Finishing Touches, Ready to Cruise

Ray and I sometimes stop and browse at the Second Wave store in Fremont.  It's a consignment store chock full of used marine odds and ends, from cleats to engines.  It's somewhat organized, with parts categorized on the shelves by electrical, trim, sailing hardware, instruments, running gear and so forth.  But, when you have something specific in mind, some browsing of the aisles is usually required.  On a recent visit with nothing particular in mind, we came across what appeared to be a brand new Raritan rudder angle indicator gauge - identical to the one Ray had repaired some time ago, as described earlier in this tome.  It was the gauge only, not the sending unit and control box - precisely what we had shopped for earlier, only to find that just this part would cost $186.  This unit was priced at $25, and we snapped it up.

As I was dismantling the instrument panel last year in our preparations to remove the Perkins engines, I had snipped the wires to the old gage and labeled the end with masking tape.  A lot of wire had since passed up and down under the instrument panel, and when we first installed the new instrument panel I couldn't find that wire.  With the new indicator installed, we gave it another try and found the marked wire - it went off through a small hole in the side a couple feet down, where it crossed over the autopilot's fluxgate compass to a Raritan control unit.  That was all we needed - we pulled the old wire out and snaked the new instrument's wire through in its place, connecting to the same terminals.  A flip of the switch, and the gauge came to life, moving to port and starboard as we turned the wheel.  It's a little jumpy to starboard - probably need to clean some contacts back at the sending unit, which is mounted on one of the rudder posts astern.
 

Note in the photo that the manual fuel shut-off controls have been replaced with a couple of buttons; one for the air horns, and the other for the new siren.  We'll make a bracket for the fuel shut-offs and mount them behind the instrument panel.  They aren't used regularly with these engines so don't need to be so handy.

We're just one week away from our self-imposed deadline of having the boat ready for a trip.  We will be joining the Classic Yacht Association Rendezvous at the Bell Harbor Marina on the Seattle waterfront.  It's a great opportunity for a short trial trip, and since the classic yachts will be on display to the public at times, our moorage is free as well. 

 

Over the past year we have acquired quite a few additional tools, and also have left-overs of hoses, clamps, wire and so forth - all currently arranged on the main salon floor.  I purchased some canvas tool bags, and we'll have to figure out how to organize all this stuff so we can either put it away or take it off the boat.  We have to be careful about that as we're still using tools as we button things up.

In the past week we have remounted the mast, radar and weather station, snaking the wires for that stuff back along the ceiling, up through the mast mount and into the mast.  Next we filled in the saw kerfs from cutting open the salon roof.  We were going to use fiberglass, but decided to do it with Marine Tex instead.  This is an epoxy product that mixes with a catalyst to a thick putty.  It has a longer pot life than the fiberglass, and it doesn't drip through any cracks down into the salon.  It takes more effort to work it all into the cracks, which Ray and I did using plastic putty knives.  Ray did along the sides while I was up on the roof with knee pads doing the cross cuts.  Teamwork!

The first application sagged some into the cracks and countersunk screw holes, as expected.  Hopefully the second application will be all we need to cover our tracks.  Once this is done I plan on flooding the roof with water to make sure nothing is leaking through into the salon before we take the next step of reattaching the headliner to the ceiling. 

  Our patch job on the roof hatch did indeed survive the water test, so I set about reattaching the headliner to the ceiling.  We had removed some staples from the headliner once before, when adding the weather station to the mast in preparation for our 2003 Alaska trip.  That time we didn't remove it completely, just dropped it down enough to route some wires.  We discovered that the staples we used then to reattach it had rusted, with quite a few of them completely dissolved except for the rust stain.  So, we went shopping for some stainless steel staples, which we found at StoneWay Hardware.  They cost about 8 times as much, but will be well worth it.

Besides the section of headliner completely removed to expose the ceiling hatch, we also loosened a section aft of that to be able to pass wires through to the helm.  I reattached that first, pulling the headliner taut while sometimes using the old staple holes for alignment.  The rust spots from the old staples will be covered by the trim pieces.

