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I always thought am I wasting my money having my belts and impellers changed every year?

the belts always look pretty good when they are changed but they get binned. I prefer to keep a full set of new ones on board in case of a failure. One of our resident engineers always cuts old belts up to save you relying on them!! I agree with him. id rather have them replaced in a controlled environment than the middle of the river  

as I don't do hundreds let alone thousands of hours each year, I did wonder about impellers. Well after a year and probably well less than 100 hrs of use I was glad they got changed. One had a slight split and the other had a vane almost completely off!! 

Would have been very expensive and a right royal pain if if it had split off. 

So, imho the cost of regular servicing can pay off in the long run.

Each to their own and I am sure someone has run impellers for 10 yrs with no problems. But prevention is better than a new engine in my book :default_biggrin:

ok I often run my engines quite fast compared to a 1.8 BMc, but prevention is better than failure in my book. 

So book in with your friendly local engineer or get the spanners out. :default_icon_e_biggrin:

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I have to agree with the concept of prevention is better than cure. As a new owner my plan was/is to simply have a service once a year. Would the impeller be automatically changed during a boat yard service?

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We used Peachments to service our Nanni 50 and Beta Genny and they would check belts and impellers each annul service, replacing where necessary. It helped that I took the impellers off when not intending to use the engine(s) for a month or so and kept the belts at correct tension (+/- 0.5 ins?).   

Edited by Hockham Admiral
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2 hours ago, Ray said:

I have to agree with the concept of prevention is better than cure. As a new owner my plan was/is to simply have a service once a year. Would the impeller be automatically changed during a boat yard service?

Ray, I always make a list of exactly what I want done as part of a service. That way there is no room for error. 

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1 minute ago, MauriceMynah said:

I find the more DIY engine maintenance I do, the more I learn about the unit. I've now achieved the level of "It's a red one"

Love it. Mine are green though. Must be easier to work on than red ones!! Yellow must be intermediate.

apparently according to my wife there are 3 dipsticks. One for each engine and me! :default_biggrin:

she isn't far wrong. 

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As far as impellors and belts go for a broads based boat I am comfortable with an annual condition check and aslong as the parts still look serviceable and Im carrying spares I am comfortable with that.  

I dont see the sense in changing parts that are still perfectly serviceable.  Belts on a boat should last a long time, I changed my last set at 6 years and  apart from slight wear on the friction surface they were otherwise fine! 

But, I would always change oil, oil filter and fuel filters annually and gearbox oil every few years also. 

 

 

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I have had some horrors being found in Indy's engine room.

Before we left Plymouth I had asked the local yard to service the engines, change impellers, belts, filters (both oil and fuel) and of course had the tanks duly cleaned and we then changed the Racor fuel filter elements ourselves. I then obtained spares for everything also. This cost near on £700.00 foe the engine servicing alone but I felt a lot more confident.

You can imagine my surprise when NYA get in the engine room to adjust the belt tension to then send me photos showing how terribly old and worn they are, clearly not having been replaced, and new belts now on order. But yesterday they reported back about my coolant leak.

This is where the coolant returns to the port engine having been through the closed circuit of the hot water tank - it has a ball valve but the leak is on the engine block.  It began as weep and now is a steady run. Upon removal they find horror of horror that at some stage the thread had been broken clean off - rather than replace it has been carefully 'glued' back in place and then PTFE tape wrapped to hide the glue. In short the thing was held on with some putty/gasket type materiel, under pressure and had that blown off we would have had a rapid loss of coolant, steam, overheating port engine and that would have been potentially a very serious and dangerous thing in some of the conditions during her delivery trip. 

I know it helps to have some knowledge of engines and engineering but there is only so much you can 'see' and when you have asked for work to be done and paid for it, you expect it to have been done. In my case I am very grateful that NYA are so on the ball and also so communicative showing what they find and the fix after even if you are not personally there to inspect all photographed and emailed. This leads on to the fact I have no faith the engines have in fact had a complete service and one wonders if they simply changed the oil to make it look nice and fresh and golden. I've spoken to NYA who can do it probably in accordance with Yanmar specifications - we also need to have the Intercoolers apart as it is unlikely the anodes (6 on each) have ever been changed, and that is before we get to grips with the Turbo's. I'm told that once major interventions are made it gets better and turns into more routine (read cheaper) maintenance.  I hope so!

