Salty Podcast #85 ⛵ How Long Do Marine Diesel Engines Really Last? How to Make Yours Last Longer

What if your diesel’s lifespan is mostly in your control? We sit down with sailor and mechanic Vanessa Lindsley—who has hand‑cranked everything from classic Yanmars to race‑ready engines—to unpack the habits that keep a marine diesel reliable for thousands of hours. No fluff, just the precise routines that prevent glazing, carbon buildup, overheating, and charging headaches.

We compare diesel and gas under real cruising loads, then map out a practical RPM strategy: run low and steady, bump to max rated RPM briefly to clear the exhaust and injectors, and always warm up and cool down to protect bearings and seals. Vanessa explains how alternator sizing, belt profiles, and pulley alignment affect lithium charging, why a simple zap‑stop can save your diodes, and how a mismatched cog by a millimeter can shred belts at the worst moment. We dive deep on fuel: Racor bowl truth‑telling, algae control, when additives help, and how inline polishing keeps long‑range tanks clean. You’ll also hear how to read oil with a white paper towel to catch fuel dilution early and when to pop‑test injectors for spray pattern and pressure.

Cooling and hardware get the same treatment. Use the coolant your manufacturer specifies—color signals chemistry—and service heat exchangers before they clog. Choose pre‑formed hoses, carry vacuum‑sealed impellers that match your pump, and consider Johnson raw‑water pumps for easier service. On the drivetrain, we cover transmission checks, motor mount torque ratings, alignment with a feeler gauge, and the cheap orange drive saver that can protect your gearbox from pot lines and dock ropes. Planning a passage or a purchase? Pull oil and transmission samples; the three‑day lab report is inexpensive insurance.

If you want a diesel that starts when it matters, this conversation gives you a clear checklist: correct coolant, clean fuel, balanced charging, proper RPM under load, and the right spares on board. Subscribe for more hands‑on cruising advice, share with a sailor who loves their engine, and leave a review telling us your smartest maintenance habit.

Transcript

Why Diesels Rule On Sailboats

Capn Tinsley 0:03

As sailors, we rely on our engines to leave the dock, charge batteries, and get us home when there's no wind. Needless to say, they're pretty important. So how long will a diesel actually last? The good news is a diesel engine's lifespan is mostly in your control. Sorry, I'm doing some tech stuff here. If you know which habits matter, most diesel engines don't die from age, they die from neglect. Tonight, my guest is going to share practical tips on how to make your diesel engine last longer. But first, please show your support by hitting like, share, and subscribe and dropping a comment. Another way you can show support is to check out my new shop at Salty Podcast.com. I'm Captain Tinsley aboard Salty Abandon and Island Packet 320, currently in the Florida Keys, as is my guest, and this is episode 85. Welcome, Vanessa Lindsley. Welcome. I like that. I've had you on about I'm thinking it's four times. And uh you're so busy, you will um be slinging gravel coming into your boat to get on this podcast. A little bit of rail at least, but I do appreciate it. I I appreciate your expertise. Um, before we start, I want to do like uh just a quick 60-second, if you can, intro of yourself to kind of give us why I'm talking to you. I know why I'm talking to you, but for those who don't know you, you're kind of an you're an expert on a lot of things. So why did I come to you to talk about diesels?

Vanessa Linsley 1:50

Um because I'm good at troubleshooting them. That's for sure. Um, I have uh played with and worked on and professionally taken care of and worked on many, many, many diesel engines. Um, actually, very first one, I was about six years old. So get out her on a tractor. Yeah, that's how I got my first horse. That's a story in itself from my grandpa. Anyway, I changed out a starter that wasn't supposed to be for that tractor. He told me to make it run, I made it run. Get out. Six years old. Six, yeah. I I believe that. I believe that gear head. So when you're a gearhead, you you become a gear head. I've rebuilt cars, um, played with cars. I love um antique cars. Got to do that with my grandpa and with my daddy, and um all through college, and diesel engines were pretty easy, and I love diesel engines because they are unique to the age in which they are, and then also the manufacturer in which they are. They each have their own little quirks, they have their own little breakdown capabilities, they have their own well-to-do capabilities, and I love that about them. I I still have a diesel engine that I can hand crank that has decompression levers on my 40-year-old boat that I have sailed halfway around the world with by myself. And yes, I've hand-cranked it, and yes, I've hand-cranked a 55-foot horsepower Yanmar as well. In fact, um, excuse me, scrutineering when you get ready to do a round-the-world race, they want you to hand crank your engine. Really? To have any stuff, and uh well, we did the uh scrutineering on Heineken, and we were the only boat that could have hand-cranked the engine, the girls, because we figured out a pull cord system and were able to have enough romph on it between me being short enough, vertically challenged enough, and using my leg strength to jump up in the air, pulling the ripcord to uh hit a decompression lever and get it to crank over.

Capn Tinsley 3:55

So it is true that I call you and say, What's going on here? This is what's happening, and and um I do rely on you to help to help me through those things. Um so okay. First question. Well, why did why did diesel engines become so popular on sailboats rather than gas engines?

Vanessa Linsley 4:20

They're fuel efficient, much more fuel efficient, they're much less combustible, they're not as much of a fire hazard. They'll run long and slow and hard for many, many, many, many, many years. They're typically easier to maintain, and if you choose to maintain them, how you maintain them, but the most important thing is they'll run low and slow. So you can use them as an alternate means of propulsion along with your sails at the same time. So depending on how they're set up, you know, if they don't have turbos, or even if they do, and how you're taking care of the care of those and what you're doing with them.

Capn Tinsley 4:59

I have to I have to bring up something that somebody said over here on on Instagram. I'm not able to show it, but someone says all you have to do is make sure you change the spark plugs every now and then. And someone says spark plugs, and then he said, Diesel mechanic joke. Uh yeah, there's some people over there listening on Instagram too. We're live on four platforms. Um, so yeah, so it it's it's not as combustible, so less a chance of fire. Um diesel engines are shorter service life, right?

Vanessa Linsley 5:34

No, they're much longer service life, and they uh I meant I meant gas engines, sorry. Life diesel engines also have components that can consistently get changed out in order to continue the lifespan of those diesels.

Capn Tinsley 5:49

Right, you can just plug and play. Yeah, right. And um lower RPM. Tell me about that.

Vanessa Linsley 5:59

Uh lower RPM can actually be a lot less fuel consumption, but because it can go at a lower RPM, you know, you can actually go, as I say, low and slow, but you also every once in a while gotta bump it up. You gotta clean out the the uh mixing elbow and clean out your exhaust system a little bit. So you don't necessarily always want to run them low and slow, but a lot of people tend to, and they end up having a little bit shorter of a lifespan when they do that. Um, you do have to change out your mixing elbow and your exhaust system and go through your heat exchanger and a few things when you don't get them running up to temperature regularly, and pay attention to part of your maintenance when you're doing that. It's gonna require more maintenance if you're gonna always run them low and slow. You gotta open them up every once in a while.

Capn Tinsley 6:45

Uh gas engines are less efficient under constant load. Is that right?

Vanessa Linsley 6:50

Gas engines are less so those are a gas engine, just like a diesel engine on the fuel consumption ratio. Um, there's a mountain curve and a bell curve. So you get up to a peak point with a gas engine and it'll balance out, you know, the boat will get up on a semi-plane and use a little bit less fuel, and then when you throttle it up to try to blast it, you'll you'll use more fuel. It's a little mountain range. Excuse me. Um, a diesel engine has a bell curve, gets up to a certain point, running through the water there, and actually gets you going, and your propulsion provides you with enough weight on that it levels out some and it doesn't continue using that same amount of fuel. It lightens up a little bit, unless you're running it balls to the walls and blasting it open. Which diesel engines are not meant to be blasted all the time, they're meant to be low and slow.

