Good News And Bad News

The bad news came first: it looks like the plan to fly the new engine from Seattle to San Jose del Cabo is in jeopardy and not likely to survive.

The good news is that I got the SABB engine running.

Yesterday afternoon I received a message from Mark telling me that during a telephone conversation with Alaska Airlines he was told that there is a 300 lb limit on cargo carried on their passenger planes. (Say What????) This took me by surprise because I had used the Alaska Airlines cargo rates calculator entering the estimated dimensions of the box and a weight of 500 lb and got back a cost estimate with no caveats. I then visited their FAQ (frequently asked questions) and read in response to question 9 the statement "Because today's modern jet aircraft are generally space limited, rather than weight limited, they can typically carry as much weight as we can physically put on them. Cargo space is the limiting factor." (Bold lettering is theirs.) I have sent a query to the Alaska Airlines cargo support center but I don't like my chances of getting a happy resolution from them.

I searched the internet for another air carrier to do the job but found nothing suitable. Even the vaunted UPS delivers only to the Mexican border. I have asked Mark begin work at his end towards trucking the engine to San Diego, and I will work at this end towards trucking the engine from San Diego to La Paz.

On Monday morning I will visit Eco Naviera to explain the situation and ask them to suspend all activities until I can sort this out.

This morning I went ashore and visited Hamish at Lopez Marine regarding two vents that I would like to order and he asked me how things were going with the engine. I explained the situation and he was emphatic that Columbia is a very professional outfit that will handle the paperwork and transportation very well. Hamish has been using them for years for bringing in all sorts of items from the USA for his business and his clients, so he certainly has credibility in the matter. I plan to take a cab to the branch office of Columbia on Monday bearing every relevant document that I have to see if I can get something formally initiated.

I then went to the Banamex bank near CCC trying to get cash through my Visa card and once more I got the message that the service could not be provided. I am used to this. Sometimes an ATM rejects me and I try the next one to it with success. Sometimes the same ATM will accept me one week and reject me the next. With this branch I had been successful the first time but rejected the last two. This was getting serious because I was running out of cash. I've had advice to deal only with ATM's attached to banks because there has been a lot of card skimming in the outlying machines. The problem is that La Paz has very few bank buildings compared to, say, Papeete where there were plenty of branches and the ATM's always worked. Anyway, to took a long hot walk into the town center and got rejected by another Banamex ATM, then went to a Banorte bank to find that their only ATM was out of order. Fortunately I stumbled my way to an HSBC branch with two ATMs. One was not working but the other one was and it gave me 3000 pesos.

During my ATM walk I decided to get mechanised and picked up a 4 ft chain at a bicycle shop and was directed to another store where I purchased a combination lock. My plan is to take the ship's bicycle to the marina and keep it there all of the time locked to the bike rack. I will have to come to terms with riding the bike on La Paz streets. I see very few bicycles on the streets which worries me a bit, but trying to ride on sidewalks is totally out of the question. Whether I ride it or not, getting the bicycle off the boat will be necessary to make room in the V-berth area for Brenda's visit.

After that setback with Alaska Airlines I needed some success somewhere and I got back to the boat at 2PM determined to get the SABB running.

The first thing I did was to wire a spare starter switch directly to the solenoid as Colin had showed me. This would enable me to start the engine while next to it, which meant that I would not have to trouble Bob to push the starter button in the cockpit while I sprayed the ether at the air intake. (The accompanying photo shows the push button switch with the white cable arcing up and around to the solenoid at the right.)

I removed the starter plugs from the heads and rolled the engine around to make sure that there were no pools of WD40 on the pistons, and no WD40 came out of the holes. I then loaded up each starter cigarette holder with diesel oil and screwed the holders back in hoping to deliver some of the oil into the cylinders in order to improve the piston seal. I then turned the engine by hand and was pleased to see that we had not lost the gain in compression that Colin had achieve in our earlier session.

I then did something that Colin had told me not to do: I put on the tappet cover. Colin wanted it off in case for some reason the decompression mechanism was holding one or more valves open. I didn't think this likely. Sure a head had been skimmed and the valves had been ground and there was one new valve seat, but the changes seemed too small to cause such a problem. My motivation was to avoid oil being splattered all over the cabin if I got the engine going, and I certainly was not going to shut it off once I got it going.

I forgot to do something that Colin had suggested, though I probably would not have done it anyway. To give the engine every chance to start he had suggested that I remove all three fan belts to avoid the load from the alternators.

I did remember to make sure that I removed the panel over the raw water cooling thru hull fitting before sliding back the engine cover, so that once the engine started I could quickly open the valve.

I turned the power switches so that both battery banks would deliver power to the starter. Over the last three days the banks had gone from 12.1V to 12.3V which might be just enough.

Then I got to work, can of starter in the left hand, starter button on the right. I decompressed the engine with the lever at the top of the rocker cover, hit the starter button, and the starter engaged. This was great. I had complete control of the engine: starter, air intake, and fuel throttle on the other side.

I compressed the engine and hit the starter, spraying lots of starter ether into the air intake. It did not take me long to figure out that the bang bang bangs of preignition were really not helping the process very much. I needed ignition near piston TDC (top dead center), not before TDC which would work against starting and possibly crack a piston. I kept the starter going (the hell with the batteries) and backed off with the starting ether, giving the engine just enough of a whiff to keep it interested. Soon I could sense the engine helping itself. I hung in there for another 10 seconds then stopped spraying the starter. The engine slowed down a bit then roared into life. I opened the raw water inlet valve then jumped into the cockpit and slowed the engine down to 1000 rpm.

I looked over the side and could hear gasses but could see no water. There was no need to panic yet because the entire cooling system including the muffler were probably dry.

I went below and turned the switch that activated the alternators. At 1000 rpm the engine was delivering 89 amps to the batteries.

I resumed my watch for cooling water at the stern. Then it came, big spurts of black water. After a few seconds of this the water was clean.

I watched the engine for 30 minutes. There were no fuel leaks, no funny sounds, and best of all the exhaust was water only - no steam, no soot, no white vapor, just water.

The wind was very calm but I figured that it would pipe up soon so I left Pachuca with her engine running and motored across the sand bar to tell Bob Carroll of my success. He seemed as pleased as I was. He mentioned that he thought that the wind would be strong tonight and a few minutes later he told me that he could see it coming across the bay. It slammed in fast and hard so I got pretty wet getting back. But getting wet didn't matter. I found everything in order on Pachuca with the engine still chugging along at 1000 rpm and plenty of cooling water coming out.

At the end of two hours I shut the engine down. I noted that the batteries were still taking 85 amps after the two hours (they must have been hungry). I revved the engine up to 1600 rpm to see the effect on the exhaust and there was none: more water coming out but no steam or smoke. I then went below, shut the raw water inlet valve, revved the engine up for a few seconds to clear out water from the exhaust system, then shut it down.

I'm not out of the woods with this engine yet. Tomorrow I will check the oil levels for evidence of water or diesel contamination. Then will come the crucial test: will the engine start normally.