Tag: Engel

Maintenance in Paradise

While we were replacing the cooling system on the trusty diesel, we also researched refrigeration systems. In the end, Engel was what we settled with; three Engels. Their reputation was excellent. Evaporators are the achilles heal. Avoiding puncturing the evaporator the system might last 40 years. Well, that is, some Engels have worked for 40 years in the Australian Woop Woop (the Australian Outback). While not quite equal to the marine environment; it is harsh still.

Once the Perkins Bowman box arrived our boat (home) was knee deep with…stuff. Parts removed from the engine and parts to go on were everywhere. W/ tried to contain all of them under the dining table. The first order of business was to inventory and understand what each part was. Trans Atlantic Diesel has excellent support. With the kit they provided a video of the parts inventory and how to install. Tis always nice to have directions. They were around to answer any question by email. Luckily they only skipped one answer. Remember; this project is in the middle of Covid. Covid is not as bad in Australia as the US. Covid hit the US hard. And I did figure the answer out … eventually . TAD is forgiven. In the end; the words of my cruising brother flash florescent in my head: RTFM. Read the F——, Manual. 🙂

Before actual parts removal was an unwelcome task. And one that I really, really hate – draining the cooling system. We do have an engine sump but still, it is a wet, messy job. I will want to do something about upon rebuild. We drained the coolant, disposed of it at the marina’s waste disposal area and began removing parts.

As in most boat work projects ; when one project begins another one or two show their ugly head. Removing the parts, holding a new part in place to check it out, screamed out to us… PAINT THE ENGINE. Seriously! And the second project was that it is time to replace all the old hoses. Now that we can get to them much easier.

The parts removal went fine. We covered up areas that did not require any paint and took the parts to the recycling business. After all, it is good steel and some copper. There we picked up a few bucks dedicated to a cold one. Every part removed that would be reused, was cleaned and set aside. The engine was much, much smaller now.

We began to clean the engine. First was to hand wash with a degreaser. After which we cleaned with Alcohol and Acetone. Then we applied a primer. The engine changed from mottled Blue, to Grey, and to shinny Blue again. This job was HUGE! Once we painted an area we couldn’t keep working in the engine room. We needed to wait for the primer to dry, then clean another area and paint another part. I wasn’t spraying the beast. I didn’t want overspray getting into the living quarters nor covering any other area of the engine compartment.

At this time we checked the weather to ensure good weather while we were replacing the deck drain hose. One set of hoses had exceeded its working life. It was the cockpit drain. I now have easier access to it. We replaced it at break neck speed. . The next couple of weeks called for cleaning and painting the engine. The majority before putting – re-installing any parts.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Turning Dollars into Pennies…

Cruising; Throwing Money Away….

Yep, sometimes it does seem as if the saying: “A boat is a hole in the water in which you throw money” is true.

It all started four years ago. Our friends on Quixotic were changing out their refrigeration system. They had a Sea Frost holding plate system. We had a holding plate system. And I helped them.

  • One Holding Plate

The plate they had was larger than the plates we had. And even though I had worked out all the energy details, size, heat load, heat loss, holding plate time etc, somewhere, somehow I missed something. My target was a run time of once per day for an hour. Generator or Large compressor I didn’t care. I had one large plate in the freezer and one slightly small one. At the present I was needing to run the system twice per day. This tied us to the boat and often effected our ability traveling freedom as the generator needed to run often or the batteries voltage would go too low. At the time we had roughly 150 watts of solar which we had purchased for about $1,500 bucks a decade earlier. All that would need to be replaced and there goes another 1,500 bucks…. into the deep blue.

Anyway, back to the project I envisioned. The plate was larger so I thought if I replace the smaller plate with the larger plate I will achieve better hold times out of the system. So, I inherited a new / used plate. There were a couple of issues. Somewhere in the past blogs I believe I have said “If it’s free it’s NOT for me”. I violated that mantra. First issue, it was a refrigeration plate, needed to change the eutectic solution, not a big deal. Second it only had one set of tubing and I have a dual system, I need to add a second set of tubing, and third, the tubing exits in the wrong place. All of that can be changed….. for $$$$. I was remiss in thinking how much.