Capn Tinsley 7:51

Now, uh the diesel mechanic in I believe Marathon told me, um, I'm getting to know them all. Uh I that he said that if if I run, say say I'm running at 2800 RPMs, that everyone's every once an hour, tell me if you agree with this, I should run it up to uh uh whatever the map max is. I think it was what 3200.

unknown 8:16

Yep.

Capn Tinsley 8:17

What do you what do you think of that? Agreed. And why is that?

Vanessa Linsley 8:21

Well, partly what that's doing is it's uh it's pushing the oil through, it's actually making uh your your your cylinders and your pistons catch up with each other, it's it's disallowing fuel to pool in the top of the injector housings, it's balancing, it's it's it's making it's making your plasma in your bloodstream

Vanessa’s Background And Hand‑Crank Tales

Vanessa Linsley 8:40

coagulate so that it's all mixing better.

Capn Tinsley 8:43

There's an analogy we all understand.

Vanessa Linsley 8:47

It's like you just uh gave it uh cumidin' so your blood thinner started working. So it's not gonna have a stroke. Okay, all right. So and it forces that exhaust out, so it's pushing part of the water through the exhaust system the way it would on the raw water side of the exhaust, cleaning out the mixing elbow once again where your carbon buildup comes in from your combustion from the diesel burning because diesel's a dirty fuel, right? And there's no two ways about that, it's a dirty fuel. So the biggest thing you clean it up is uh you know your unburned diesel that comes out as soot and a little bit of dirty, dirty fuel, smoke.

Capn Tinsley 9:28

All right, um, let's see if we've covered because I I made a list of things to try to cover everything. Um diesels burn less fuel, lots less at cruising RPM, um longevity designed to run for thousands of hours, fuel storage stability, diesel stalls better long-term than gasoline, charging capability, excellent for alternators and house battery charging. Tell me about that.

Vanessa Linsley 9:59

Um, one of the things for maintenance that you always want to pay attention to is having a balanced system, and having a balanced system is relative to the size of your engine alternator that you're using relative to the charging capacity that you have in order to keep your batteries at a full charge rate. You know, we have all these new systems with the lithium batteries and the things that have added in. Relative to the kinds of batteries you have, whether they're glass mat, they're gel or their lead acid or their lithium, they charge at a different ratio. Charge at a different rate, and that rate has to be accommodated for those heavier charged, so you end up having to put a bigger alternator on them.

Capn Tinsley 10:45

That's what happened to me. You remember um I had the alternator, but something else, and I can't remember what it was because I'm not a mechanic. Remember that um electrician came and added he got on the he got on the phone with my guy who installed everything at Yacht Riggers in uh St. Peter's shout out St. Petersburg, shout out to them. What was it that he added that made it where it was charging my lithium batteries?

Vanessa Linsley 11:12

Um, I believe that you had to have a new um converter. It wasn't a converter. I don't remember. You had um the isolator was a problem.

Capn Tinsley 11:28

Um what's that little box that's uh on the wall in my engine room? What is that little thing?

Vanessa Linsley 11:35

It was an isolator, okay. And it changes your charge ratio of things and it brings it up so that your batteries aren't dying while you're thinking that they're charging. Now there's multiple things. Alternators have a ratio that they'll charge with, and you can wind up an alternator a little bit, or um you have to have your alternator balanced out for your battery system. You know, you can get a larger alternator and put it on, but you're gonna put more of a torque load on your engine when you do that, and it's gonna make your engine run a little bit heavier, so you're gonna have to pay attention to the cog on the front, the size of the cog, the belt that's attached to it, and how it's actually running at what RPMs it's running, because it could potentially bog your engine down as well. It's an that you also have to maintain. Okay. So, and you can't necessarily you can change alternators out on gas engines as well, but you don't get to maintain them to the same level on these smaller boats uh because they're not as user-friendly, they're not as as varied as they are on bigger gas engines.

Capn Tinsley 12:41

Yeah, just for the record, I have a Yanmar 3GM 30F, a three-cylinder, 2027 horsepower. Um, and a lot of stuff I've put on it is new. Um, so it's it's running good now. I had to put another starter in because I guess it was a Chinese

Diesel Vs Gas: Efficiency And Longevity

Capn Tinsley 13:00

knockoff. Okay, um, why do cruisers trust diesel offshore, by the way?

Vanessa Linsley 13:08

Well, same answers to those. Um, once you get a diesel engine running, you don't have to have electricity for it, it'll keep running. Yeah, you got fuel, you got compression, and it and you got electricity to start it, but you can keep it running.

Capn Tinsley 13:28

And it will run even when it's not perfect. That's right. You can limp, you can limp home on a good diesel engine, right?

Vanessa Linsley 13:35

Cooling system working, you got an oil system working some way or the other, and you got compression, and you you can make an engine run, rotation of a prop, and you can make it run. You should see some of the boats that they've made with the engines that they've put on them that come over from Cuba in the in the the boats that they put together in the rafts. Oh, we've had a couple of diesels that have shown up in a couple of the chugs, the little boats from Cuba. Yeah, they're brilliant. It's amazing how they put them together and what they made them do. They had components from lawn mowers and components from Volkswagens that were all mixed together in order to make these engines and make them run, and it was amazing. They're very they're brilliant about that.

Capn Tinsley 14:28

All right, let's talk about how to make it last. So, is it a true statement? It'll last, it'll last for it's not about the age, it's about how it's been taken care of.

Vanessa Linsley 14:39

Oh well, I think it's not only about how it's taken care of, I think it is also relative to the manufacture of the engine because you know it's it's like a car. We we have some that have engines that are made better than others, some that are easier to have warranty repairs than others, um, some that have components that are heavier than others. You know, you look at the duration of an engine, how long an engine manufacturer's been in business making a quality product. Um, you know, we have some that have gone by the wayside, and then we have new ones that have come in. You know, um yeah, beta. Yeah, that's a new one that's come in. And and look, we hardly have any Westerbeaks out there anymore. You know, we we hardly have any Perkins out there anymore. We hardly have any uh, you know, we have a few John Deere's, they carried over marinized version from the tractor version, which which was awesome. But you know, Yanmar's been long and steady for many, many years, I think since like 1948. And wow, yeah, and and you know, it's kind of like a kind of like a little Mercedes in a way. Um but the components have always been available and always been interchangeable. The the thickness of the metal of the housing and the block has always been consistent. Um that's one of the things about some of the other engines you look at, and you know, you throw a rod and you're gonna bust the outside of the block of the housing when something stupid happens, you gotta replace the whole engine. You can't just replace the block because the housing wouldn't hold up. You know, we've seen a couple of Westerbeaks with holes in them. Um, and they were purely warranty situations, they weren't anybody's maintenance faults, but the engines just decided to run away.

Capn Tinsley 16:23

Well, let's start with the basics. What do you got? What are the you know, oil changes, fuel filters, air filters, cooling system checks, belt inspections, impeller replacement, zinc. Um let's talk about that. So, how often should you change the oil?

