I am making progress - rebuilding our Volvo MD 11D engine (and doing it in the boat!)

The cold spell is over and I am back to work.  I was successful in removing the cylinder without any problems, except that I do not manage to push out the liner from the cylinder.  It is stuck!  The manual is saying something along the lines:  "tap lightly and push down with your hands ...".  A NO go!  And I tried quite a bit more than that!  I will have to have it pressed out in the shop.

I then tried to remove the piston pins.  I really did not want to go into the scenario where I had to remove the connecting rods and the big end bearing cups - and then reinstalling all of that.  Manfred's article suggested that I can remove the pistons without that.

The only problem was that the piston pins did not want to be removed!!!

A day later, and equipped with a heat gun, some aluminum piping and a large clamp, I tried again.  If you have three (!!!!) hands, YES,  this system will work great.  If you have only two .... ?  But with some contortions, I managed, eventually, and the pistons are home.

But the pistons show that they have been in service for a while.  The major issue - I think -  is that the top ring has a ring clearance exceeding Volvo's specifications (we have 0.25mm, compared to 0.10mm as per handbook).  In contrast, all the other rings appear to meet specifications.

I called French Creek Marine and asked Wilburt to put aside 2 pistons and liners for me.  It looks like we are going to have a brand new Volvo MD 11D in our boat, coming spring!

The main reason I removed the cylinders (and liners) was to access the water cooling passages of the cylinder behind the liner wall.  Manfred's symptoms regarding engine overheating issues were very similar to ours, and I suspected that, despite our acid treatment in Martinique, the procedure was not enough to clean thouroughly these passages.  Indeed, when you look at these small holes around the liner (you may not see the built up of stuff around the hole, but some of them are significantly smaller) you wonder why anyone did not have cooling problems earlier.  And I recall a diesel mechanic mentioning that these holes were a problem with these engines.  Now I understand!

If we had NOT removed the cylinder, and had just worked on decarbonizing the engine (i.e. valves), we would not have found out about the aging piston rings etc.  I am happy (?) we did!

Now everything is stripped down enough so that I can consider getting things back together.

More about this in the future.

MD11D rebuild (progress report) ....

Well, we are moving forward.  I built my valve spring compression tool (it worked great) and I was able to remove the springs and the valves easily.

Next, I got the caustic soda (sodium hydroxide - AKA Draino in powder form, 1 pound per can) mixed it up (1:10 to water and some detergent) and cleaned the heads.

Nice and clean and ready for inspection.  But - oh boy, I found some serious damages to the outlet side (exhaust side) of the valve seats; they are severely pitted.  No wonder we had starting problems, the compression could not come up under these conditions.

This appears to be past "regrinding the seats by hand" and I will contact a machine shop to help me here.

In the meantime, weather is supposed to improve next week, so I might be able to get back to the cylinders and liners and get them home.

It is time for TLC for Marcel!      (AKA: Volvo MD 11D rebuild)

If you wonder who "Marcel" is ... well, we tend to give (or should I say, M. does that ???) important components names on our boat!  It seems to keep "bad spirits" at bay!  Or the "Klabautermann"!

It seems to work!

For example, we have:  Felix (wind generator), Steinhaeger (wind vane, and don't ask me why this particular name!), and "Marcel", our diesel engine.

Before Marcel knew its/his identity, it/he was installed on our boat in 1981 and did perform very well for all the years to come!  With our guidance, we had him down to Cuba, Bahamas, the Caribbean, and a couple of times back again.  What can we say?  No complaints on our part (most of the time!).

However, Marcel started to raise some issues.  Some we did not hear very well, others were pretty loud and clear!  Like giving us issues when we tried to negotiate the entrance to Bermuda in bad weather, or passing through Riviere Salee in Guadeloupe (at night, of course) to meet the bridge openings, and at some other times.

But Marcel (definition:  reliably, trustworthy, hard working, follows order (?) ...) made it clear on our  home bound journey that we had to give him some TLC.  And we promised!  And just to remind us on the last start-up in the season of 2011 of our promise, he waited a good 30 seconds before he agreed to fire up.

Ok, we got - definitely - the message.

I am (H. that is) not a diesel mechanic  .. just in case anyone wonders!

