failed oil change

[John V. G. Mayton]

Last week, on Monday, I had plans to revisit the engine oil issues on the boat.  It was going to be a bit warmer and the diesel engine shop was going to be open so I could pickup an oil filter for my old Perkin (1987) engine.  The Greybeard... pump (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u754PJK1XyU) had arrived and I had bought a couple of cases of heavy duty 10/40 oil to fill the crankcase up again once I’d pumped out the old stuff.  I had high hope as I trundled the dock cart to the boat and unloaded it into the cockpit.  Once aboard, I removed the engine room doors so that I could better access everything.  I then got an extension cord, plugged it in and rigged up the Greybeard setting  it in close to the engine.  That done I went topside to the helm and checking to make sure the transmission was in neutral and the throttle was advanced fully, I put in the key and tried to start the beast up.  Raa-raa-raa.  No start.  Raa-raa-raa. Raa-raa-raa. Raa-raa-raa.  This was not working and I began to think something was amiss.  Raa-raa-raa. Raa-raa-raa.  Raa---raa-----raa.  This is really not working, so figured I’d ask one of my neighbors for a bit of mechanical wisdom but no one seemed to be around so I decided to try the auto parts store to see if they might have a magic potion of sorts.  On the way out I spotted Tim’s green Jeep in the Captain’s lounge parking lot so I stopped there first.  As I walked in, Tom, the Dock Master was in the office and he greeted me with a, “How ya’ doing?”  So I told him about the engine starting problem I was having.  He explained that because it was so cold the engine wouldn’t start unless I could heat it up some way.  The glow plugs, if it even has any, don’t work and there isn’t a crankcase heater, so I was up sewage creek so to speak.  Do you have a hair drier he asked me?  Yes, but it is back home.  “There is one in the back bathroom you can use” he said, “Take off the air intake cover and point the hair drier down the intake and let it run a bit.”  “It will start right up, I guarantee,” he said.  Walking back I found the hair drier, went back to the boat, rigged up the hair drier (see pic) to blow hot air into the intake and let it run a bit.  Up in the cockpit I turned the key and with a roar the beast started right up.  Throttling back to a high idle I went below to make sure nothing untoward was happening in the engine room and saw that all was good.  Keeping an eye on the engine oil pressure and engine temperature I left it running until it was what I considered adequately warm and shut the thing off.  Removing the hair drier I plugged in the Graybeard pump, attached the hoses, put one in an empty plastic milk jug and attempted to insert the other one down the dip stick hole.  Nope, that didn’t fit, but the Graybeard people had sent along an adapter for just such an eventuality, so I fit the smaller and stiffer hose inside the other one only to discover that it was about two feet too short.  Just pretend you didn’t hear all that salty verbiage filling the engine room; okay?  Well, oil project was on hold, so I put everything away, shut off the switches on the electrical panel and taking along the hose adapter as a template I headed toward the house planning on stopping by Lowes and getting about four feet of clear plastic tubing that matched the diameter of the too short adaptor.  I’ll try this again next Saturday.