Vanessa Linsley 16:41

I, you know, people have different schools of thought. I personally believe that one of the things that's important it is relative to how often you run in the boat. Sure. It's relative to um what climate you're in when you're running the boat. I mean, I I no matter what, when you're in a hotter climate with heavier salinity level in the water, you're gonna have more breakdown time. You're gonna have to maintain things a little bit more. You're not seasonal, you're not stopping for six months out of the year, um, you know, to deal with the cold. And your oil is gonna change differently relative to the temperate conditions around as well.

Capn Tinsley 17:21

Right.

Vanessa Linsley 17:21

So you're gonna have thinner oil in certain circumstances, and relative to the oil that you're actually using in that climate, typically every hundred hours is a good just rule to go by. And you know, if you're sitting for a while, you're a live aboard and you've been cruising for a long time, and you decide you're gonna sit for a little bit, you're not gonna get up to 100 hours, even when you're running your engine once a month or once every two to three weeks, like you should in gear with a load on it for a good 30 to 45 minutes to an hour. You're do you do that? Absolutely, okay, with a load on it. Um, you know, it helps clean the bottom of the boat off when you're sitting there, when you get the prop wash going. Um, but it also, you know, it keeps everything fluid in your engine, keeps your cooling system going, it knocks off the calcification and things, and your heat exchanger, and and you know, it it moves your zincs along, it allows everything to work the way that it should, and gets your pistons moving. It actually gets your cylinders moving, it gets everybody

Running Low And Slow, Then Clearing Out

Vanessa Linsley 18:30

lubricated.

Capn Tinsley 18:33

Okay, um, fuel filters, primary and secondary.

Vanessa Linsley 18:38

So, fuel filters, I I believe the same thing, you know, with your oil filters, and of course, it's relative to your fuel. Um, you know, it's interesting. Diesel's a dirty fuel, and down here I've I've I'm in Key West. I've done some experiments. I've actually lived here 35 years, but my boat's been out a lot more than that. And I did a lot of cruising before I moved here on this boat and on many other boats, but I also maintained a whole fleet of boats and um fish boats, working boats, and sailboats. Um, still do. Um, and I think that you know, everybody wants to use a fuel additive. They want to put bio in there. They they want to, you know, think about something here. You use biobore and you use an additive, it goes into your fuel tanks, you run your engines, you keep them maintained, and then that stuff sits there and it goes in to the fuel filter, and then you see it in the bottom of the Raycore where all of the algae has settled in the bottom of the Raycore. And you empty it out before you get ready to so interesting.

Capn Tinsley 19:45

You don't recommend those. I always forget to do it anyway.

Vanessa Linsley 19:48

So, you know, there is a a couple of companies out there that have made an algacide with an emulsifier in it, and they're used primarily on big. Commercial boats like shrimp boats and stuff like that. And it does not hurt your engine. Actually, kind of helps it a little bit. There's some little polycarbonates in there that kind of help things be liquefied and keep them keep them running better. But those um those additives can clog your fuel filters up faster. So some every 50 hours, some people have fuel cleaning systems in line. There's a lot of those cleaning fuel systems now. Yes, they actually work, depending on which one you have. That's nice. And they they work wonderfully, and especially if you're gonna go cruising. And it's a it's a unit that uses uh an electrical impulse to help knock the algae down. They're about 180 bucks and they'll work, they're weight in gold at alga X.

Capn Tinsley 20:52

Alga X, okay.

Vanessa Linsley 20:54

Um, so you know you've got liquid versions, and you then you've got the magnetic versions. Biggest thing is paying attention to your Raycore, paying attention to the bowl, looking at what you got in there. And if you're gonna be sitting for a long time, I changed my here's a here's a nomenclature thing. Now I was always taught that the primary fuel filter was the one that was on the engine itself because a raycore was an add-on, didn't come with the engine. Oh, really? Yeah, they've changed that a little bit now, and and ray cores come with the engines now, and a lot of them, but a raycore was a secondary filter because it didn't come on the engine. Okay. No, it's first in line, so it's gonna be the primary. I'm not gonna argue about it. I'm just telling you how I was taught about it. Primary cool.

Capn Tinsley 21:43

I that's see, you heard it here on the Salty Podcast.

Vanessa Linsley 21:46

Primary I was always taught the primary was.

Capn Tinsley 21:48

That makes sense because it is on the engine, so that one was the primary initially.

Vanessa Linsley 21:53

The secondary was the Raycore. So your secondary knows where your fuel is gonna go through first, and then it's gonna go through your primary. So paying attention to that paper cartridge and that Raycore filter, you know, if you're sitting for a long period of time, you might want to change that every 50 hours. You've got to pay attention to what's falling in the bowl, what kind of condition your fuel's in in your fuel tank, how long it's been sitting. I keep my fuel tanks topped off, but I sit with 250 gallons of diesel. I'm a good heavy cruising boat. So it takes a long time to get through that 250 gallons of fuel. You know, especially when you're burning a half a gallon an hour.

Capn Tinsley 22:37

All right, how about cooling system checks?

Vanessa Linsley 22:41

You're always gonna check your coolant, you're always going to check your expansion tank. Anytime you get ready to start your engine, you want to check your coolant systems. Um, stay on top of those. Yes, they can actually evaporate. Um, you know, one of the things you do want to pay attention to a little bit these days, and especially with some of the newer engines, different coolants have different temperate conditions, and they also have different components in them to handle different seals, cylinders, and valves. So you're gonna have an orange coolant that's gonna be recommended. You're gonna have green coolant that people say, no matter what, keep a 50-50 mix. You're gonna have pink coolant. You really have to pay attention to your manufacturer and what one they recommend. Um, because some of them, um, if you try to use orange coolant, for instance, in an engine that wants to have green coolants, you're gonna end up with globs and coagulated coolant at the bottom of your engine. It's gonna be a mess.

Capn Tinsley 23:42

So, what do you think I should use for mine?

Vanessa Linsley 23:45

Um, yours I think is pink.

Capn Tinsley 23:51

Okay.

Vanessa Linsley 23:51

I can't remember what year your engine is.

Capn Tinsley 23:54

I'm using the green, but uh I'm just thinking now, it's just coming to me that the marathon diesel said they rec they gave me a they got actually gave me a piece of paper and said that we really recommend next time you have a flush to use this one.

Vanessa Linsley 24:06

Let me see if I can it's the coolants, different coolants have come out, and one of the things that they can do is they can bring metals in the engines differently now because you they're used to different I think he was recommending a different one.

Capn Tinsley 24:20

Yeah, probably rather rather than the green.

Vanessa Linsley 24:24

Yeah, green is on a lot of the older engines that have a lot of bronze and brass parts on the insides of them and some of the different

Charging Systems, Alternators, And Lithium

Vanessa Linsley 24:30

metals.

Capn Tinsley 24:31

Um mine's in 1998.

Vanessa Linsley 24:34

That's not guttable. So you're probably on the verge of pink, and then a lot of the brand, brand new ones are gonna be orange, and and caterpillar is gonna be orange, and it's relative to the size of the engine as to which one it is because it's about what the components are made out of and their running temperatures.

Capn Tinsley 24:55

I'll have to get with you on that, see if I'm using the right one. Okay, we got um belt inspections, uh, which I do very you know pretty regularly, impeller replacement. I kind of do all those things at once.