But!  I prepared  myself.  In addition to the Vovlo workshop manual (which assumes you can read a lot between the lines and instructions given), I also had a copy of Nigel Calder's "Marine Diesel Engines" book (2. Edition, 1992 - it uses the Volvo MD 11/17 series in a lot of images and descriptions; the newer one does not!).  In addition, and I was very happy to come across an excellent website by a German sailor who offered information on a lot of the gaps I found in the other books, and who was also very helpful with his emails when I had questions.  Thanks Manfred! 

His Homepage:  http://www.kavenga-segeln.de/

His engine repair details:
http://www.kavenga-segeln.de/media/2b574205c78c63f8ffff893aac144227.pdf

There are also many other boat related projects for studying.  The pages are worth an extended visit.

I also found detailed drawings at this website (and some ideas about costs involved; however, pricewise I was doing better at French Creek; see below).  All parts, from bolt to washers are listed here, together with part numbers.  This helps!
http://www.marinepartseurope.com/en/e-volvo-penta-603-MD11D.aspx

Having said all this ... time to get "Marcel" his TLC.

In case, you may not have noticed, I live in Canada, and yes, we have winter.  You know? Winter as in Europe right now?

Dressed like a Michelin person (you know, the heavy set guy will all these tires  around him, that's me when I go to the boat), I try to squeeze myself into the engine compartment and around the engine.  There are times I get cold feet - in every sense.  But the results show, piece by piece the engine comes apart and is being moved into my workshop.

Taking things apart is the easy part ... I have been told.  I hope they are (definitely!!!!) wrong!

The forecast if for nasty weather.   That means, I can drop my Michelin outfit and work on cleaning the parts I removed.  The valves are leaking and need to be grinded (or replaced, I don't know yet).

Fortunately, we have - "close by" in Clayton, NY (http://www.frenchcreekmarina.com/) - a major Volvo distribution and repair centre, and Wilburt  (the owner) has always been very helpful to get parts to us and give us great advice while we were cruising in exotic places.  My guess is, I will see him again shortly!

Stay tuned!

Virtual travels ....

Sienna, Italy

Panama City, Casco Viejo

Colon, Panama

A nice thing about having been away for a few years is .... that we have a lot of catching up to do on the movie front.

Yeah!

A few nights ago, amidst a snow storm raging outside, we watched a James Bond movie: Quantum of Solace.

Well, we revisited a number of places we had been to over the past 12 months or so. It was fun to see some of the places again, pointing out details to each other (and to re-run some scenes) and experiencing again - in virtual format - these places once more.  With all the action, images and memories we forgot all about the weather outside!

We are already past mid-January...but the weather is weird! We were to Toronto the last 2 days...and today, it is 8+ with fog all over...

Nevertheless, we had a great time in TO. One of the reason for us going there was to visit the boat show; Heiner spoke with various people about diesel engines: Nanni, Beta and Volvo.

It was also nice to speak with the various representative of the Canadian-Caribbean who were trying to lure sailors to their islands...Virgin Islands, Grenada, St-Vincent and Antigua and Barbuda...Because of the very few people visiting (it was Monday afternoon!), we had time to chat with everybody! But the only thing that we bought was...a bottle of marinade/sauce made with Ontario beer which tasted delicious!!! http://www.beershmeer.com/.

As we were staying in China town, we had our evening meal in a Vietnamese restaurant Pho Hung).  A nice hot soup for Heiner and a vermicelli dish with beef rolled in mint leaves for me! Both were delicious.

Today, despite the rain, we strolled along Spadina avenue and bought food!!! Shitake mushrooms, dried shrimps, pu-ehr tea, wasabi and ginger for our sushis, spices and Japanese candies!! Lots of fun.

On the way to the highway, we also went to a Middleeastern foodstore for other supplies: balck tea,fresh pita, feta cheese and an assortment of olives, stuffed eggplant and marinated lemons. Guess what supper tonight will be??????????????????

We have not updated the blog since last year??? Wow...time flies when you are having a good time. After our Christmas in Montreal, we visited our good friends Carole and Daniel and family in Saint-Denis de Brompton. We enjoyed their hospitality in their new home on the lake...it was a stormy kind of weather but we had a great time, sitting around the fire, chatting, playing with our electronic gadgets!!! and eating and drinking of course! Plus, Daniel and Heiner started to build Daniel's ICE boat...

