Engine oil check
 

"Capt. JG" wrote in
:

I'm in favor of global warming wrt to sailing, but that's it.



Well, it doesn't matter, anyway. There's nothing man can do about the SUN,
which is where global warming and cooling comes from....

Engine oil check
 

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Capt. JG" wrote in
:

Do all Perkins 4-108s smoke like that? I almost bought a boat that did
that, but it smoked at all rpms, so I passed.



No, they don't. It only smokes if the prop is too steep and you're
shoving
more fuel into it than it has air to burn....turning it into carbon.

It'll smoke if you're going forward and pull hard astern...

That boat probably needed to have its injection timing done and its
injection set. Smoke doesn't hurt them, just wastes fuel.



That particular boat was a disaster waiting to happen. The owner had huge
batteries (can't remember if the 4 or 8Ds) that were not strapped down. One
had apparently touched something and melted off most of one of the
terminals. Ok, so people make mistakes, but he never tied it down after the
fire that ensued!


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

Engine oil check
 

"Edgar" wrote in message
...

"Tony Helton" wrote in message
...
. Don't forget that frequent magnafluxing
of the block helps too.

You strip your engine on a regular basis just so you can magnaflux the
cylinder block??.



Edgar, he's a troll. Just ignore him. The only thing he strips is his
blow-up doll.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

Engine oil check
 

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Capt. JG" wrote in
:

I'm in favor of global warming wrt to sailing, but that's it.



Well, it doesn't matter, anyway. There's nothing man can do about the
SUN,
which is where global warming and cooling comes from....



Rant alert!!! LOL

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

Engine oil check
 

"Edgar" wrote in message
...

"Capt. JG" wrote in message
news:Z_6dnay8NMMAimzanZ2dnUVZ_j2dnZ2d@bayareasolut ions...
"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
"Wayne.B" wrote

I would argue that if you change the oil at end of season, changing it
again in the spring is a total waste.

That makes sense. There's going to be less condensation in an engine
than a tank (and I'm already on the record about that). Any moisture is
going to be pure distilled water so not acidic.

OK back to once a year.

--
Roger Long




Except the "end of the season" doesn't imply the end to sailing. It's
just fewer sails per month. --

You are in San Diego, right? Some of us sail where the sea sometimes
freezes so 'end of season' can often be stretched to say, mid November,
but after that all bets are off.



Nope, although I did live/sail there for many years... I sail in the San
Francisco bay. We find all manner of things in the bay, but rarely ice.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

Engine oil check
 

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:55:57 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

Except the "end of the season" doesn't imply the end to sailing. It's just
fewer sails per month. This argument does make sense, however, as possibly
mid-season is a better idea.

Roger is in an area where there actually is an "end of season".



He needs his own personal icebreaker!

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

Engine oil check
 

On Mar 31, 10:28 am, "Roger Long" wrote:
At least we don't need to worry about earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, and
wildfires.

If it helps you feel better, we have an active volcano here in Hawaii,
too...

-- Tom.

Engine oil check
 

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
"Wayne.B" wrote

Roger is in an area where there actually is an "end of season".



This winter has actually felt more like "end of world". It's still
snowing.

At least we don't need to worry about earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes,
and wildfires.

--
Roger Long




Mostly, I'm out of town when the earthquakes happen, although I've been in a
couple.. 1971 in Los Angeles for example. For the Loma Prieta (Oct. 17,
1989), I was in Japan. My then girlfriend lived in the Marina district which
was engulfed in flames, according to the news reports I was seeing. That was
a bit scary. I was living about 30 miles south of SF at the time, and the
only damage was a couple of vases fell over and broke.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

Engine oil check
 

wrote in message
...
On Mar 31, 10:28 am, "Roger Long" wrote:
At least we don't need to worry about earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes,
and
wildfires.

If it helps you feel better, we have an active volcano here in Hawaii,
too...

-- Tom.



Didn't realize you were in Hawaii... do you know a guy named Kelly M.? He
sails trimarans.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

Engine oil check
 

"Edgar" wrote in message
...

"Tony Helton" wrote in message
...
. Don't forget that frequent magnafluxing
of the block helps too.

You strip your engine on a regular basis just so you can magnaflux the
cylinder block??.



Edgar,

Magnafluxing is an old technique used to detect cracks. The method uses
magnetic fields to detect eddy currents and discontinuities in the flux
path. Using modern equipment but the same principles, one can easily detect
cracks with a flux gate magnetometer and no iron filings. Where ever there
is a crack the surface magnetic field of the metal increases and there is an
almost discontinuous gradient in the magnetic field. There are even paints
sensitive to magnetic fields and these would show cracks also. However, the
high temperature of the engine degrades the performance of magnetic
materials. I do not strip my block to magnaflux it, it only gets magnafluxed
during rebuild.

There are many acoustical techniques that can detect engine wear and are
used by industry. These methods were first developed by General Electric in
the 1950s for tooling machines.A simple high fidelity, wide bandwidth
acoustic recording of an engine operating will yield many details about the
condition of the engine. A spectral analysis of the audio signal can
indicate bearing wear, unbalances, mis-timing and the like. You can do this
all with a microphone and a PC with spectrum analyzer software.

Here are just a few examples:

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999ASAJ..106L...1M

http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ft00345.html

http://www.kirkup.info/papers/engnoise.htm

http://www.atypon-link.com/BINT/doi/...i.2008.50.1.30



Great example with graphs:

http://www.medav.de/fileadmin/redakt...ne_testing.pdf

And applied to boats:

http://mole.imm.dtu.dk/aewatt/pubs.php


The advantage of the acoustical method over the oil analysis method is that
the acoustical method can be done all the time and catch problems way before
they turn into ground up metal. The method can also detect problems that may
never turn into ground up metal. Think of it this way: how effective is a
urine test in finding a broken arm? If you listen to the patient you may
find out more than with a urine test.

Please take what ever Jonathan rants about with a grain of salt. He has no
technical background to be knowledgeable on these matters and his anger
colours all of his responses. If he could only learn the patience necessary
to grasp technical things he wouldn't feel so helpless. Most assuredly,
Jonathan would never submit to a urine test, so he would most certainly
appreciate the benefits of the acoustical method.

Engine oil check
 

On 2008-03-31 10:49:19 -0400, Wayne.B said:

On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:26:58 -0400, "Roger Long"
wrote:

I guess beginning and end of season is fine for most folks. My fuel bill
last year was $420 so, roughly 120 gallons, 120 hours. Even someone who
motors as much as I do should be fine changing just spring and fall.

I would argue that if you change the oil at end of season, changing it
again in the spring is a total waste. The oil does not go bad over
the winter and any small amount of moisture picked up over the winter
months will evaporate after a short time running the engine. If you
really motor a lot, over 200 hours per season, changing it once in
mid-summer would be appropriate.

I tend to do Spring and Fall, if only to be more sure that the junk at
the bottom of the sump gets picked up. And it's possible that some
years I'll forget one or the other for some reason.

A couple of bucks' worth of oil is a minor outlay, even at our 20-30
hour annual use.

--
Jere Lull
Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/