[Ron Carter]

Thanks Tony,

If I was selling my boat and one of the after survey conditions was me getting a fairly minor (about $2k) repair done on a 20 year old Onan. If this repair is done by a Cummins Factory Distributor there would be some kind of parts and labor warranty. Is this warranty transferable to the buyer? If not, it would be better to give the money to the buyer and have him do it…if he would agree to this.

[Ron Carter]

I am having this same problem with my MDKAL, as are several others in my Tiara Owners Forum. Suddenly this extremely sticky substance started dripping out of my control box and running down the side of the sound box. The conformal coating on the control boartd/voltage regulator has failed after 20 years and is dripping down. No chemical has been found that will dissolve it. Those that have removed it have used a heat gun and a plastic scraper, making a big mess. After clean up all who have experienced this say that the generator continues to run normally. My Cummins dealer says that the Onan part # 305-0896 is available for $1203.42 and there are 25 of them in their Memphis, TN warehouse. The cost is probably the reason the owners are not rushing to replace the board. Plus, there is no return on electronic parts.

I have been trying to track down the conformal coating’s chemical composition to find a solvent with no luck so far.

[Ron Carter]

Toolman,

Please let us know what happened if you adjusted the aneroid. One guy on the Club Sea Ray Forum backed off his spring tension by two clicks and said it fixed his slow spooling engine. I am down to that procedure because I have no other symptoms mentioned in Tony’s Tip on the lazy aneroid.

 

And, Glendinning told me that if the synchronizer is off it is not possible to cause slow spooling because it is hard attached to the throttle cables when off.

[Ron Carter]

If this adjustment affects spool up with the sync off too that might explain the lack of smoke. IOW, not lack of air just not throttling up as fast as the other engine.

[Ron Carter]

If you will drop down three posts on this page you will find my post on the same issue. I have not received an answer here about what to check aside from Tony’s low power tip. My filters are all clean, the turbo spins freely and my injectors are a year old. WOT, like yours, is not affected.

[Ron Carter]

I have read Tony’s low power article but didn’t see any thing about one engine being slower spooling but getting full same WOT turns as the faster one after it spooled. That is my situation. I have no fuel leaks, fresh filters all around and a clean bottom. WOT is 2600 on dash tack and manual tack for both.  In case I missed some thing in the article, could a turbo bearing be getting tight?

[Ron Carter]

I have received more information from the seller and learned the engines have exactly amount of oil that Tony recommends.

[Ron Carter]

Yes, this is what I read. Between the lines I perceive that you think running at the low mark is OK?

[Ron Carter]

Thanks. After talking to the company that did the work I am rejecting the boat. They said it will need major work and it can’t be done in frame.

[Ron Carter]

Took most of the overload off and got a good bottom clean from diver and she ran like a scalded dog at 182 degrees WOT on official pre-sale sea trial.

All is well.

[Ron Carter]

Overloaded seems to be the key word here. We’ll see during coming sea trial. Adding to the overload is that I forgot to mention a 12.5′ RIB with a 30 HP outboard riding to top…that adds close to 600 pounds to the fuel and water weights.

[Ron Carter]

Tony,

I will always listen to the Guru!!

190 is not my operational temperature. My operational temperature is 170 degrees all day long. Nothing has changed as far as I know. Entire cooling system off in November 2016 and new impeller couple of weeks ago as part of annual service.

Today was a short run up in anticipation to a pre sale sea trial this coming Wednesday. I know that the surveyor is going to insist on a few minutes a WOT. I want to be able to say that 190 is OK under these circumstances… or say that I will fix whatever is wrong.

Since I have had the boat I have thought many times of taking out some pitch. Then, after I thought about it, I decided that I very rarely cruised at more than 1600 and the although it would run up to where you said it needs to be, I did not care about it for a tug. A sportfish, absolutely, l want the full turns, but this is not really a planning boat. That said, anything will plane if you throw enough HP at it.

[Ron Carter]

I’ll talk to my mechanic who meets your physical and mental qualifications. He is young, resourceful, talented and very strong.

Where would the slot grinding possibly need doing?

If we get the parts from you would you be available for a phone call with him?

Is this the best Tony’s Tip for the job?

Isolator Mounting & Parallelism

[Ron Carter]

Thanks for taking the time to look at this.

What is your estimate of the time in hours to replace all of the isolator/mounts? Would you have the parts? If so, how much?

Although the vibration is not that bad…and I know where it is rpm wise…I am the type to fix it right.

Ron

[Ron Carter]

Continued.

[Ron Carter]

Tony,

I am going to have to get a person smaller and younger than me to take the pictures. All I accomplished today was skinned knees, leg cramps and sweat dripping on my camera. The way the stringers are oriented made taking pictures very difficult. I will send some better ones when I can. I did learn that I need to get someone down there with a wire brush to get rid of the rust.

[Ron Carter]

Tony,

The aftercooler was removed from the boat. both sides cleaned, and put back together with lots of grease. I would guess it is pretty close to the protocol you state here but I have not asked him if he is specifically aware of your method.

On Friday I ran the boat home at mostly 1600 rpms for four hours. There is no vibration at 1600 or at 2590 which is WOT with our current load of my wife’s stuff and half fuel and water….and a diver cleaned but two old bottom job. Smooth as silk at those rpms. The vibrations I have are not major but I can feel them and see the ripples in my drinking water. These rpms are 1200-1400 and around 1800. No significant shake at idle.

Here are some more pictures. i wish knew why the elbow weld broke.

Thanks

Ron

[Ron Carter]

Thanks Tony,

I am sending some information here and will get the rest when I get to the boat.

It is a 2006 Nordic Tug 42′. I have only had the boat for a year. The last owner only had it a year too and had to sell because of illness. It was a local boat and the mechanic that I have used for years was the seller’s mechanic also. That gave me a good feeling for it.

Right before I bought it “our” mechanic removed the entire cooling system and cleaned it properly. It was not in bad shape and no overheating had been experienced. So in marine years the cooling system is starting year two. He also installed a new dripless packing gland and aligned the engine.

About two months ago the exhaust elbow cracked a weld resulting in an exhaust leak that caused a power loss. My mechanic cleaned the air sep and repaired the elbow. Picture below. This may have been caused by vibration or have been a bad weld from the beginning. I have run the boat about 10 hours since the fix with no new leaks. Except for this boat I have kept a styrofoam coffee cup in the engine room for early warning of exhaust leaks. One is there now. It is still white as snow.

More to come

Ron

[Author]

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