We had rolled up the headliner on a boathook when we removed it last year, and hung it from the edge of the ceiling out of the way.  I put a series of screws into the ribs every 3 feet or so across the salon so I could leave the headliner rolled up, moving it along as I did the stapling while hanging the boathook from the series of screws to take the weight off the working area.  That plan worked great, keeping the extra fabric out of the way.

This section of headliner also had a couple holes in it to accommodate the halogen ceiling light fixtures that pass through it.  I was concerned that by the time I got to the other side of the salon I might be slightly off matching up to that fixture.  As it turned out, the one that was slightly off was the one close to the beginning.  Once I had attached the fixture and put the trim piece back on, a little bit of the fabric cuts on the window side were visible.  I took the fixture back out, did some tugging and stapling around the fixture hole and managed to hide it pretty well.

Along the far side, at the end of the fabric, it's also stapled to the molding, with those staples covered by the long trim that screws on over it.  I'm guessing that when the Jorgensons initially put this headliner in they had the luxury of having some additional fabric for a handle that they then trimmed off afterwards.  I resorted to pliers and a few strategic curses to get it all back in place.

With the headliner now back in place, we next put back the mahogany trim slats that cover the seams and staples.  When we removed them, we had numbered them from 0 through 9.  No, we weren't following some IBM number convention - we later found we had to remove one more after numbering them 1 through 9.

The slats are held on with a few brads apiece.  I already had a handful of brads in my toolbox, so we set about putting them back up.  Ray used the 2 x 4s we had cut earlier to support the hatch, with a pair of socks added, to support the slats while I nailed.  For the most part I reused the same holes that were already in the slats, but in a few cases we lined up a slat so perfectly with where it had been before that the brad went into an existing nail hole in the rib above and didn't hold very well.  Eventually we got them all nailed up securely, or at least that's what I thought.  One of them came loose and fell on Erin's head the next day while she was cleaning the  headliner around it!  No damage, and it's all fixed now.
 

Although at times it didn't seem possible, or at least likely,  we managed to clear the salon floor of all the tools and equipment so that we could put the pad and carpet back in place.  They both have spent the past year rolled up and stored on the bridge.

Erin and I brought the pad and carpet down from the bridge and back onto the salon floor.  There were a few wrinkles here and there, but for the most part they've all settled down with the aid of a few tool bags and tool boxes strategically placed to flatten them.

The furniture for the main salon, two recliners, a sofa and a couple of rattan stools, all wintered over in our living room.  I loaded the recliners and stools into the Pilot while Erin was at work, picked her up at the office and we headed to the boat, where we unloaded them into the dockside wagon for the trip down the dock.

The next day Ray and I repeated that process with the sofa.  It was a bit more awkward and we enlisted the aid of Roger, a nearby moorage tenant, for the final hoist through the side door into the salon.  Visually you'd think that sofa would never fit through the door, but it does - and I think it touches all sides while doing it.

 

In just a week's time, the interior of the salon transformed from a cluttered work zone back to our home away from home.  We still have plenty to do, but for now we're going to put our feet up and enjoy the fruits of our labors.

The Siren

While we were visiting Ray in the hospital the previous month, Erin's cousin Bob mentioned that he had an old chrome siren in his garage, and if we could use it on the boat we were welcome to it.  I accepted Bob's offer, and a few weeks later when Ray was regaining strength from his surgery, Bob, Ray and I went to the boat to show Bob all we'd been doing, accept the siren and go out for lunch.

The siren was made by Federal Sign & Signal Corporation of Chicago, and was a model EP.  It's a 12 volt model - the old fashioned kind that runs on a motor - not the digital versions of today.  It was missing the front faceplate, and was sporting a homemade bracket.  It probably last saw service bolted underneath a fender or somewhere out of sight.

I did some research on the web, and eventually found a photo of the siren in its entirety.  It doesn't have the typical grill faceplate - it has a really nice bell that would look great next to our Buell air horns.  This is a really good time in our process of repowering the boat to add this siren, because we already have the headliner off and ceiling exposed for routing wires and mounting the siren on the roof.

