Eximius - from the beginning: Good Vibrations

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Good Vibrations - Part V

WooHoo! It worked

After a small 'gotcha' in the initial start up yesterday, today we're all smiles!
A quick trip to West Marine (waste of time today) and a successful trip to Boat Owners Warehouse, we then went to the boat intent on getting the initial startup after all the work on the Engine Exhaust, Electrical Harness, New Instruments, New Engine Mounts and hooking the Engine Coolant system to the Hot Water Heater.

Considering this was really my first big job on an engine system, I'm really pleased. Ken Kloeber of Weekend'r Products was able to supply all of the wiring & wire lug needs and the New Tachometer, the rest came from various suppliers via Amazon.

Before we started the engine for the first time, we had all of the boat's extinguishers handy and Peggy out in the Cockpit and myself with an escape route just in case anything went really wrong. It felt a bit like the first start of the Star Ship Enterprise!

Peggy turned on the Ignition, I could hear the fuel pump running - good sound! Ran the engine bay blower motor - another good sound! Next the Glow Plugs, no sounds - that's good, and no huge spike in amps as displayed on the Electrical Control Panel. Raw Water valve open, ready to go! Peggy pressed on the Start Button and the engine sprang into life - a little hesitant but we realised the boat was in gear - we had let the moment obscure that little fact. Into Neutral, engine is purring!

That initial run was just to make sure the starter worked and there were no initial leaks - Passed!

We shut down the engine and gave it a breather while we celebrated with an ice cold water and lunch sandwich.

2nd Start (In Neutral) and it started without hesitation. We both compared the vibration to what we had previously experienced and both of us concluded that it's vastly superior!

The engine quickly came up to 145F, all of the gauges working (lites too) let it run for about 5 minutes this time.

So with that success, it's time to finish up: New Exhaust Riser Insulation Jacket - Done, Water Lines to Bathroom connected - Done, Electrical wiring inside engine bay secured - Done.

Next it was time to check out the water heater - but Mom Nature stepped in to put that test on hold - Heavy storms heading up from the South East. So a quick tidy up - Put all tools away, toss out all of the hose cut offs less than 4' long, close up the boat and head home.

Really pleased with progress today - if the weather had not intervened we would have refilled the water tanks & completed the hot water heater test. Tomorrow!