What an anxious tense moment. I have been looking forward to
and dreading the engine removal at the same time. But as usual everything went
off without a hitch.
Last time I picked up some equipment from Bud Taplin (aka Mr. Westsail) I spoke with him about removing the Volvo MD11C engine using the boom to lift the engine out as the boat would still be in the water when I do this. Bud sent me a CD with pictures and instructions on how to properly use the boom so I don’t damage it. So many thanks to Bud!
Before I was able to start I had to change the blocks on the
topping fit as they had weathered to an unsafe condition. I didn’t use the
topping lift to help remove the motor but it was difficult to raise the boom to
get it in position. So new blocks were in order.
My dock mates gathered and we started to slowly winch up the
motor. It was quite a bit of weight (505 lbs) but everything keep going fine and before
too long the little engine saw some daylight.
The only issue was me not having the boom high enough. So I had to get
on the halyard winches and bring the boom up. I was surprised at how much
effort it took to raise the boom 4”. I knew the engine was heavy but it was
difficult getting the boom up 4”. The halyards were as tight as guitar strings!
After the engine was above the deck level we put some 2x4 on
the deck under the engine just in case it fell. That would hopefully protect
the deck. But they were not needed. We
swung the engine over to the dock where we had a cart waiting. We lowered the
engine down on the cart, blocked it up and wheeled it to the parking lot to be
picked up by the salvage guys. We timed
the removal of the engine with high tide as our docks are floating docks. If we
did this at low tide the trip up the ramp to the parking lot would have been
the hardest part due to the angle of the ramp.
All in all the whole operation took about 40 minutes.
I owe a big thanks to all the people that helped. So thank
you very much to Marty, Wes, Dennis, Don and my wife Deena. Marty and Wes had
done this before so they guided me through it all.
The clean up begins. Here are the before and after pictures
of the engine room. We removed the old hoses and all the other stuff so we
would have an empty engine room to start
cleaning on. Deena mainly just cleaned the oil, rust and gunk out of there. It
stills needs some work, but it it starting to look really nice. Once we get
some paint on it it should shine!
When will the new motor go in? I still need to order a few
parts for it. I am planning out the engine room so I am in no hurry as I want
to utilize the space to the fullest extent. We are planning on putting in new
fuel tanks (2), a water maker, fuel polisher, a refrigeration system, batteries and possibility storage
area for a Honda generator. So you can see I need to think this out.
Now the engine is out I can move on to the boomkin…..
Did I mention we timed it with the tide? Look at the ramp angle in the previous ramp picture.