I shopped Ebay and came across a pair of these sirens at auction.  They were in pretty sorry looking condition and one had a cracked housing, but they were complete with bells and original stanchions.  They were also 6 volt versions, but what I really wanted was the bell and a stanchion.  I bid on these and won them, for a bit more than I wanted to pay.  But, there is enough there that even after I claim my bell and stanchion, I can clean up or have chromed the remaining pieces and hopefully sell a great looking siren on Ebay for at least as much as I paid for the pair.

Erin and I both put some elbow grease into polishing the bell and stanchion.  There's also a screen inside the bell with these horns.  Ray made a wood platform for the siren, and also did some more polishing with a wheel to really buff it out.

We mounted the platform to the roof of the salon, between the air horns, and have wires going to it from the helm.  It'll be all connected by the time we close up the ceiling.  It's had a couple coats of undercoat, and will get a finish coat when we repaint the top. 

 

The siren took center stage between the air horns, and I think it looks right at home.

Maybe we'll enter next year's Opening Day Parade so we can sound off with both horns and siren while parading down the cut!

Turbocharger issue

In the days following our sea trial we did some additional tests to see if we could isolate the problem with the variance in rpm and boost between the port and starboard engines.  We ran both engines at wide open throttle at the dock with no load, and they both achieved 2950 rpm, as they should.  During this test, although turbocharger boost doesn't rise so much without a load on the engines, the port engine showed 2 pounds of boost while starboard showed 5.  We then switched boost gauges in the panel and repeated the test.  The results were the same, eliminating a faulty gauge.

Our suspicions were still with the port turbocharger.  Not only was it not on the engine during its dynamometer test, it also has a different assembly number than the turbocharger on the starboard engine.  I made a couple of phone calls to Cummins Northwest in Renton, and eventually determined that the starboard turbocharger was correct for our 250hp engine.  They could not tell me what engine the port turbocharger was for - it didn't match any of the numbers in their cross references.  I shopped around some on the Internet, and eventually found a listing where this "orphan" turbocharger was offered for a 300/330hp model Cummins.  These models develop their maximum horsepower at a higher rpm, and my theory was that this turbocharger may be engineered to develop its usable boost for an engine that is delivering more cubic feet per minute of exhaust gases than we are doing with our 250hp model.

I also posted our boost pressure and rpm difference issue on the forum at boatdiesel.com, but didn't get answers, at least answers I wanted.  The experts are focused on the rpm difference and suggest the first order of business would be to adjust the propellers so that both engines can achieve 2600+ rpm.  They also pointed out many other issues that could cause a difference in boost, like differences in exhaust back pressure, fuel supply, clogged intercooler and so forth.  Those are all possibilities, but what I know for sure is that the turbochargers are not a matched set.  I think getting back to symmetry first before addressing propeller pitch and the other issues is the way to go.  I've checked with Ron at Seamaster, and he still has the original turbocharger that we returned.  He's going to send that back, minus the bad exhaust housing, and we'll swap it with the one there now.  One thing we'll have to double check is if the exhaust housing is the right size.  It can't be too small or the turbine wheel won't fit or will contact the sides.  It can't be too big, or some exhaust will escape past the turbine without contributing.  It has to be 'mama bear' just right, and Ray has all sorts of calipers that we can use to assure that it is.

I did receive assurances on boatdiesel.com that as long as we don't exceed 2000 rpm we can cruise along indefinitely on our current propeller configuration without doing damage to the engines.  This is quite the comfort, as we haven't exceeded that rpm in all our years of cruising. 

When we get the other turbocharger back, checked out and installed, we'll be making another trial run to see if it makes any difference with more symmetry in our equipment.

Sea Trial!!

Today, 4/29, Potentate left the dock under her own power for the first time with her new engines.  In addition to the Captain (me) and the Chief Engineer (Ray) we had along First Mate Erin and her brother Mark and brother-in-law Mike as crew.  The object of our first cruise was to test the maximum rpm we could turn on the engines under load, as well as burn some paint off the exhaust manifolds.