Ah! oui, avant de commencer à raconter nos aventures de 2012, il faut absolument remercier nos amis Carole et Daniel et leurs jeunes du bel accueil qu'ils nous ont réservé dans leur nouveau home de l'Estrie!!! En plus de relaxer tout le monde ensemble au coin du feu, Daniel et Heiner ont commencé la construction du bolide qui devrait aller sur la glace ...à suivre!!!

A Christmas walk on Mount Royal, Montreal ... to burn some of the calories added over the last few days.

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel! Frohe Weihnachten! Feliz Navidad!

This year Christmas takes place at Marleyne's sisters'place in Laval, Quebec. It is a white Christmas...and the food more or less traditional ! Yesterday we had a Caribbean pork roast, we drink Rhum agricole de la Martinique, and tonight Heiner is preparing his Koenigsberger Klopsen...and as a dessert, it will be the traditional Buche de Noel....
So, we hope you all have a very nice Christmas!

Cette annee, les Fetes se passent chez ma soeur a Laval...nos traditions culinaires ont change...avec un roti de porc a la caribeenne, du rhum agricole de la Martinique, des Koenigsberger Klopsen allemands ce soir et la traditionelle buche de Noel comme dessert...Alors nos meilleurs voeux de Noel a vous tous!

Alles gute zu unseren deutschsprechenden Freunden!

Back in Kingston, Canada from Martinique ...

It is about a week ago that we were sitting in Castries, St. Lucia (due to an airline strike) on a terasse overlooking the harbour.

Today, we walked through one of our parks in our neighbourhood (Collins Bay) and enjoyed the deep frost and the surroundings.  What a change!

This is a "stitched" photo thanks to our Android application (in this case: 2 images).

When it became clear that we would not catch our American Airlines flight from St-Lucia to Canada, we had to find an accomodation near the airport.  While I waited for the Liat employee to give us some news about our flights, Heiner went to the Tourism office located in the Vigie airport and chatted with a couple - also stranded - and with the office employee. He found us a really neat guesthouse, at 5 minutes from the Vigie airport with a view of the ocean! for $59.00 US! The lady, Merlin, picked us up at the airport! What a neat place...http://www.casadelvega.com/index.htmlwe had brought food along (we now know that you get nothing on AA flights...) and we just relaxed on the terrasse chatting with Lud and Cathy and enjoying Pitons beers and rum. Life was good after all this stress...

And so ends another Caribbean sojourn...

Now that we are back in our cozy home, we can enjoy our "memories"...We had 5 days in Martinique, most of them in Ste-Anne. The weather was rather rainy and when we hiked to the beaches of the Salines, we walked in the mud for hours before reaching the beaches. What else did we do???? Oh, it was easy to spend time "liming" on Aquataurus or on land...Heiner got a fresh baguette every morning: this time I went with him and as I was about to take a picture, somebody else wished to be in the limelights...

Antoher day, we walked on the beach of Ste-Anne and found ourselves in the resort of Club Med Les Boucaniers...Très chic, merci bien. The resort is built amindst a 23 hectares park and surrounded by this magnificent coconut plantation!

On other days, we went to the little market of Ste-Anne to get fresh products or fish (announced by a fisherman blowing in a conch shell)...And on Saturday afternoon, there was this romantic creole styled wedding in the small church of Ste-Anne...

After a long and tedious wait at StLucia AA tickets office,we got onto our plane 2minutes before take off, rushing through. the airport and all security checks with Mr. Delisle from American Airlines leading us by the hand! This man has worked on our "case" for 3 hours half nonstop and while exhausted, we were very thankful for his help. LIAT airlines owes us money!
And so we are back in Canada, sitting in the hotel breakfast room and enjoying our 4th cup coffee...Just yesterday at that time we were on a street corner in Castries drinking fresh coconut water!

Pilot strike at Liat airlines delayed our flight to Toronto....we are stranded in Castries at an hotel with ocean view...will try to get flight to Toronto tomorrow.

After a quiet night in StLucia ' Anse la raie, we motored along the west coast of the island and had almost settled for anchoring in Rodney Bay due to a total lack of wind when a south westerly breeze came up and made us decide to sail the 20 some miles to Martinique! The lure of French delicious food and wine was strong and the weather great: we had a great sail up to 10 miles from Martinique when the wind stopped. It seems that the trade winds were disturbed by a strong cold front pushing far south and creating a troph with its squalls, t-storms, heavy rains and abnormal wind patterns. Whatever...we anchored in Le Marin at the end of the afternoon and Marlyne went right after the apero to Leader Price in order to buy saucisson, rillettes and cheese! We had a delicious supper!