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I do a visual check on the impeller every minor service and change it every at every major service interval - 750 x Hrs, we always have a new spare onboard

Belts, other than a visual check and checking for tension I don't do owt.  The flat belt that drives the 100amp alternator is now 11 years old having done 2'500 x Hrs and is in fine fettle (New spare carried onboard).   The 'V' belt that drives the 65amp alternator and water pump failed at about 2'000 x Hrs or 9 x years-ish, I replaced this one whilst on the mudweight at Salhouse Broad en-route to Wroxham.  A new spare is carried onboard for that one too

Griff

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2 hours ago, LondonRascal said:

I have had some horrors being found in Indy's engine room.

Before we left Plymouth I had asked the local yard to service the engines, change impellers, belts, filters (both oil and fuel) and of course had the tanks duly cleaned and we then changed the Racor fuel filter elements ourselves. I then obtained spares for everything also. This cost near on £700.00 foe the engine servicing alone but I felt a lot more confident.

You can imagine my surprise when NYA get in the engine room to adjust the belt tension to then send me photos showing how terribly old and worn they are, clearly not having been replaced, and new belts now on order. But yesterday they reported back about my coolant leak.

This is where the coolant returns to the port engine having been through the closed circuit of the hot water tank - it has a ball valve but the leak is on the engine block.  It began as weep and now is a steady run. Upon removal they find horror of horror that at some stage the thread had been broken clean off - rather than replace it has been carefully 'glued' back in place and then PTFE tape wrapped to hide the glue. In short the thing was held on with some putty/gasket type materiel, under pressure and had that blown off we would have had a rapid loss of coolant, steam, overheating port engine and that would have been potentially a very serious and dangerous thing in some of the conditions during her delivery trip. 

I know it helps to have some knowledge of engines and engineering but there is only so much you can 'see' and when you have asked for work to be done and paid for it, you expect it to have been done. In my case I am very grateful that NYA are so on the ball and also so communicative showing what they find and the fix after even if you are not personally there to inspect all photographed and emailed. This leads on to the fact I have no faith the engines have in fact had a complete service and one wonders if they simply changed the oil to make it look nice and fresh and golden. I've spoken to NYA who can do it probably in accordance with Yanmar specifications - we also need to have the Intercoolers apart as it is unlikely the anodes (6 on each) have ever been changed, and that is before we get to grips with the Turbo's. I'm told that once major interventions are made it gets better and turns into more routine (read cheaper) maintenance.  I hope so!

Thats really bad, have you been in touch with the initial so called service comp.

Nice when you do find a company local who actual do a proper job.

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1 minute ago, Simon said:

Thats really bad, have you been in touch with the initial so called service comp. 

There is little point. A lot of time has passed now and frankly I feel they would deny such and say it was all done and prove otherwise, then I have to go to the expense of proving such and where would it end? A Court...?

So no, it seems pretty obvious that due to the fact I was on a tight timetable and moving the boat for good, corners were cut. But it also seems that the past yard who had 'cared for' the boat over the last 3 to 5 years were doing a lot of things on the cheap - bodges and so on a plenty. I know the previous owner was extremely hands off, the boat also rarely moved and if it did would be a short cruise from the previous saved plots in the Plotter. All in all I think he had been a bit hood winked into thinking things had been done when they only appears on the surface to have been.

Still, she is in good hands now and I do have a complete spares innovatory onboard which I am not dipping into and will set about ordering a complete new set. Things like oil changes, fuel and oil filters and impellers can all be done 'in house' so to speak. More complex tasks like taking intercoolers apart and finding the correct anodes and flushing such I'll leave to the professionals - one advantage there is if they break it I am covered, if I break it...I am on my own.

 

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I wish you would stop hogging all of Shaun's time!! He has had to do work on my boat as well! :default_biggrin:

when my boat cane out a few years back for regular servicing NYA found anodes and drain plugs "glued in" because the threads had been stripped. That was by a local large boaty company. 

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11 minutes ago, LondonRascal said:

There is little point. A lot of time has passed now and frankly I feel they would deny such and say it was all done and prove otherwise, then I have to go to the expense of proving such and where would it end? A Court...?

So no, it seems pretty obvious that due to the fact I was on a tight timetable and moving the boat for good, corners were cut. But it also seems that the past yard who had 'cared for' the boat over the last 3 to 5 years were doing a lot of things on the cheap - bodges and so on a plenty. I know the previous owner was extremely hands off, the boat also rarely moved and if it did would be a short cruise from the previous saved plots in the Plotter. All in all I think he had been a bit hood winked into thinking things had been done when they only appears on the surface to have been.