We are moored at the north end of Lake Union, between the lake and Portage Bay – right between the University and I-5 Ship Canal Bridges.  Our route to Lake Washington takes us through the Montlake Cut past the University of Washington and on into Lake Washington.  In this area we’re restricted to a speed of 7 knots.  The engines are idling a bit fast, so our minimum speed on the way out was just under 6 knots.

I made a spreadsheet to record a few things in increments of 100 rpm, up through what the maximum rated rpm for the engines is, which is 2600.  In addition to our regular gauges, we also have EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) and Turbo Boost (the pressure at which the turbocharger forces air into the engine) gauges.  After we cleared the Montlake Cut I began increasing the rpm by increments of 100 until we were going the 7 knots allowed.  Passing Webster Point, we headed north towards Sand Point, away from shore as we were planning to hopefully throw some wake.  At each increment in rpm, I stayed at that speed for 2 or 3  minutes, until it would reach its speed and other readings at that pace.  I used the GPS for recording our speed.

Mark checks the view at our typical 8 to 9 knot cruising speed

As we got up to 8 and 9 knots, our usual cruising speed, it became apparent that we weren’t getting as much boost from the port turbocharger as we were from starboard.  As we increased our speed further to get into the higher ranges of the engines’ horsepower requirements, the difference in boost pressure became more pronounced, with port giving only half of starboard’s boost pressure.  After reaching 2200 rpm with both engines, the port engine was unwilling to go any higher, although the starboard engine would go to at least 2450 or so, as I briefly opened its throttle.  I backed off at that point and we cruised back towards our slip in the 1700/1800 rpm range.

While it’s possible there could be other reasons for the difference in performance, we’re doubly suspicious of the port turbocharger because it’s a replacement that was sent up to us after we had a problem with the first one’s exhaust port, which wouldn’t seat properly to the exhaust elbow, causing a significant exhaust leak.  So this one, although it sure doesn’t leak any exhaust, was not on the engine when it was tested on the dynamometer before being shipped to us.  We’ll be investigating that further.  I don’t think the slight variations in exhaust temperature are significant, but the boost sure is.

All in all, our first sea trial was a success.  We discovered a possible problem with one of our turbochargers, and we definitely burned and scorched some paint in places.  Here you can see some smoke rising from the port exhaust elbow.  The smoke is actually from the lithium grease that coats the gasket between the two flanges, but you can definitely see some discolored paint as well.  The elbow is water cooled from the point where it widens back to the blue exhaust hose.  The smaller black hose is supplying raw sea water, which mixes with the exhaust gases in this elbow before heading on through the hoses and pipes that take it to the stern of the boat.  The insulation is over the exhaust riser, where the temperature inside reached as high as 825 degrees.  The two flanges you can see reached a temperature of 500 degrees as measured by our remote infrared thermometer, so I’ll be ordering another strip of insulation jacket to cover this.  We don’t want to be scorching or setting fire to the underside of our hatches.

The exhaust ports from the engine where they enter the exhaust manifold are also burned to a nice tan.  The exhaust manifold itself is water cooled and maintained its healthy Cummins white color.  There’s still a lot to do, but this was definitely a highlight to experience some fruition of our labors to date!

Preparing for Sea Trial

Last week we finished up some minor electrical connections, such as the green neutral lights on the shifters and the transmission pressure gauges – although they’ll need new sending units to register correctly.  We ran both engines at between 1500 and 2000 rpm until they both came up to temperature so the thermostats would open and circulate coolant to wherever it needed to go.  We added some coolant to the starboard engine to compensate for the long lines running to our hot water tank and back.

When we did the first start a few days prior, we noticed a puff of smoke from the port engine when it first started.  It did that again, and with it running for 30 or 40 minutes we could notice a definite exhaust leak smell, even though there wasn’t much smoke.  Further examination the next day, after all had cooled off, revealed a leak between the turbocharger and the exhaust riser.  We tightened those bolts in the hope that they weren’t quite tight enough, but that didn’t improve the situation at all.