Vanessa Linsley 25:11

Well, you should always get ready to start your engine and make sure everything's good to go. And if you're cruising, you know, you've got a time that you're gonna be doing that, and you're gonna do that. You know, you may run your engine, and all of a sudden, you know, you're fixing a meal or something like that, and you're on a long passage, and uh, you know, you let the engine cool down and you do an engine check at a specific time during the day, mark it in the log, add all your fluids, you know, check your belt tightness, tighten up your alternator belt, you know, make sure you're two fingers down on it, not over-tightened and not under-tightened. Um, you know, you're same for your water pump, same for your water pump uh um um belt. Now, you know, I've seen a lot of people have a lot of troubles with a couple of things, and it was kind of interesting. I went through about nine years with my engine with an issue. Nine years, nine years, and I talked to hundreds of mechanics, and I would be out in heavy seas and in conditions, and by golly, I'd blow that water pump belt.

Capn Tinsley 26:21

Oh, now that's not good. I've had that happen before, did it?

Vanessa Linsley 26:25

I my alternator, I'd put in a large I'd put a larger alternator on, and that alternator was you know fitted for that particular engine, and I had um put a an engine-driven refrigeration refrigeration system on it as well. Oh, and I have a little old bitty engine for this boat, you know. I'm 29 tons and I have a Yanmar 3QM30Y 38 horsepower engine, but it's a workboat engine, it's meant to go a little bit lower and slower, but I get eight knots out of it. That's about your prop being propped outright with your shaft to your ratio for your RPMs and the weight of the boat. So it's all balanced. Well, I kept blowing these belts and I couldn't figure out why. I was getting gates belts, I was getting the best belt manufacturer I could find out there. I got a couple of different sizes, tried them out, had the same problem. It was always in the most inconvenient time that I was, you know, hanging upside down with my toes and had my tongue in my left cheek and my, you know, wrenching my ear. And and it was always the most inconvenient time. Come to find out, you know, just because you get your alternator from the manufacturer and they've got the cog that they're paying attention to, you know, cogs on the front of those alternators come in V's and they come in U's. And if all your cogs don't match, which they all looked like they matched, but it was ever so slightly off by a millimeter.

Capn Tinsley 28:15

What's a cog?

Vanessa Linsley 28:17

Cog is a round wheel that's on the front of that alternator that your belt fits around those cogs.

Capn Tinsley 28:23

Okay, okay, okay.

Vanessa Linsley 28:25

They've got a little shaft on them that works off of a drive off of either the alternator or the water pump or whatever they are. You gotta make sure all those cogs are matching. That cog on my alternator was off by one millimeter.

Capn Tinsley 28:40

How did it get on there?

Vanessa Linsley 28:42

Well, it was built that way, and and and they had changed they had changed it out for my engine style with what the rest of my cogs on my engine were. Come to find out though, it was off by one millimeter, and it was just random that it was off. Thing that was weird is that I had changed the alternator out a couple times, thinking it was the alternator, and each time I changed the alternator out, they changed the cog out.

unknown 29:10

Oh.

Vanessa Linsley 29:12

So I've seen people have a lot of problems with those for many, many, many, many years, and they just kind of finally give up on it and they think, I don't know what it is. Turns out it's not your belts, you know. Your belts are gonna be in a V, they're gonna be in a U, they're gonna be more dense. You know, use a good quality belt. Just don't get a random, you know, corrugated cheap belt. Get a good belt, you know, get a gates belt, get a get a Ditex belt, get use good quality belts.

Capn Tinsley 29:41

And you won't have to order them from Myanmar.

Vanessa Linsley 29:44

Um, Myanmar a lot of times are using gates, uh, but you know, random random mechanic shops where you gotta pick up belts, especially down island. Um, you know, you should pay attention to the kind of belts that you're investing in.

Capn Tinsley 29:59

Yeah, let's talk about let's talk about the Yanmar engine and how important it is to use good quality parts, which I I just experienced this with the starter. And uh it's and I'm waiting I'm waiting until Monday to order. I said this in a video, I'm waiting until Monday when Yanmar places open back up. I'm gonna get me a good Yanmar. And I was told by somebody said, be careful, it might say Yanmar, but you're gonna need to make sure you order it from the right place because it could be an imitation. That's right. So I know where to order it, and I'm gonna order it and I'm gonna pay what it needs, you know, which should probably be what do you think it'll be?

Vanessa Linsley 30:41

Um probably about $520 to $650.

Capn Tinsley 30:44

Right.

Vanessa Linsley 30:45

That okay, that's what I was thinking. Um it's heavier, it's gonna be a lot heavier than that one that you've got. You'll notice that. Um, it's gonna feel different, and you know, that goes back into the metal components and the way that they're actually made. Okay. So you know, same thing with your water pumps and your water pump housings. You know, with the Yanmar engines, a lot of people have problems with water pump impellers, and they may perpetually be burning out a water pump impeller when they've looked at a water pump impeller and they think it's the exact same one that's in there. All right, I took it into the store, I lined it up, and even though I'm missing that blade, I lined it up and it's the same one there. But you know, those impellers in Yanmars, they make Sherwood pumps, they make uh other pumps on the Yanmars that can be replaced with a Sherwood pump

Parts Quality, Belts, Cogs, And Impellers

Vanessa Linsley 31:40

and and um two other manufacturers, and I just had a brain fart on the other manufacturers' names. But a Sherwood impeller does not fit in that other pump, okay, even though they fit in the Sherwood pump.

Capn Tinsley 32:01

So, how did the Cubans make all this work?

Vanessa Linsley 32:05

They pay attention to that actually, and they also will sand down the outside edges of little tiny blades at different times depending on the mechanic. They're pretty brilliant about it, but they do watch it closely because they don't have the resources to have five million of them in different manufacturers, yeah.

Capn Tinsley 32:23

They and they I guess they got good with their machine shops and making parts and stuff.

Vanessa Linsley 32:27

They got awesome with their machine shops. I've I've had I've had bearings handmade in the south side of Cuba. Wow. I was I was originally trained as a teenager.

Capn Tinsley 32:39

Not anybody can say that. No, they can't.

Vanessa Linsley 32:42

And and they worked on motorcycles and they did fabulously, and they worked in a race and a bearing, um, in a water pump and an engine. Um I was originally trained to take a diesel engine all the way down and build it back up by a wonderful guy that was a mechanic that we randomly came across in St. Thomas that was a Russian-trained Cuban mechanic. Yeah.

Capn Tinsley 33:06

And by the end of the week, we'd had Russian-trained Cuban mechanic.

Vanessa Linsley 33:11

He was a military Russian. I just want to digest that. He was from Cuba and he was Russian trained in the military as a diesel mechanic. And he was living in St. Thomas as a single daddy, and we had a we were repoing a boat and had a six-cylinder engine seize up with a drop of salt water in the exhaust, and had put a six-foot piece of steel pipe on it, and I bent the pipe, and he said he wanted to have me there to help him work on the engine for the rest of the weekend. And it was the most amazing experience I think I've ever gotten to have. We started out and had maybe six hours of sleep the whole weekend, but we took that engine apart from the very obsessed, yep, from the top. Every single component came out, had its own rag sitting in the middle of the floor with a beautiful teak parquet main salon floor on this 56-foot sailboat, cleaned up, unstuck, put back together, and the engine ran beautifully.

Capn Tinsley 34:20

And you did that in a weekend, one weekend, six hours of sleep. But okay, well, we we got some questions that we're getting backed up on, so let's just bring that up. So, Mike has more questions after this. So, Mike uh says, I have a Yanmar 2GM 2GM 20F 1995, mostly original, everything, thousand hours runs great, meticulous service. I know this guy. Oil filters, water pumps, EW SS elbow. Oh, oh no, it's supposed to be new SS elbow. What other general things to replace? I have spare starter, electric, and mechanical fuel pumps, spare belts, everything else original.