Still, she is in good hands now and I do have a complete spares innovatory onboard which I am not dipping into and will set about ordering a complete new set. Things like oil changes, fuel and oil filters and impellers can all be done 'in house' so to speak. More complex tasks like taking intercoolers apart and finding the correct anodes and flushing such I'll leave to the professionals - one advantage there is if they break it I am covered, if I break it...I am on my own.

 

Now from memory ( n its pretty good )I think you said the belts had been changed in august last yr when I recommend you changed them before the trip round the coast , not sure if I'm reading this correctly but it seams you presented the company doing the service with new belts which were never fitted .

Cutting corners is not IMHO acceptable given they knew yiu we're going to sea in her , always wize  to carry spares you never know + you could also help out others .

That bodge n there's no other word for it on the return circuit from the hot tank is Franky dangerous on a sea going vessel , you would have had no choice to shut that engine down n given the seas you were in that would have caused a lot of problems , I'd consider myself lucky to be honest to get as far as brundall , sure you can make repairs with certain compound's to items like that but that's all they are repairs a get you home thing n certainly not something that's shouldn't have be dealt with well before you bought independence .

Me I'd be counting my blessings right now .

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12 minutes ago, Ricardo said:

Me I'd be counting my blessings right now .

As I am. The point is, I did ask for them to be done because I felt 'a hunch' that it should be. It was literally the day before departure that the final parts arrived for the spares too. You may have had a belt go, or an impeller so we had that covered. I had tried to organise as much as I could from critical servicing and checks to safely equipment like brand new life raft and ensuring the Gen Set was in fine condition after a long period of being unused  but never would I have thought about something as important as that  being literally stuck together. Visually you had no idea until it was removed and here is the photo:

IMG_6067.jpg

Also it was a pretty hard sea trial we had and after we went over the engines no leaks were present, if there had of been it would have been a priority. Indeed it only showed signs of weeping midway between Plymouth and Weymouth during one of the standard engine room checks Griff was undertaking. He gently tightened up the bolt I believe, not wanting to do it too much - little did he or anyone know there was no thread and the thing was held together with some putty compound!

Still look at it like this, all is well that ends well and it is now something sorted. They are also kindly sorting the RIB so I can finally get that in the water.

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57 minutes ago, Baitrunner said:

when my boat cane out a few years back for regular servicing NYA found anodes and drain plugs "glued in" because the threads had been stripped. That was by a local large boaty company. 

Would that be the one named after Trigger's tool of the trade?

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3 hours ago, LondonRascal said:

As I am. The point is, I did ask for them to be done because I felt 'a hunch' that it should be. It was literally the day before departure that the final parts arrived for the spares too. You may have had a belt go, or an impeller so we had that covered. I had tried to organise as much as I could from critical servicing and checks to safely equipment like brand new life raft and ensuring the Gen Set was in fine condition after a long period of being unused  but never would I have thought about something as important as that  being literally stuck together. Visually you had no idea until it was removed and here is the photo:

IMG_6067.jpg

Also it was a pretty hard sea trial we had and after we went over the engines no leaks were present, if there had of been it would have been a priority. Indeed it only showed signs of weeping midway between Plymouth and Weymouth during one of the standard engine room checks Griff was undertaking. He gently tightened up the bolt I believe, not wanting to do it too much - little did he or anyone know there was no thread and the thing was held together with some putty compound!

Still look at it like this, all is well that ends well and it is now something sorted. They are also kindly sorting the RIB so I can finally get that in the water.

What is a big concern is how many other bodges has the so called engineer or company who carried out this repair, might be ripping people off for repairs not done to a standard and possibly putting lives at risk?

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Personally I might be tempted to phone them up or fire off an email telling them what you think of the standard of work they have charged you for.  

Maybe the person has a conscience! (Doubt it)

Id be kicking up a fuss with them even if all else is lost, might make them think twice in the future.

Ive only come across one broadland yard that I felt couldnt be trusted but thankfully there are still many honest folk around but unless you know the tradesman/mechanic or whatever is trustworty I never take anything for granted. 

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I should really update the Indy Maintenance thread here, but I will just post here initially to report that NYA have now fully removed the thermostat housing, re-tapped the threads, fitted a new valve and await the Yanmar seals to arrive to then re-fit.

They have also now changed and tightened to spec the new belts. I can also report that if you think Volvo Penta parts can be high priced, come and own a large Yanmar lol.

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