 

We decided to disconnect the riser, which required removing the insulating blanket as well as the raw water hose to the injection elbow.  What was revealed was that the flange of the turbocharger was in no shape to support a good seal to the flange of the riser.  It was pitted and corroded to the extent that the ridge on the metal compression gasket did not fully engage with the housing. 

Our choices as to fixing it seemed to be to either machine the housing down to a flat surface, or replace the turbocharger.  Mechanically, the turbocharger was fine, spinning freely with no bearing play at all, but I wasn’t too keen on the machining, as it appeared that the pitting  was caused by water damage in a previous lifetime for this unit and there may be other issues inside waiting for us.  Also, the amount we’d have to take off to square it up would reduce the bolt hole depth and thus weaken the connection to the riser.  I sent photos to Seamaster Marine in Florida, where we purchased the engines, and they agreed to send up another turbocharger, which should be on its way today.  We’ve removed this one from the boat and will pack it up and send it back.  Unlike the turbochargers on the old Perkins engines, these units are water cooled, so we had to drain all the coolant from the port engine – we’ll be going through the thermostat exercise again.

So, our initial sea trial has been delayed by at least a week while we wait for the new turbocharger.  That’s when we’ll find out if we can reach the engines’ rated maximum rpm of 2600.  According to some online calculators we should be able to, or at least come close.  This will tell us if our props are the right size.  If we are substantially below max rpm, we may have to have the props re-pitched – otherwise the engines could be overloaded even at the lower rpms. 

We did get the roof panel we removed bolted into place so it wouldn’t go flying off as we headed into the wind.  Patching the saw kerfs will come later, so our sea trial will be on a dry day – perhaps another unreasonable requirement this time of year.  Irv from Gallery Marine warned us that we should expect smoke and burning smells from the paint on the engines as manifolds and other various parts come up to operating temperatures.  He told us that they usually don’t even take customers along on an initial sea trial run for this reason, adding “whatever you do, don’t bring the womenfolk along – they always freak out.”

The turbocharger weighs close to 50 pounds, so Ray made a shipping box for it from some scrap pieces of plywood and 2x2s.  I'd say this box is pretty well engineered!

Erin and I did some weekend work at the boat while waiting for our replacement turbocharger.  Our above average rainfall has made an appreciable change to the lake level, as the boat has risen well over a foot over the last month or two.  So, we brought along the steps that we’ve been bringing home each fall.

Erin busied herself polishing chrome while I inflated the dinghy and washed off some of the grime that has accumulated on the boat – one of the benefits of mooring under the I-5 Ship Canal Bridge.  In an attempt to keep water from pouring through the saw kerfs of our roof hatch and into the salon, I covered the openings with tape. 

For the most part it worked, except for a drip in one corner.  So now we’ll at least look somewhat respectable from a distance when we head out into the lake for sea trials once our replacement turbocharger arrives.  Ray and I recently reconnected the lines to the air horns, so at Erin’s urging, of course, I gave her a brief demo, being careful to not signal the University Bridge to open.

While waiting for the replacement turbo to arrive we set about installing a pair of coolant reservoir overflow bottles, which I had purchased on Ebay.  Just as in your car, these allow expanding coolant to collect and then draw back into the cooling system as it cools.  The automotive versions of these overflow bottles come in all shapes and sizes to be tucked into the car’s engine compartment, but these are universal bottles and needed brackets to secure them.  The engine block had some conveniently placed threaded holes just behind the expansion tank, and Ray made some steel brackets that we could bolt on there.

Ray is preparing the port engine to receive the new bracket, which you see in the foreground.  He had to add on the offset piece with another pair of bolt holes, as, unlike the starboard engine, the port engine had a brace to the expansion tank bolted there.  The kitty litter bucket contains the coolant we drained to remove the turbocharger.

