Down and dirty with diesels

I grew up watching the men of my family work on various projects around the house.  Sure, we girls (I am one of three) would step in where we could, but it wasn’t until we were much older that I felt that I had any appreciable impact on project progress.  Pops and Granddad took care of all things woodworking/gardening/structural and my Uncle Keith handled the plumbing/electrical/HVAC work.  We were very lucky to have such a talented crew.  There was one specialty, however, that remained elusive to our clan:  automotive.

The furthest we got dealing with our cars was the classic routine maintenance: new wipers, topping off fluids, and oil changes.  The latter made me feel like a had a glimpse of this other world – where folks asked you to describe the sound your car made when something was awry and fixed things behind the curtains of their shop doors.  I always answered their questions with a bit of skepticism.  How could you diagnose an issue with a car you had never seen purely based on my description of the strange sounds from under the hood?  And do I really need to keep my gas above a quarter tank in the winter?  Was that tip from my Pops just about safety or did it actually make a difference in the life of my trusty Oldsmobile?

After a month of intense study, it is pretty remarkable to me that I can not only answer many of these questions but can appreciate the living, breathing quality that engines take on.  When you hear the rasp in someone’s breathing, you know they are sick.  The same goes for engines.  If something is off – you’ll hear it.  Who knew that the sound of a well running diesel engine would make me excited to a level akin to Christmas morning?!?  I certainly would never have expected this reaction.

The day our engines were distributed amongst the class, I really had no clue what I was looking at.  Unbeknownst to me, we ended up with what I believe to be the best engine in the group: an Isuzu Pisces.  While she wasn’t the prettiest in the bunch, she has THE best sound (check out the video on my IG account for a listen).  Unexpectedly, it didn’t take too much to coax her back to life after months out of commission.  Once she roared to life I was hooked.

The line up. All of the major players in the mix here but we all know who my favorite is.

There she is: Pisces!!!! Yeah, she’s wrapped up in her fuel/water hoses but we had her running in no time. She was also the only engine in the mix that had all of her glow plugs working up to par.

We immediately dove into learning about every single piece of the diesel engine puzzle.  We cleaned up the spark plugs, compression tested cylinders, and eventually refit the raw water pump with a whole new set of parts.  Here are a few photos of the highlights:

 

One of the glow plugs in front of the exploded view of the cylinder head assembly. While the two cylinder model is shown, we were working with the four cylinder model. We eventually cleaned these glow plugs up to decrease resistance in the circuit and increase heating efficiency.

My bench partner at work setting the valve clearance for one of the exhaust valves. This is definitely a finicky process but essential to extending the life of your engine!

I was so grateful to have one of the IYRS boats in the shop to reenforce the skills we were learning at our benches.  This boat works really hard all season long to take folks around Newport and was definitely in need of some love.  We found some pretty critical issues – one of which was the same raw water pump issue we had on Pisces.

Classic discoloration around the weep hole of this raw water impeller pump. The bearings were shot so we gave her a whole new set of parts. Pressing the new bearings was easier on this Yanmar than on Pisces.

This exhaust elbow was pretty rusty. It’s not a surprise that the paint couldn’t withstand the high temperatures this part encounters. We rust busted the whole engine and gave her a new coat of Yanmar Grey. Yes, this is mostly an aesthetic fix, but we felt that deeper investigation could wait as there were no other red flags with the exhaust system.

Just one angle of the severe belt wear on this Yanmar. There was black dust all over the place. We realigned the pulleys and set her up with a fresh belt.

 

Not only am I going to have a much better appreciation for the trucks at the next tractor pull I attend with my brother in law, but I will be able to diagnose issues from improperly sized propellers to misfiring cylinders.  I can’t wait to volunteer as the family grease monkey next time we have an issue with one of our vehicles.  No – I’m not an expert yet, but at least I’ll be able give my educated two cents when I visit the mechanic.  And who knows – maybe there’s a shop of my own in cards!  I feel much better equipped for work in the marine industry with this specialty under my belt.  There is nothing worse than feeling stranded on your boat because engine trouble feels beyond your control.  I’m sure y’all have some stories on this front.  I’d love to hear them!