Vanessa Linsley 35:01

Do you have a spare manual lift pump for the fuel pump? I always recommend keeping a spare manual lift pump. That's the one pump that mechanical pump, you know, is one thing, but you you you cannot duplicate a manual lift pump.

Capn Tinsley 35:18

Okay, you need this one one final question. My Yanmar water pump failed. I bought a Johnson water pump made for the Yanmar. It was half the price made in the USA, and the impellers are much easier to replace, which I have also noticed is that the velocity of the water being pumped out of my stern is much better with this Johnson water pump than my old Myanmar. Any comments on this? Well, that's a good question.

Vanessa Linsley 35:42

Yeah, it goes back into uh the the manufacture of the water pump. Some of the water pumps have a heavier bore in them, they've got a larger capacity that can run through them. Um, you know, you want it to be balanced. The biggest thing you got to always remember with a water pump is more is not always better. You want it to be balanced. So if you've got good water flow coming out of the exhaust system, those Johnson pumps are awesome, and you can get replacements almost everywhere, but you don't want to be using a an off-brand manufacturer impeller in a Johnson pump. You want a Johnson impeller to a Johnson pump. And the Johnson pumps are actually, I think, some of the best ones out there.

Capn Tinsley 36:24

So he has the same, you know, the the two the two GM, I have the three GM. Is that something I should consider when I replace if it when it comes time to replace it?

Vanessa Linsley 36:35

So if you're doing long trips, I like to keep a spare water pump on board.

Capn Tinsley 36:39

Yeah, I think I have one.

Vanessa Linsley 36:41

Make sure that I've got my impellers matching my water pump.

Capn Tinsley 36:44

Okay.

Vanessa Linsley 36:45

And I usually keep around a half dozen impellers for long trips.

Capn Tinsley 36:49

Um half a dozen, really.

Vanessa Linsley 36:52

Yeah, you never know. But you know, you gotta remember also that you get impellers that have been on the shelf. They have the race in the middle that can go bad, they can blow the little paddle wheels on them. If they've gotten dry rot or they've been on the shelf too long and they've been dry rotted, you I vacuum seal them in a bag. You know, if they're coming in a package and they're vacuum sealed, leave them that way.

Capn Tinsley 37:13

Okay.

Vanessa Linsley 37:14

Um, because that's protecting them from getting rotten and and other things that are happening.

Capn Tinsley 37:18

Yeah, that's why they come from Myanmar.

Vanessa Linsley 37:20

Yeah. Well, Myanmar, a lot of times they'll send them in a box, and those ones in the box won't necessarily they can be.

Capn Tinsley 37:26

I've gotten them with their their little vacuum the plastic, vacuum packed plastic.

Vanessa Linsley 37:32

Yeah, and and then and you know, when you get them that way, you should leave them in the package. So the other thing is black rubber or or Nairo, you know, the orange ones are the black ones. Um that's gonna be relative to the water pump. Once again, what's the water pump recommending?

Capn Tinsley 37:49

Okay, impellers match the water pump. Yep, okay. Um, so what would you say the biggest problem that can see an engine is running out of oil? Is there anything else that could cause that? You definitely don't want to run out of oil. That'll is there any coming back from that?

Vanessa Linsley 38:12

Yeah, you break the engine all the way down to nothing and you build it back up and you put new cylinders and you bore out the block and you fix things back up and you put it all back together again.

Capn Tinsley 38:21

And is it cheaper just to buy a new new engine? Not necessarily.

Vanessa Linsley 38:27

If you can do the work yourself, obviously, but what if you have to pay also depending on what age and what stuff what type of engine you've got, sometimes it can be cheaper to get the components and have it rebuilt. Okay, so and that's about the head gasket. You know, that's if you're going on a long, long trip, you might want to get a set of head gaskets. Make sure that you've got your gaskets for your pumps, make sure that you've got your gaskets for the manual lift pump. Get a spare manual lift pump, have a spare starter, have a spare alternator. You know, you don't have to have the same high-tech alternator that you've got. You could limp in with something else somewhere, just as a backup, yeah.

Capn Tinsley 39:07

And make sure that you've got

Offshore Trust And Limp‑Home Logic

Capn Tinsley 39:10

um I've I actually got the I've got the upgraded Balmar, and I I have this I have a backup. I ordered the same one.

Vanessa Linsley 39:17

Yeah, uh the Balmar is the one I had the cog problem on, and it was they were newer out on the market at the time with a higher output. And you know, the other thing also off of the alternators, and especially on the Anmar engines, they make a little tiny wire that is on a little cardboard card that you can get at West Marine and some of the other stores. It's called a zap stop. I've told you about them.

Capn Tinsley 39:44

Oh, you did? Yep. I don't remember.

Vanessa Linsley 39:48

Stop is on the back of your alternator, it and it prevents a reverse feed. Okay. And that reverse feed, if you were to start your engine and have a charger on or something would happen, that reverse feed can come. And burn up the diodes in your alternator. So your alternator is no longer working properly. Yeah, it spins, but it's not putting anything out to charge your batteries. I always recommend for everybody, no matter what, get one of those zap stops. It's 65 bucks or 35 bucks, depending on your engine, and it's worth a lot of money. It's two of the wires that have to be connected, that's it.

Capn Tinsley 40:23

What about fuel injectors? I had that problem on my last boat where the it got stuck open. And help me out here. Uh the fuel went into the oil, or the oil went into the fuel. I guess the fuel went into the oil. The oil. So why did that happen? Is that is there a way to prevent that?

Vanessa Linsley 40:40

Um pay attention. Your injectors, you put a cleaner in through your fuel every once in a while, and you open up your engine and you pay attention to your blowout and your exhaust and what you've got coming out, and pay close attention to your fuel. I mean your oil. Um, you know, we had that conversation the other day. When you're checking your oil, you always want to make sure that you're checking your oil. Every time I start to stop my engines, I check my oil. And I like when they've cooled down a little bit, also double-check them. But I'll always take a white paper towel and I'll lay it down sideways, flat, and I'll pull that dipstick out. And if it's a yanmer with a long dipstick, I'll reach down, grab the middle of the bottom of the dipstick above where the oil level is, and I pull it out as fast as I can, and I lay it down on that paper towel and I roll it one complete turn. And then I take another towel and I wipe it, put it back in there, and I dip it a second time, and I line it up on the towel right where the other first roll was, and look at my levels. Are my levels the same? Am I seeing any clear fluid on either side of that dipstick on that little roll on the paper towel? Because paper towel will show that. Yeah, and you taste it. Yeah, if I have a question about anything, I run my finger along that oil on the dipstick, and I put it on the tip of my tongue, and I can tell if I've got salt, if I've got coolants, I've got anything in there, your your tongue's gonna tingle, and you can tell.

unknown 42:09

Right.

Vanessa Linsley 42:09

Now, not everybody wants to eat their oil, not everybody can do that, and I understand that, but it's something that I've had that has actually stopped a couple of heavy situations that I've had engines on long trips that potentially could have had some real issues because I was able to determine I had diesel coming into them.

Capn Tinsley 42:29

So we have a question here from one hello, uh one hell of a sailor. Any words of wisdom about the transmission? I have a wester beak, is that how you say it? 52 in my Bristol 43.3.

Vanessa Linsley 42:42

Absolutely. Transmission dipsticks, you want to do the exact same thing you do with your oil dipsticks. I don't check my transmission as frequently, but I do check my transmission um at least every uh 24 to 48 hours.