Our replacement turbocharger arrived on 3/29, but on that same day Chief Engineer Ray was ill, and eventually was checked into the hospital for abdominal surgery to repair a hernia as well as some strangulated bowel.  The good news is that Ray has since recovered, and we delayed any sea trial attempt until he was ready to participate, hear the roar of the exhaust and smell the paint burning off the manifolds as we accelerate to maximum rpm out in Lake Washington.  It’s a big step in the fruition of our labors over the past several months. 

Here are photos of the old and replacement turbocharger exhaust housings.  The replacement turbocharger appears to have a brand new housing on the exhaust side.  It had so much more metal on it that I double checked the number in the casting to make sure it was the same part.  While I’m glad they sent the replacement without question, I’m a bit surprised they let the first one leave the shop. 

I was pretty sure Ray wouldn’t be interested in hefting the 45 lb. turbocharger anytime soon, so while he was recovering I got it bolted into place.  New gaskets came with it as well, and I added some high-temp silicone sealer between the manifold and turbo, and some lithium grease to the exhaust port.  Once the turbocharger was securely in place I could add the coolant back into the engine. Rather than mess with a funnel and trying to clumsily pour from the bucket into the smaller bottles or the expansion tank, I found some hose and started a siphon to fill the engine.  It worked great and I poured the individual jugs of coolant into the bucket as the level was siphoned down.  You can see the reservoir bottle bolted into place and yes, the overflow hose has since been connected to it.

With the exhaust and raw water systems reconnected, and coolant back in the engine I started it up for a test.  No exhaust leaks, and enough coolant found its way into some additional areas that I could add nearly another gallon to top it up.

Diesel engines need to be able to achieve their maximum rated rpm at wide open throttle under load to assure that they are not overloaded throughout their working range.  In actual use, we will seldom, probably never, run at the maximum rpm, but if the engines are unable reach their maximum, in this case 2600 rpm, it will mean the boat is “over-propped” – the diameter and pitch of the propellers take too big of a bite for the engine to handle properly (no pun intended).  While we could easily cruise at our usual 8 or 9 knots even when over-propped, it could be likened to driving around in a stick shift car in high gear at 15 or 20 mph – you can do it but it’s not good for the engine to be lugged down like that.  We’ve used calculators available online that indicate we are pretty close to being just fine based on our horsepower, boat weight, length, beam, reduction gear ratio, and diameter and pitch of the propellers.  But the real test will be when we head out on the water to see how she performs.  If we end up topping out a couple hundred rpm short of max, then when we haul the boat out for maintenance we’ll take the props to the prop shop and tell them we need a couple hundred more rpm.  They’ll know how much pitch needs to be taken out if that’s the case.

With the engines pretty much ready for sea trials, I decided to focus on some other chores while Ray recovered from his surgery.  As part of opening up the hatch in the roof we had to cut through some wires as well as the copper tubing to the air horns.  The wires were to the stereo speakers further ahead in the roof.  They are shielded pairs, and required some nipping to get to the individual wires inside. They’ll be rejoined with compression splices.  Ray and I had already reconnected the horns using plastic tubing, but the tubes needed to be secured so they wouldn’t cause a bump once we put the headliner back into place.

I had reused the transmission oil pressure senders for our new gauge configuration, since they were working in the old configuration.  What I didn’t take into account was the scale on the gauges.  The gear pressure gauges on the Perkins panels ran from 0 to 400 psi.  The transmissions actually operated at pressures between 90 to 130 lbs, and I used new VDO gauges with a 0 – 150 lb scale.  The old sending units work exactly as designed, and for 100 lbs of pressure they move the needle one fourth of the way through the range – so what registered as 100 lbs on the old gauges registers as about 35 lbs on the new gauges.  The old sending units were equipped with half inch pipe thread for attaching to the transmissions.  Most of the new sending units use 1/8 pipe thread, although the half inch was available.  The problem was that the same sending unit that cost $24 with 1/8 thread was priced at $56 with half inch thread.  Yikes.  I bought the new units with 1/8 thread, and for 68 cents apiece got these threaded bushings to convert them.  These will go on the transmissions in the next day or two, and then the gear pressure should register correctly.

