Who's Fault? The Captain's Of Course

Sneads Ferry, NC, Swan Point Marina
34 32.703 077 21.644

First the good news. The engine is running fine once again and we don't think there was any real damage.

Next the explanation. The problem was a loop in the raw water cooling line without a working siphon break at the top. It allowed the cooling engine to suck water and to start a siphon. I remember now installing a new hose on that loop a few years ago, but I didn't have the parts for the siphon break. Then, I must have forgotten about it and put everything back together and departed without the break. My stupidity.

We got away with it for 1? 2? 3? years (I can't remember how long ago I did that.) What happened different the other night. We had raced to catch a draw bridge and soon after shut the engine down with the block hotter than normal.

So still good news. The remedy to prevent this from happening again was simple and much cheaper than a cracked block or other nightmare scenarios.

The bad news? $500 out today, plus $450 at Sailcraft in Oriental (I bought new engine mounts there for $300 that I won't install until we get to Vero.) That's $950 on the engine this week. Add to that $3800 in September 2012 and $1500 in May 2012, and $650 in January 2012. We use the engine a lot. About 1000 hours per year. It is becoming very expensive. The worst thing is that every one of those repairs could have been avoided if I were smarter.

But last the excellent news: We resume our trip south tomorrow. I won't go out to sea until we see the engine work OK Sunday morning, and Monday morning. That's hard to say because there is a weather window exactly those two days. But it would not be prudent with such a major thing unproven. (Suppose our theory about the siphon break is all wrong and the real cause remains undiscovered. That's the risk.)

For the technically minded, see the pictures below.  The first picture shows the top of the loop with the new siphon break installed.  That is the part that was missing.  The second picture shows the engine; the loop is the black hose that disappears up at the top left of the picture and reappears coming down at the top right of the picture.  It carries salt water from the engine to the injection port of the exhaust header.  The red hose goes from the siphon break to the cockpit drain hose.   A thin stream of water runs through that hose when the engine is running, and air can flow back up (breaking the siphon) when the engine is shut down.

A story for another day.  I have a high rise exhaust header that I bought from Bud Taplin but I have not been able to install it.