Capn Tinsley 42:58

If you're running, if you're running, okay.

Vanessa Linsley 43:00

Oh, I didn't know that. Okay, you shut it down and you pull that dipstick out the back and once again roll it along the paper towel, look for your mark on there.

Capn Tinsley 43:09

Make sure it's such a a little bit that shows up on that little tiny dipstick, but that little tiny bit that shows on that dipstick is hugely critical.

Vanessa Linsley 43:18

Okay, and then what color

Maintenance Cadence: Oil, Filters, Coolant

Vanessa Linsley 43:20

is it and what is in it? Do you have metal shavings that are showing up in your dipstick? Metal shavings showing up in your transmission. One, you're either way out of alignment or you've got something that's hung up, or you're starting to have a problem with something you need to be careful of. Your gears are grinding.

Capn Tinsley 43:39

So, so your words of wisdom to him would be to check it if you're running. If one hell of a sailor is running, check it every 24 hours.

Vanessa Linsley 43:48

Yep, and make sure that when you check it, you're in neutral, not in gear.

Capn Tinsley 43:52

Even oh, you can check it while it's running.

Vanessa Linsley 43:55

No, uh you can't ever want to pull your dipstick out of your transmission on a sailboat on a backside of a diesel when you're running.

Capn Tinsley 44:02

Okay, he probably knows that. I didn't know that. Only when you're at rest and we're I wouldn't do that, but that's good to know.

Vanessa Linsley 44:08

Yeah, only when you're at rest and you're stopped and and make sure that that you if you have a shaft lock, some boats still do, it's a good idea to have that shaft lock. Some of those bristles had a shaft lock on them. Um, and it it it makes it easier, but you know, because if you put your dipstick back in there crooked, you can actually mangle it off of the rotation that's going on when you're putting it back in.

Capn Tinsley 44:31

And what did what do you think about that wester Westerbeak? Am I saying it right?

Vanessa Linsley 44:36

Yeah, Westerbeak's an English primary, primarily an English engine, and there's a few of them that are still out there. Um, you know, a lot of people used to refer to them as Wester brakes. Um size, the smaller ones were were kind of disposable. The the medium to larger size, which is what he's got a medium to larger size, they were actually good little engines. They were bright red, they were fire engine red. And um, you know, you could get English components for them. You can still get a lot of components for them down island, depending on where you are, you know, across the pond over on the other side. Still some areas around here on the Atlantic side that you can get them, and still some over on the Pacific. They're more of a warmer climate. Uh they tend to be a little bit of a heavier rev engine. Um, and they they produce a little bit more carbon in their their exhaust systems than the Yanmars do. Um, but they they they were they were worthy. Um, you could rebuild them just as you could a Perkins, just as you could a Yanmar. It's just that the components have become a lot more available. Well, they've become a lot more available for the Yanmars that are better built than the components for like some of the the Westerns.

Capn Tinsley 45:52

Can they be used on a so where do you get parts for a Westerbeak?

Vanessa Linsley 45:58

Um, you can get them just like you do from Yanmar from the manufacturers and like Mavex actually carries some Westerbeak parts up in Miami. There's yeah, they're around, but they're starting to become a little bit more obsolete. A lot of the uh the um um the engines that you were mentioning um earlier, the the green one up in um those a lot of those have been taking the place of a lot of boats that had the Westerbeaks.

Capn Tinsley 46:25

Okay, all right. Um, I want to pause and um say one thing about this podcast is does operate in the red. So I want to show everybody really quick, just spend a few seconds on the shirts that you can order. Now notice right here, sailor right there. See that? So you will be identified as a sailor. These are salty podcast shirts, these are sun shirts, 50 SPF. There's the back, there's the front there, and they come in different colors and for women. Isn't that sharp? Look at that white, beautiful. And we have the Bella t-shirts, good cotton t-shirts, also, and um, and where you find this is Salty Podcast Shop at Salty Podcast.com. Thank you for letting me do that. And we also want to say that Vanessa is a boat broker. Now, don't you want your buyer's broker to have all this knowledge? So and you can contact Vanessa. Oh, I should have this ready. 305 305 680 80. What?

Vanessa Linsley 47:51

Wait, I missed something 680 9986 okay, and your email is Cassie Kw at Aol.com is always the easiest.

Capn Tinsley 48:06

I am now Cassie. I'm sorry.

Vanessa Linsley 48:11

K W at AOL.com. I am now at Adventure Yacht Sales. She's old school on this, on this uh Yep, and so in changing my mailboxes out, I'm not receiving something still, so I'm still sticking and taking things in on my personal emails.

Capn Tinsley 48:29

If you need a sailboat, you need a boat. This is what you need to contact.

Vanessa Linsley 48:34

Love to help you find a boat.

Capn Tinsley 48:36

She'd rather lose the sale than you buy a bad boat. Am I correct on that?

Vanessa Linsley 48:40

Correct. And when it comes to an engine, folks, please make sure that when you are looking at buying a boat, you go to a survey, that you not only have a survey done of the boat, but you get a reputable engine surveyor.

Capn Tinsley 48:54

Yeah, so it's just we were just talking about this this morning. So uh uh Cecilia Potts did my survey, she's done more than one for me because I didn't buy the first boat I got, and she said, Do you are you gonna get an independent diesel survey? And I said, Should I? Which I would now, now I know. And I did.

Vanessa Linsley 49:12

Yeah, and that was a great thing. Tell us why. So so get an engine surveyor that's an engine mechanic, don't get an outboard mechanic to look at a diesel engine. Be amazed at how many times that happens. Just because somebody says that they're an engine surveyor doesn't mean that they can survey a diesel engine. And they tested the oil too. Yeah, and they might not be as familiar with that particular engine. So pay attention to the manufacturer, pay attention to the, you know, it's just like a car. You can also hook a computer up to some of the newer ones, and they'll have access to those if they're a proper engine mechanic with that manufacturer. So your oil samples are critical mass. Have your oil samples done. You got to add three days to your closing time on your on your acceptance for your vessel, but that is worth its weight in gold. You have an oil sample pulled, you have a transmission sample pulled. When the engine is warm, it's been running, it will show you what components are breaking down in your engine and what to do. And you know, you don't have to do those oil samples just when you're buying a boat. If you're getting ready to go on a long trip and you're gonna go on a passage, you know, you're doing your engine maintenance and you've been religious about it, it does not hurt anything. It's about 80 bucks to get an oil sample kit, pull your oil samples in. I could do it myself. Yep. Ah send them in. Takes about three days. They give you a full report back and pull your oil samples and see what you've got breaking down in your systems.

Capn Tinsley 50:47

Wow, and that's great advice. Yeah, because I get I when I when I go from um I started in Alabama where I live, and I sail, I'm in the keys, and before I leave on a trip like this, I always get um the rigging inspected, and and I always have my engine serviced by a professional, not me. I know some some people can do that on their own, but it's worth it to me to have uh this is what they do every day, and I didn't know that I could test it.

Vanessa Linsley 51:17

Yep, you can get your oil samples done, and you don't have to do that just because you're buying and selling the boat, you can do that for long trip maintenance, and it and it'll tell you, okay, so I've got a lot of copper that's showing up, I got a lot of zinc that's showing up. Why is this happening? Usually, what happens is it's gonna tell you that you have components that are breaking down that are starting to go bad, like what heat exchangers, that's a big one. Um, could be valves, um, could be um actually injectors. Um, if you've got fuel that's burning down and it's not popping out properly into your oil, um, you're gonna pick that up in your oil. Um, you know, there's different metal breakdowns for different components.

