All About Seaweed

Engine Stuff

Summary
(please click on any of the pictures for a larger one - use the BACK button to come back)

This is just a spot to put a bunch of engine stuff. It is KIND OF interior....

This is the soundproofing I put inside the compartment. It is from a boat swap. It is the "good" stuff. I only paid $25. for all of it! There's some more of it on the removable face panel and companionway step (below).

This is the finished engine cover and steps. All soundproofed and snug (we'll see about that!) . Excuse the rest of the unfinished items (for now)!

This is a valve set which controls the coolant bypass circuit. This coolant bypass circuit is used (on my boat) to heat water in the water heater and to warm the cabin using an automotive-style bus heater.

These valves (yellow) are the "emergency" shutoffs for the bypass circuit. In the event that they are shut off, engine coolant is still able to flow via other paths within the engine (hence the term "bypass").

The bypass coolant exits through the side bulkhead on the right side of this picture.

The hoses exiting in the picture above come through this bulkhead at the bottom of this "manifold".

From here there are outgoing and return valves (1 each) for each of the water heater and the cabin heater. These are here to regulate the amount of coolant that is "bypassed" - it is not clear yet whether this will cause the engine to run too cool when both heaters are in use. This will allow me to have some control over that situation if it arises.

This is the new Racor filter onto which I added a vaccuum gauge. This will tell whether the filter is getting clogged with only a glance at the gauge.

I added a mini-polishing system that basically consists of an electrical fuel pump plumbed in line with the engine's own mechanical pump. In addition to the polishing function, it serves as a backup in case the engine pump fails.

The pump basically runs fuel through the same primary filter, but routes the output back through the fuel's return line by means of a check valve. The schematic of the fuel system can be seen on the schematics page.

This is a picture of the control switch(es) that I mounted next to the engine. It has 3 uses:

The pushbutton switch "MOM" just momentarily runs the electric fuel pump in order to help with bleeding the system or re-filling a new filter.

The "ENG" switch position is set up to run the electric fuel pump anytime the engine is on (key).

The "ON" position uses the house batteries to run the fuel pump for continous "polishing" through the primary filter.

Lessons Learned

Never underestimate the advantage of a clean engine compartment.


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