Narrowboat Engine

[CDK]

That must indeed have a function only with EGR or to create vacuum to aid the oil pan ventilation. Diesels run normally without any intake restrictions and even better with a turbo charger. Make sure you lock it wide open or remove it completely.

[timswait]

Well, it's on the water, and alls good. Not used it for that long yet, just moved her about 20 miles from where we craned her in to her mooring. However, all seems to work well. The engine's pretty smooth and quiet (even though I haven't fitted the soundproofing in the engine bay yet) and easily powerful enough. The only teething problem is that the 4 ribbed belt started to tear along the edge, so I cut the torn edge off and used it with three ribs. Not quite sure why, probably I've misaligned the second alternator slightly, so I've have to fiddle with some spacers on that.
Had big problems trying to get it to run when it first went in the boat and thought the ECU was dead at one point. However it just turned out to be a relay I'd lost between it's removal from the car and installation in the boat, and once I'd realised that then it fired up first time on the key!

[peter radclyffe]

Originally Posted by timswait

Why is it that car engines are always mounted on 3 points and boat engines on 4? As I see it the loads the engine mounts have to support are the same or lower in a boat than a car. There's the torque loads from the engine (same in car or boat, maybe slightly lower in the boat as there's no sudden jerk as you take up the clutch), the static weight of the engine (same in car or boat) and any dynamic loads from cornering, going over bumps, rolling around at sea (likely to be much lower in the boat). So what is it about putting it in a boat that requires the extra mount?
There's nothing on the front left corner of my engine substantial enough to bolt a mount to. The water pump, alternators and injection pump are all bolted to the block here and I can't really see any way to make a mount work. So I'm planning on mounting it how it would have been in the car, with one mount on the front right of the block, one on the rear left and one on the rear right of the gearbox. Is there any reason this won't work?
I've attached a photo of the engine bolted up to the gearbox (I haven't got a damper plate yet so the shafts aren't connected yet). The plate on the back of the box is what I'll make the gearbox mount out of. The other photo shows the progress of the boat it's going into.

thrust bearing

[timswait]

There is no thrust loading from the prop. That's transmitted directly into the hull by the python drive. I take it that's what you meant?

[CDK]

Congratulations Timswait, it looks like you did a splendid job.

[murdomack]

Well done, it's a credit to all your hard work.

I hope you're not taking that steel cargo, in the picture, onboard.

[timswait]

Thanks for your kind replies. So far so good (touch wood). Still not done so many miles, but clocked up quite a few hours charging batteries. The only problem is that there's slightly more vibration than I think there should be (mostly around 1200-1800 rpm). I didn't have the flywheel re-balanced after fitting the drive plate. I drilled it as accurately as I could using a milling machine, but I may pop it out and take it somewhere to get it balanced.