Capn Tinsley 52:03

And those did you did I I may not have heard this because I've got a lot going on, but did you answer the question about my question about the fuel injectors?

Vanessa Linsley 52:12

I carry spares, and and we talked about it a little bit, and yeah, that's where we went into the dipstick and tasting it.

Capn Tinsley 52:18

Okay, all

Fuel Additives, Algae, And Racor Reality

Capn Tinsley 52:20

right. So that's so it that's just telling you that they're going bad. Well, they're not popping out right. And what what is they just wear out?

Vanessa Linsley 52:31

They can wear out, but you could get dirty injectors, they could just go bad. You could also have a problem with with how they're seated in the cylinder heads. Um, you know, they spray down, and when they spray down, they're called popped out. So you can get your injectors and have them pulled and have them pop tested to make sure they're popping to the correct PSI. Do you know how to do that? You have to have a machine to do that, but yeah, I know I know how to pull my injectors and take them in and say, Hey, can you pop test these for me? And they'll put them in a little machine. I I also I always I carry two spare injectors. I don't carry a fair full spare set, but I carry two spare injectors.

Capn Tinsley 53:13

Okay, um, Bruce says, uh, I think Westerberg and you are oh Westerbeak uh are Universal engines are made possibly by the same and Universal. I'm not sure what he's saying there. Oh, Westerbeak. I'm not sure what he's asking. Do you know?

Vanessa Linsley 53:29

Um, I don't know, but no Universal and Westerbeak are not made by the same manufacturer.

Capn Tinsley 53:34

Okay, Universal is a a brand. Yes, okay, yes.

Vanessa Linsley 53:38

Um, the Universal engines are older, they've been around a lot longer, they actually have different components to them than the Westerbeaks do, and you'll find that the metal housing in the Universal is actually a little bit heftier than what you're gonna find on the Westerbeaks. Um, a lot of Westerbeak dealers are Universal dealers as well. They were originally a European English-based company, both Universal and Westerbeak. Um, and a lot of the Universal engines, they were gold in color, you know, and um they were replaced with Yanmars. Um, the footprint on them and the size pattern to them for a lot of the boats ended up being either those um the John Deere's for a while, um the Yanmars or the new um one that you mentioned from the Upper East, Uppeast. Well, what's the other new uh oh beta? Beta, thank you. I don't know why I have a brain fart about that engine. Yeah, do you like them? I don't know much about them yet. I've only worked with two of them, and they're fine, they're they're pretty generic. They remind me a little bit of a John Deere. Okay. And uh they're kind of a mix of a John Deere and a universal.

Capn Tinsley 54:58

Okay, Mike's uh at said it uh if you have a confident diesel mechanic, which should be covered in a thousand-hour service. Of course, there Yanmar actually has it's in the manual a thousand and fifteen hundred forty-five components, 45 checks. Yeah, yeah, that's actually written somewhere, and there's a 1500 one too, for I think for Yanmar um is about seeding the valves and making sure that those are good.

Vanessa Linsley 55:28

Um, I know that um I had mine done. 2500, you want to pop test your injectors. Um, you know, most everything is the components that we've been talking about. They may pull the heat exchanger, clean the heat exchanger, make sure you're replacing your your coolant hoses and your hoses that are going off at the back and the front of the heat exchanger along with the gaskets. Um, you know, 5,000 hours you you sometimes the I've never seen on a Yanmar, I've seen this done on a John Deere and a caterpillar, but I've never seen them replace a head gasket for service, unless they thought something was wrong.

Capn Tinsley 56:12

And you think they should?

Vanessa Linsley 56:15

You know, um, if you're gonna rebuild an engine, you're gonna replace the head gasket.

Capn Tinsley 56:22

Well, I can tell when it needs new gaskets because the oil comes out around the bolts.

Vanessa Linsley 56:28

But the you know, that's that's that's that's a little bit of a different situation.

Capn Tinsley 56:33

Okay.

Vanessa Linsley 56:37

Blowing a head gasket is a completely different situation. Um, because there's a whole lot of other components that have to be replaced along with that when you're doing that. You can blow a rod, you can do a lot of things because you've lost your oil, and paying attention to pressure buildup and what's actually happening when that pressure builds up and how that combustion actually happens. Um, you know, if you do that with a Westerbeak, you're gonna blow a hole in the side of it. So there goes your bag.

Capn Tinsley 57:04

Okay, so um Hell of the Sailor says there's where's a good place to learn all about my engine, such as a class. I'm an old-time sailor, but new to diesel. My old boat had an atomic four. Hey, that was awesome.

Vanessa Linsley 57:20

So was a good lead-in off of gas engine to teach a lot about a diesel. Um, they had some interesting components on those.

Capn Tinsley 57:28

So, depending on the territory I would also like a diesel class. So, I'm interested in this.

Vanessa Linsley 57:33

Depending on the territorial area that you are in, there are some community colleges. I know that the Anna Rundle Community College up in Annapolis has a diesel school that they do. Um, they've got one that's a they've got a two-weekend course that's a cruising class. I know that over in the Pacific Northwest, there's one in the Seattle area that they actually have. And I know that here in Florida, Mastery Engine Center does one. And if you look at the main manufacturer, oh that's in um that's in St.

Capn Tinsley 58:07

Pete Beach, right?

Vanessa Linsley 58:09

Yeah, St. Pete. Um, there are it's a combination between engine manufacturers that are dealers, um, and also I would do that.

Capn Tinsley 58:19

Hey, hell of a sailor, where are you? Maybe we can meet up for that. I'd be interested in that too.

Vanessa Linsley 58:26

So, and the other thing you're gonna find is that during the boat shows, there are a couple of programs that people have been doing that have been setting up. There's a good one they have usually around the Annapolis cruising forum that they had set up that was a good basic class, but it was very basic.

Capn Tinsley 58:44

It was a you want to teach one, Vanessa?

Vanessa Linsley 58:47

Uh, I I mean I've in your spare time. You know, the community college down here in the Keys, yeah, in in Key West actually has a semester-long diesel class.

Capn Tinsley 59:00

Yeah, I found one of those, but that just that doesn't quite work, you know.

Vanessa Linsley 59:04

Yeah, and they they I've had to do I've been guest speaker on that one a couple of times. Oh, cool. But the you know, they take an old beat-up diesel engine and you rebuild it, and it's part of the program. That is cool. Yeah, and there's a couple of the colleges and a couple of the community colleges in the waterfront-based programs that do this. So, you know, that's what happened to your life.

Capn Tinsley 59:27

Uh all of a sudden it got dark. There we go. Okay.

Vanessa Linsley 59:32

So my my my my puppy sitters puppy entertainment.

Capn Tinsley 59:39

Oh, he's oh, he's giving he's he's so big, he's creating a shadow over you. It is a big dog, I've seen it. Oh, okay, so hell of a sailor says my I'm in Tennessee, my boat's in South Carolina, but I can I but can get anywhere there would be a class.

Vanessa Linsley 59:59

Yes. So around New Bern and then over near Beaufort. Beaufort had a place. There was a diesel mechanic that was over in also Norfolk. Um and then over in um the closest one for you is probably gonna be over in the Norfolk area. That there I know that there's a couple classes that are done out there.

Capn Tinsley 1:00:24

I'll meet you in St. Pete Beach, hell of a sailor.

