ok here we go. Tranquility has a Westerbeke M40. This seems to be the 4108 that everyone talks about. The boat is a ’78, and the engine has about 3800 hours. It runs well, with a very steady rhythm – sounds very solid. I saw the old owner drive it, so I am a bit worried about the transmission, which is a Hurth Transmission so in that sense it should be easy to get serviced and parts. The following is what is top of mind while the boat is on the hard this winter.
There are a few obvious issues:
- What looks like an oil leak from the valve cover. I had a mechanic look at it, and he said it was a diesel leak. However, no diesel smell, I am not buying it. My guess is that the top of the engine needs a round of new crush washers and gaskets
- A good clean – really how hard is it to clean, and if you do not clean how do you know where the issues are? Right now as I clean the engine, I will find where issues are. She is not burning oil that much so no serious leaks methinks.
- Water pump rear seal leak – remove and rebuild. This is a Sherwood pump, with one of those funky keys that will fall in the bilge. The question I have is whether or not it make sense to go with another kind of pump with no key – Johnson?. It will depend on what pumps are available that can be mounted on the Westerbeke – which is driven from the engine rather than from a belt.
- There was no sea strainer – really! There was some kind of strainer that was an antique when the boat was built, but based on the crud in pipe going into the cooling system, I am guessing it did not do that well. The engine is running a tad hot – not much, but a little, and I am guessing it needs a birthday. Put in a Groco sea strainer, new hoses, and flush out system. Do I rebuild the heat exchanger?
- The hot water heater is fed from the engine with a huge pipe. The effect is: 1) the pipe lays across the top of the engine, and impedes the whole bleeding process; and 2) the locker with the hot water heater in it gets really nice and hot – which happens to be the same locker that holds the refrigerator cooling unit.
- The stuffing box is totally hosed! Good pun eh? There is no room to loosen the stuffing box nut and remove / replace the stuffing material. This was not the way it was built. Either the engine has sagged on its mounts and is further back than original, or the stern hose has slipped forward on the stern tub. When I purchased the boat, the stuffing box was leaking so badly that the whole back end of the engine box was covered in salt – a lot of it. Anyway, it all needs a birthday, the hose looks as if it is on its last legs – need to remove shaft, replace stern tube hose, repack stuffing box with supper duper teflon stuff, and with a shorter hose, and I will be set
- Deal with the salt issue. The transmission needs paint, and the shaft was spinning water up to the tank above it (below cockpit), which is a steel or monel tank. It needs TLC. At some point it may need replacing, but there is no reason it should not last with care.
- No sound proofing – really, 40 years old, and no one put any sound proofing in engine box.
- The surveyor recommended putting a vacuum gauge on top of the fuel filter – which is a Racor 500. This will provide an indication of when things are getting clogged up and the filter needs changing.
Anyway below are pictures that I will add to.
This is the view of the stern tube before I replaced the hose clamps and cleaned it. Wow – old owner indicated that he had cleaned things, but that is salt that has been sitting there a bit (white stuff on left) . I cleaned it all off and it looks pretty good. It did not seem to do any last damage – etching of the aluminium, etc.
I took the raw water pump off as it was leaking.
Sailing Tranquility 