Saturday, November 22, 2014

The remarinization of Jomfru's 4 cylinder Ford diesel

The remarinization of Jomfru's 4 cylinder Ford diesel, a 2712e base engine marinised originally by Bowman marine London, England in the very early 70's.

this little story is the one of how i became a diesel mechanic out of financial necessity more so than anything else. That and I've always liked taking shit apart, grandpa would call me "Dynamite" when i was little.




So when i first purchased Jomfru I was told the the engine had been started regularly. Along with the purchase, I negotiated the continued use of her current docked location. this put engine starting not so high on my list. Hell actually i was amazed that I owed the boat! never mind did it run who worries of such small details? lol.....
  With a few failed attempts at starting her, I came to to conclusion the she wasn't getting fuel. certainly I checked all the common causes of a hard starting diesel, from fuel level to air bleeding, filters and lift pump. turns out that she had sat a little longer than was said and the stop control leaver was stuck in the off position. I reinforced this idea during a test session when I was able to get it running by punching a few holes in a can and placing  it on the air intake with some diesel fuel.

 
                          It was during that same test starting session, that I discovered the true condition of the exhaust manifold, heat exchanger and header tank. after inquiring locally for injector pump rebuild prices "$1200-$1500 by the way" and the scarcity of available parts, I turned my focus on interior removal and getting Jomfru to a yard. 

old Bowman heat exchanger/ header tank



after a long time and many projects later it was finally time to get back to working on the engine. by now both you and i know its not going to be cheap, instead of just half assing back together a 40+ year old system, I decided my life and Jomfru were both worth more than that. So shopping we did go. "below I included some of the damage done to the bank account".







I would like to thank Brian Smith and the guys over at American Diesel Corp.   http://www.americandieselcorp.com/ VERY knowledgeable and  professional would recommend to anyone in need of info / parts.
The rest of the photos are of the painting and reassembly process along with a video or 2. I hope you enjoyed this weeks blog. please email me if you have any questions comments or suggestions. as you could imagine i too have become fairly good with these engines.

Post by Ricardo Alberto Namias.

 












                                                                                

In Loving Memory of Alberto Namias

Saturday, November 15, 2014

life on the HARRRRD what the hell am I doing?


So its been a little over a year and a half, thousands of dollars and the end of a 4.5yr relationship since I moved aboard a Viksund named Jomfru. Shes a ketch rigged Norwegian double ended motorsailer, currently on the hard in Fort Lauderdale Florida. Something I thought would only take a few weeks or even a few months at best, has taken me about 2 years. I'll get into that later. As I near the end, or at least see a minute amount of light at the end of the tunnel. I've begun to reflect back on what made me star this crazy; long; expensive; heart breaking; character building; voyage in the first place.

it all started in about 2009 i believe .life had issued me a few bad hands after a seemingly good run. its important to know that up until now i pretty much got whatever i wanted , not to say i dont now but this comes about by diffrent means these days

so long story short i ended up sleeping on couches and floors of friends and family that without even a second thought opened their homes to me. it was while i stayed at my sissters house in homestead fl. that i made the decision to focus my life to move towards the sea.however before i could even think about a boat i had to pick myself up out of the rut i was in. until now i had always lived in beautiful houses or apartments, but i knew that was all going to change. with a few good breaks i made my way back out on my own, because of its affordability i began living in a storage unit also which doubled as my art studio, that too is another story.     

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vutpkHB_gkc

One evening in December, 2010 by now, I was walking around the warehouse that my unit resided. I passed the open door of a mechanic which i was familiar with. We began to banter of this and that, when from the house across the street appeared a man which was a long time friend of the mechanic. We continued to chat for a while and I clearly remember saying "man I really want a sailboat". " I know somebody with a sailboat for sale" said the new comer. Turns out he did a Great lady named Sherry. And the rest is history, of course the story doesn't end there, but i have to leave something for next time.

Thanks for reading.