I continued working on the boat during Ray's recovery, and noticed there was some fresh fuel in the bilge.  I had been swapping out oil absorbent pads there ever since the Perkins injector pump had its leak, so I noticed the new fuel right away.  With the engines running I discovered a fairly significant fuel leak on the starboard engine.  I could see it running down the side of the block and dripping off the bottom of the engine.  I’m pretty sure it wasn’t doing this when we first started them up, but we’re still under 3 hours total run time. 

  It was coming from the injector pump, and I was hoping I could just find a loose fitting somewhere to tighten.  But, it was coming through a pinhole in a diaphragm that protrudes from the block side of the pump.  It’s about 2 or 3 inches in diameter and is in the center of the 2^nd photo below.  I talked to the folks at Seattle Injector, and they said on this particular model pump (model 3062F541) this device, a fuel pressure damper, regulates the fuel to prevent smoke when accelerating.  They said it would run without it if it were removed and the hole plugged, but that it would likely cause the engine to “hunt” and not hold a steady rpm if it were missing.  The diaphragm inside the device has failed, causing the fuel to leak through the pinhole.  Actually, it spurts out in pulses with the pump’s rotation.

 I wrote to SeaMaster Marine in Florida with pictures and a video of the leak, and Ron said to buy the part at Seattle Injector and he would reimburse me.  I did and he did.  The part, pictured above, was a little awkward to remove and replace, as one can only get one finger on it at a time.  It went quicker than I anticipated, however, and once replaced the engine ran fine and the leak was gone.

Speaking of leaks, we also had a leak on the port engine - this one with coolant.  I had noticed some coolant leaking earlier around the overflow hose under the expansion tank cap, and assumed it was because we didn't have a clamp holding that hose on.  I had put a small clamp on it while replacing the turbocharger, but the next time I ran the engine it was still leaking.  Closer examination revealed that the neck coming out of the expansion tank was cracked and that's where it was leaking.  The cooling system was not pressurizing or sending overflow coolant to the recovery bottle - it was just leaking out, running to the underside of the expansion tank and then dripping down onto the serpentine belt, which in turn sprayed it out across the aisle between the engines.  I drained two or three gallons of coolant from the engine and removed the tank. 

With the tank in the trunk I headed north on Hwy 99 trying to find a shop that could repair it or put on a new neck, either brazing or pressing on – not quite sure how it’s supposed to be connected.  I had remembered a small radiator shop north of Lynnwood because it had a sign that read "The best place to take a leak!"  Of course that was several years ago, and now they were nowhere to be found.  I did get the addresses of a few radiator shops in that general direction before I left on my quest, but quickly discovered that most places that now advertise being a radiator repair facility merely remove plastic radiators from cars and replace them.  A couple places recommended Performance Radiator in Everett, but when I called them, they said they’d send it to their shop in Tacoma to evaluate.  Finally I was sent to Greenwood Radiator in North Seattle, where they’ll heat it up, remove the neck and see if it’s reusable or if it needs a new one.   

By now Ray was well on the road to recovery, and he and I went back to Greenwood Radiator the next morning, with the thought that if they weren’t going to get to it for another day or two we’d just buy the new neck and do our own repair.  We showed up about 10 o’clock in the morning and it was already repaired.  He had cut out the old piece, ground off a bunch of pitted metal around it, welded on the new neck with overflow tube and pressure tested it.  All for $45 in labor, plus a few more bucks for the neck and tax.  What a deal!  We took it to the boat, bolted it on, slapped a little paint on it, filled it up and ran the engines up to operating temperature.  Works great – another problem solved!

 I had written to Seamaster Marine about this as well, and although they said the tank was fine during their dyno test they had offered to do whatever I thought was right.  From the looks of the crack in the neck, I'm pretty sure it got stepped on either in transit or by someone here in the months of preparation before our first start. I told Ron at Seamaster not to worry about it - that I'd save the good will for a more expensive future problem that we both hoped would never occur.