should. At any rate, here I am, once again to jot things down on a website that no one goes to. Well I guess I can't say no one, a few people go here. Not many. Just a few. Oh well.
This weekend wasn't all that productive on the boat front. Saturday I tore some more of the gelcoat away, opening wounds from last summer, getting down to a new surface. Mixing up some goo and making what can only really be called a "scab" on the hull. Waited for that to cure and sanded it smooth. Only to see that the wounds in a few spots were deeper than I had anticipated, so upon mixing and applying more goo, I left it untill Sunday. I got some PVC trim on the back of the house, which should catch all of the rain and other various water-like fuilds and direct them over the sides. Counter sunk and bunged so it should look very nice once the bungs are sanded smooth and hit with the buffer. Mmmmm shiny... And today I sanded the patch work from yesterday and buffed it smooth. Turned out pretty damn nice if I do say so myself. And I do. If one knew where to look, and knew what exactly they were looking at, I suppose that they could find where the gouges once were. But I doubt any of the people who read this could determine where they are. This upcoming week leads me to believe that I won't have much time for my boat for a while. Have to get rid of the boats that actually make money rather than the one that just consumes money. Like the old saying "a boat is a hole in the water where you throw money" or something like that.... Can't really remember it word for word.

Help conserve water, shower with a friend.

posted by Suicide at 2:42 PM