The cost of the changes were just at $1,000 NZ. Had I been really smart I would have scrapped this idea and simply ordered a new plate, shipped from the US exactly the size, the solution, and the plumbing as I wanted. I would have saved an estimated $250 bucks up front.

Lots of Cu
Lot’s of Copper

So…. now I have the larger plate and spend about a week worth of my own cheap labor jockeying it into position and connected up. Then I vacuum the system (yes I have a vacuum pump with me, clean the condenser, pay a refrigeration mechanic to install another charging port and sight glass, check for leaks and we’re good to go.

Everything is fired up and running. Plates frozen, I still get 12 good hours out of each charge. One hour on 12 hours off. Well, more like I could go 14-15 hours but that puts me in the middle of the night and the 1/2 hp 12v compressor does make some noise, way too much noise.

We have lived with that system for about 3 years. I play with it trying to figure out why I only get the limited hold over. Never a good answer. I need to add refrigerant to the system as leaks tend to pop up every so often where they weren’t before. I seal it and recharge and in 6 months need to do it again. There just is a lot, and I mean a lot of plumbing running two sets of copper from two different compressors to three plates in two systems.

Twenty years ago when we planned this out holding plates were the Gold Standard. Not anymore. Mike on Infini tried them for about 5 years and changed them out in Hawaii. I, being quite stubborn, lasted longer.

Thus stuck in Australia with Covid running rampant in the world, W/ and I figured this would be a good time to move into the 21st century. We would switch to Engels and evaporator plates.

We bought an Engel MDF 40  chilly bin; an igloo with a compressor for the boat while we destroyed the old system and put in new. We pulled out the holding plates and I listed $750 dollar plates on the local site for $150 bucks each. No one wants them anymore. 🙁

So I pulled the new plate apart, drained the eutectic solution, removed all the cooper and took it to the recycle place. My free plate, that I paid $1,000 NZ to have made as we needed, returned $26 AUS.

If you think cruising is in anyway an investment; put your money somewhere else!

Am I going to give up this lifestyle. NO WAY! The adventures and the love of working on boats is not…. FREE… and most certainly worth it!

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

We’ve Been Busy

We have been busy. I know the blog doesn’t show it. ( I am rectifying that situation.) Two huge projects have slipped by. I’ll post them in the front of the blog for a week or so then put them in the correct chronological order.

The first project was upgrading the cooling system on the trusty Perkins 4-236. Alex from

Perkins 4-236

Project Bluesphere and Steve on NorthStar had made the change; and they liked it. I knew we would be spending time in Australia, friends from the states were planning on visiting, and we have friends in Brissi.

I ordered the kit from TransAtlantic Diesel (TAD) and waited for its arrival. The kit with shipping and duty came to about 6k USD. Additionally when installing I broke the cooling pump and needed to replace it.  Here in Australia that too cost close to a boat buck ($1,000).

While waiting on the Bowman Heat Exchanger Kit to arrive we began preparation for the refrigeration change. In the end we were not “happy” with our holding plate system installed 20 years ago.

I identified some of the issues in an earlier post. To recap: The system was loud. The 1/2 hp motor turning the compressor would wake people up. It was right under our sea berth and made sleeping on passage next to impossible when running. We needed to manage the time so we both could get enough rest. It was water cooled and the pickup wasn’t in the best position in the boat. The water pickup was slightly aft of the beam. Much over 6 kts we often would end up air. The cooling would get an air lock and the system would stop. I then needed to purge the pump in the engine room while we were on a roller coaster ride across the deep blue. There must have been a hundred tubing connection through out the entire system. I was spending more time then I wished chasing down leaks. That and once found and eliminated we needed to add refrigerant. In places like the US, R134a is easy to find. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry auto store sells refrigerant. Here in QLD Australia, the only way to get refrigerant was to hire an AC shop to come check out the system and then top it up. At $250 bucks travel time plus an hourly that would get expensive, whew, glad that is over. Then, the boxes were so large W/ had difficulty using anything on the bottom. That space became a waste. The plates too took up a lot of room in the boxes making organization difficult. And finally, I never achieved the hold over I expected with the three plates. Thus the decision was to re-do the entire system. Remove the holding plates and add evaporator plates. Remove both compressors, the water cooling system and the plumbing. The search began for replacements. The destruction / construction would begin when we had the new system here in boxes. And the engine cooling system completed.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long