Update 04

It's a very quiet listless night.  In Grace's cockpit I'm wondering about my engine once again.

The morning after I wrote Update 03 I found the water level to be low.  We had lost water again.  But something was different this time.  I saw a leak!  Water was dripping from the connection between the heat exchanger and the circulating pump.  One of the O-rings sealing the joint had failed.  I was elated.  Here was something I could see and fix. 

I tore down the engine one more time, replaced all the O-rings connecting the heat exchanger to the rest of the engine.  When everything was back together I ran the engine for a couple of hours.  It held it's water.

This morning we took a two hour test run.  The water level is holding ok.  Not perfectly the same, it is a little bit lower, but close enough to be within my margin of error.
                                                                                   
Tomorrow morning we will take another test run.

I've started checking the weather again.
                                                                                                             

Update 03

It's a very quiet listless night in Grace's cockpit, the days energy was spent producing an early afternoon semi-tormenta.  Semi-tormenta  because there was no lightening during the hour long deluge. 

I'm wondering about my engine.  We took it for a three hour run this morning to test the newly recertified and reinstalled exhaust manifold.  I will test the water level tomorrow when it has cooled to room temperature and compare it to a measurement I took at the start of the day today.

Looking at the level this evening, I feel it is remotely possible that the levels will match up. 

I probably need a plan.

THE LATEST (2)

Yesterday I tore down the engine again, removing the intake manifold, heat exchanger, exhaust manifold and mixing elbow.

From the left are the heat exchanger, exhaust manifold,
the mixing elbow is perched on the manifold
and the cylinder head with intake ports
exposed.
 

 

I gave the exhaust manifold and mixing elbow to Kenny to pressure test.  He suspects the leak may be at the metal gasket mounted between the elbow and manifold.  This gasket blocks water ports in the manifold that provide cooling water to the turbo on the turbocharged version of our engine.  Kenny's pretty busy right now, so I may not hear from him for several days.



 

 

The turbo charged version of our engine has the turbo
mounted on the manifold.  Cooling water for the turbo comes
from the water jacket of the manifold 

 

Our engine has the mixing elbow mounted on the
manifold.  The water ports in the manifold are
blocked by the gasket (#16) that is inserted
between the elbow and manifold.
 

I may have found a used exhaust manifold to replace ours if it turns out being the source of the leak.  I spent hours on Skype talking with Volvo dealers, hoping to find one sitting on a dusty shelf somewhere, with no luck.  Finally I was referred to a fellow in upstate New York who collects new and used Volvo parts.  He "knows"| he has one somewhere.  He just can't remember where he put it.  If we need to replace our manifold I'll give him a call and see if he has found it.

By the way, the cost of a used manifold: $1500.  Ouch!

THE LATEST

Friday was oil day.  It seems like there is a limit of one project per day while cruising, no matter how trivial the project.  This was the case for getting the oil tested.  I took the sample up to the shop about 10 in the morning, thinking that by then they would surely be open, even in Latin America.  Not the case, they came about 12:30, but promised the results by 3:00 that afternoon.  They were going to call, so I grabbed a cab and went back to the boat.  I got comfy in the cockpit, reached for my Kindle, and then dug in my pocket for the phone.  NO PHONE.  Crap, I had to do an emergency back track.  I jumped into the next water taxi to the dock and rushed up to the restaurant, where I had stopped to chat.  My friends were gone.  No phone on the table and no phone turned in at the bar.  Shoot, this meant another wasted day buying a new one.  Since it was about 2;00 by then, I grabbed a taxi and headed back to the oil shop to get the report in person.  Got there and hung out until 3:00, went in for my report and was handed my phone instead. Fantastic, just saved a day.  In order to get my report I had to go outside with the owner and technician and have my picture taken.  I was their first customer and they wanted to photograph the handover while standing in front of their new business sign hanging in the window.  We were all happy.  They had a paying customer and I had my phone and a oil report that gave the dad gum Volvo a clean bill of health.  No water or Leak Stop present, plus all the other measurements were perfect.  The bottom line was the head gasket was not leaking.  This is good news, I guess.  Instead of having a cheap and easy to replace head gasket leaking, the expensive and unavailable wet exhaust manifold remained our chief leak suspect.

Saturday Judy and a friend went over to the Caribbean for the day, so our test run was put on hold until Sunday.  I puttered around all day and actually did some good.

This morning we went out for a 4 hour test run.  Everything worked great, the radios, radar, autopilot and all the rest of the lightening damaged pieces, except we lost about a cup and a half of water.  This is much better then it used to be, but still a serious bother.

I will confer with Kenny tomorrow about what's next.  I think a tear down and leak test of the exhaust manifold.

STOP LEAK

Stop Leak stopped the leak.  Water levels seem to be holding after several hours of running the engine.  We were going to take SV Grace out for a "sea trial" Friday morning, but we have a new development that needs to be pursued first. 

Yesterday morning we were heartened by the apparent success of Stop Leak as we torqued all the head bolts (some were loose) to tighten up the head on the head gasket.  This was done while the engine was hot, so we had to let the engine cool down overnight, before we adjusted the valves. We ran it this morning with the newly adjusted valves for a good long time.  It sounded great and there was no apparent water loss. 

This afternoon I pulled a small amount of oil out of the engine for a detailed oil analysis.  The analysis can detect impurities like antifreeze in the oil in very minute quantities on  the order of one part per million.  This was the final check to confirm the head gasket was ok.  When I took a close look at the oil in the sample bottle however, I saw many small silver specks.  Since Stop Leak is composed of some kind of finely granulated silver metal all bets are off on the head gasket.  This morning's first order of business is to get the oil up to the test facility and see what's going on.  Maybe head gasket is bad after all.

This would be good news because it would eliminate the "retired" exhaust manifold as the source of the leak.  "Retired" is Volvo speak for "no longer being manufactured".

I am not real happy with them.  Parts like the exhaust manifold are not usually replaced early in an engine's life.  These parts fail only after many years.  So just when you would expect to see a spike in the demand for these castings, Volvo has ceased making them, forcing owners to consider repowering......with a Yanmar. 

DIA DE KENNY: VEDI VINI VICI?

I have gone a bit overboard mixing Spanish and Latin, especially since I don't know either of them, but sometimes you got to make your own fun.

Kenny did come, did see, but the vici may take longer.  Disappearing water is a non trivial problem even for him.  We have reached a tentative diagnosis, there is a part that I did not know about, and it may be leaking:  It's The Exhaust Manifold, stupid.  It too has cooling water circulating through it, and it too, after a sufficient number of years, may leak.

If it is the manifold we would never see the red coolant once it mixed with the high volume of salt water that is mixed with the hot exhaust, cooling it before it hits the rubber exhaust hose.  Kenny had me mix some Stop Leak into the cooling water while running the engine at temperature.  If this stuff stops the leak then we will remove the exhaust manifold and take it into Radiadores Alaska for pressure testing.  I have to ask Kenny if the Stop Leak works, won't the leak test show that everything is OK?  I'm thinking maybe we could borrow a boroscope from a cruiser who has offered it's use to us and have a look inside the manifold.  Perhaps the silver colored Stop Leak would show up bright and silvery at the leak site. 

The saga continues tomorrow.....

WAITING FOR KENNY

Kenny is the mechanic who rebuilt the pump for me.  He gets universally high reviews.  I am eager to get him aboard because I'm pretty sure he will know where the coolant is going and how to fix it.

Yesterday I ran the engine then removed the intake manifold.  There was no water in the intakes, but I have left the manifold off so Kenny can see the condition of the valves.  They might need to be reseated.