Putting it all back together was a step forward, wait, step forward, wait process. We would paint an area with primer, wait for it to dry, then paint with engine paint. After it dried I was able to put on one more part. In shops they would put all the parts on, and spray the entire engine. Manufacturers are able to rotate it, get under, turn it to get in the small places, and all the while spray. At manufacturing facilities they electrically charged the paint and the engine. All the paint ends up attracted to the engine and goes where it belongs. On a boat; not so much. I used a brush and sometimes a roller on the bottom of the oil pan. There wasn’t much room between the oil pan and the engine sump. That often required a couple of days to cover, and avoiding getting more paint on my arms than the oil pan. I would paint, let dry, take a mirror and scout the area for what I missed, then paint again. The pan itself required three times to cover it all. More detail are on the April 25, 2020 post.
While this was happening we began the refrigeration removal. In an older post I discussed the removal of the holding plates. With that completed we began to remove all the Copper tubing and connections. Of course care was needed to remove any pressurized refrigerant left in the system. Yet, as I indicated before I was always dealing with a leak and could never trace them all down. Thus there wasn’t enough refrigerant left in the system to be dangerous. As I was removing parts I discovered two connections that were suspect. I had never found them leaking prior. One was in the engine driven compressor line. The Copper tubing slipped when I was first installing it. For a decade there was a poor seat with the double furled Swedge Lok fittings. Another suspect spot was in the DC side on one of the expansion valves. Thus W/ and I spent a couple of days pulling all the Copper out and cutting off the ends. I saved the Swedge Loks but W/ wonders what for. Most likely they will go to the recyclers too. We hauled the Copper to the re-cyclers and the money reinvested in new hoses for the Perkins.
After we removed the Copper, expansion valves, and plates it was time to assess. The good news, look at
all the room we now have! The bad news, some of the wood where the Copper tubing ran through was soft, very, very soft. More wood under the expansion valves was so soft I could push my finger into it. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise. Damn!
This discovery added a speed bump to our refrigeration project. And a new project added to the list. Cut out the old soft wood, grind the old tabbing off and replace it all with new. As this project bounced around in my head W/ and I discussed other changes that might improve life aboard. What would we do with the old DC 5000 Compressor locker? We hope we could fit all three Engel compressors in the locker where the valves were. And to ensure that locker had enough room we could move the Exeltech Inverter. Inverters closer to the batteries – GOOD. The rest of the locker would be storage for staples.
More stuff to remove, and more to move. We pulled out the DC5000 compressor and the wiring. Tinned boat wire is always valuable and kept in boat spares. We too needed to remove the inverter. No inverter; no use of any 110 volt tools we have. Sometimes lady luck visits us. We had purchased a small ProSport portable inverter in the states. This might now be of some use. That has smallish inverter has worked flawlessly when we’ve needed. Every year for 10 years.
(Any future world cruisers reading this; ensure your boat is wired for both 220 and 110 volt systems. It is very, very costly to have a 110 volt product shipped to foreign lands. )
With everything removed we tackled the next project. Tenting, Grinding, replacing bad wood.
Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long