We went back for more delicacies on the next day and sailed to Sainte-Anne in order to be in a prettier anchorage where swimming is possible.

Here in Ste-Anne, one feels like in a French village...with its backeries, cafes and rotisseries...Heiner is getting us French pain every morning from this little backery shop.

We walked across Bequia to the Atlantic side (the place is called Industry)  in order to enjoy once more times the view from Dawn's Creole resort. It is a beautiful walk on the road among flower bushes, coconut plantations and a magnificent view from the Atlantic with Balliceaux and Battowia rugged profiles in the background.

The sail through the Grenadines between Mayreau and Bequia was most relaxing but with no blue skies...November moods with blue gray waters a bit reminiscent of Lake Ontario. However, Bequia was as colourful as ever with its houses perched on the hill as well as the fishing boats on the beach, all seeming  to have been freshly painted!

We walked along the shorelines and were not so surprissed to see that the abandonned Eden resort was still there, with its huge mango trees and coconut palms!

Today's sail was to the small island Petit Tabac...on the outwards reef of the Tobago Cays. We had agreed that, if weather permits, it would be neat to anchor there..facing Africa. Well, the winds gusted up to 30 and the were several lines of squalls...ideal weather for a close reach sail in big seas. After a couple of hours of sailing, it looked like the anchorage at Petit Tabac was not so good afterall for such weather conditions,plus there were already 2 catamarans occupying most of the space. So we sailed back to Mayreau and anchored in Salines Bay for a pasta supper and a nice sunset.

Heiner is "trying out" Aquataurus engine compartment...this one is able to accomodate his whole body! The servicing of the impeller was successful!

While the sail between the island of Grenada and Carriacou is always a bit rough due to the currents around the several little islands and their underwater volcano Kick'em Jenny, we had luck this time and made it easily to Tyrrel Bay. We looked for our friends Ellen and Jim on Boldly Go but they were not there...and we left the next morning for Hillsborough (on the photos) to check out AND try to find Tonic Water. The old dilemma continues: we have lots and lots of Gin but Tonic is nowhere to be found...

Hillsborough has nice hills and more charm than Tyrrel Bay...we bought grapefruits, bananas and avocadoes!

 Today was hiking on the agenda; we managed to lure Peter away from Aquataurus and he accompanied us to the Concord Falls. The bus (direction Goyave) let us at an intersection from where we walk uphill on a paved road for at least 2 miles...it was hot and there was little wind to refresh us...We met a man on the road who told us to take it easy as there was still a long way to go...
When we finally arrived at the first fall, we were asked by the guide if we needed his services..we told him that our friend Peter was Swiss and knew how to hike mountains...The guide smiled a little incredulous. The hike to the upper falls was amazing..we walked across the small river a couple of times, jumping from boulders to boulders...and we really enjoyed bathing in the crystal clear waters of the upper falls.

 Today was a reacquaintance with Grenada StGeorges,its carenage, its roti shops, and its people. It all came back to us...what we had been missing since we left the Caribbean! On the way back from the shopping area, we also walked to the yachtclub to enjoy the views and good memories of having drinks with friends there. We felt right at home!

D-DAY ...D for Delays!That was for our departure day...delays in Kingston, delays to get to the Toronto Airport and delays of departure with Caribbean Airlines! Our flight, scheduled for 22h30 was announced to be delayed by 3 hours!!!!!!!!!!!! No need to say, we were not very happy BUT we soon found out that because we were on a connecting flight to Grenada, we were going to be put on the 22h30 flight which originally was the 16h30 flight...there was a lot of chaos at the Caribbean airlines counters and we waited in line to get "processed" but at least we were going to get to Grenada in time. The staff and employees were taken by surprise by these delays and did their best to cope...  The flight was very uncomfortable because we happen to sit in a row of seats with un-reclinable seats...for 5 hours....What a joy to disembarque this airplane. To make a long story short, we were on time in Grenada and were able to have breakfast with Peter on Aquataurus!

Grenada/Aquataurus - here we come!

Weatherforecast (wunderground.com) reads:  Grenada 29C, feels like 36C!  We love it!  Can't wait to be back again!

Fall, a nice Sunday morning walk today.