Vanessa Linsley 1:00:28

I know that so you gotta you you can look online and you can pull them up, but with the engine dealers, the manufacturers, and also with a couple of the service companies,

Water Pumps, Johnson Vs Yanmar

Vanessa Linsley 1:00:40

Mavex. I gave you their number for engine parts. That's right, you did. With Yanmar, they deal with other diesel engines as well. Okay, where classes are gonna be offered as well.

Capn Tinsley 1:00:52

So Michael Po Poly Polito 6478, Victoria Sailing School in Colorado. So anybody out there, there it is. Okay, so um let's see. We uh we've got we've still got a lot of people watching live right now, so let's see what else I can ask you. Uh, life expectancy of a diesel engine. So chat GPT says typical diesel engine lifespan with proper care, 5,000 to 10,000 hours is common. I know you're gonna say it depends on where it is. Let's say the Alabama Gulf Coast. That's not the keys, but it's still, you know, the Gulf Coast and it's hot and all that.

Vanessa Linsley 1:01:41

Still more than seasonal. You're in the water 365 days a year, right?

Capn Tinsley 1:01:45

Right.

Vanessa Linsley 1:01:45

Relative to your maintenance and it's relative to being able to run all year long. Um, you know, you're gonna get five to eight to ten thousand hours out of a gate out of a Yanmar, provided you're taking care of it. That's all, huh? You gotta you you gotta think about something here. You you gotta think about what five thousand hours on an engine is. You gotta think about the amount of time that is. You can do a circumnavigation on a big cruising boat, and you can run your engine to keep your refrigeration cold, charge your batteries, keep that engine well maintained, go almost completely around the world, and you may have 1800 hours on your engine.

Capn Tinsley 1:02:31

Yeah, um, you know, you're sailing part of that time, so exactly. So Michael says I pronounced his name right, so he's that's in a year and a half.

Vanessa Linsley 1:02:43

Okay, so just to give you a kind of an idea, uh you know, a little bit of a spectrum of how engine hours are you know it's just as bad not to run the engine as it is to overrun the engine. It's actually worse. You can do a lot more damage not running your engine, but a diesel sits better longer than a gas engine does. Okay, you're not gonna be able to start gas engines up if you don't start them and run them every couple of weeks.

Capn Tinsley 1:03:16

How long do gas engines last?

Vanessa Linsley 1:03:20

2,500 to maybe 3,000 hours around 5,000 at the most.

Capn Tinsley 1:03:25

Okay.

Vanessa Linsley 1:03:27

And that's at the most. And typically they're gonna be averaging 2,500 to 3,000. You're gonna have a lot of components that have to be replaced around 1500 to 1800 hours. Starters go out on them quickly, actually, carburetors go down quickly. You have to keep a gas engine running, keep it turned over, keep it running up, run it up to speed, and then bring it back down. And a diesel engine, you know, if you start them and stop them, yeah, that's okay. It's not it's not ideal, but it's okay. What do you mean? You want to run a diesel engine and you want to get it up to temperature. So, you know, it's not a matter of just start, stop, okay, put it in gear, run it for 10 minutes, and boom, you're done. Uh-uh. You want to turn it on, you want to let it warm up properly, you want to put it in gear, you want to idle it up slowly as you're doing that, let it come up to its temperature, throttle it up again. I throttle it up for a couple of minutes at a high rev RPM while I'm doing that. Bring it back down, let it cool down properly, and then put it in reverse, throttle up, not as long as in gear forward, but you know, run your engine, run your your your transmission back and forth, and then throttle it down, let it cool down properly, and then shut it down every time you're running that engine. And it seems like a pain in the neck, but it's not. That's your heart that's pumping the blood through your systems in your boat.

Capn Tinsley 1:04:58

Hey, Michael, uh, you're a homeboy. I'm in Orange Beach. Not right now, but that's where I'm from. This is my home port. Cool, Maisie May. Um, okay, so my brother's watching, he's mostly a gas engine guy. Uh very, you know, he knows how to fix all that. He's asking the importance of warming it up. And also, this is my question. I've heard that when you come in, you should actually let it run after you come into the slip before just turning it off. Can you tell me about that?

Vanessa Linsley 1:05:30

Absolutely. Um, you know, that's about your components, it's about how you're working your components and about how you're wearing your components down. You know, you you think about

Avoiding Killers: Oil Loss, Injectors, Zap Stop

Vanessa Linsley 1:05:40

you got a giant tonkatoy here, you got things spinning in circles, you got bearings, you got seals, you got water flow that's going through things, and yeah, it's running blasting like crazy, and then all of a sudden it's gonna slow down. You don't want to slow a turning bearing down and make it just stop, you know, it's gonna choke it. Okay, you want to let it kind of okay. I'm gonna wear down a little bit here, and then I'm gonna settle down.

Capn Tinsley 1:06:04

So you got a cooling process, just you gotta warm it up and let it cool down in neutral, and that's that's what's gonna last you longer. Okay, good to know. Michael says get it up to temp and throttle up to prevent carbon build carbon buildup. Yep. Oh, he says he saw my vote at Fort McCrae. Cool, cool, yeah.

Vanessa Linsley 1:06:24

Yeah, but you don't want to blast it up to prevent carbon buildup until you've had a load on it for just a little bit.

Capn Tinsley 1:06:32

Okay, so that's kind of goes back to what I was saying. Like if I'm going 250-2800 RPMs every hour or so, I need to buff it up to about 3200 for a couple of minutes.

Vanessa Linsley 1:06:43

Okay, and at times you may see if your fuel's not burning down properly in your injectors, you may see carbon and carbon come out on the back of the water that's in a sheet on the top of the water. That's the unburned fuel. Okay, means your injectors are not there, they're having an issue. Could be an internal fuel pump having an issue. Okay, and that's gonna be your telltale for that.

Capn Tinsley 1:07:10

So are we wearing your brain out, Vanessa? No, after a long day, okay. Um, let me see what it is. See if there's anything else. What shortens the engine life? Overheating, dirty fuel, running over underloaded. You were that's what you're saying. Diesel glazing is called, infrequent use without proper care, ignoring warning signs. And um, yeah, I've been bad about that. La la la la la. What extends engine life proper RPM under load? And that would be like what we just said. Like if it's it's gonna be going a long ways, you don't want to just run it 3,500. It might maybe just for that emergency getting under that bridge where the tide's starting to, you know, take you out, kind of bump it up a little bit, but bring it back.

Vanessa Linsley 1:08:00

Diesel engines are meant to go low and slow, they're meant to go for a long period of time at a reasonable rate, and then bump them up every once in a while. They're not meant to go balls to the walls 90 to nothing.

Capn Tinsley 1:08:12

Okay, yeah. Uh clean fuel, which is sometimes hard to control, regular use routine inspections. A key point a diesel engine is a marathon runner, not a sprinter.

Vanessa Linsley 1:08:22

Yep, and and the other thing about your systems is the good quality oil and a good quality coolant. Look at what your manufacturer is requesting because I will tell you that if you try to use green coolant in some of the newer engines, it will turn into a solid glob in the bottom of that engine and it will cause you a lot of grief.

Capn Tinsley 1:08:49

Tip of the day, look at your manual.

Vanessa Linsley 1:08:52

Yeah, you cannot use the old style green coolant in a lot of the newer engines. It's gonna be purple, red, or orange. It's not gonna be green.

Capn Tinsley 1:09:04

And one hell of a sailor, we were just talking about that. Running the engine in the gear in the slip won't hurt anything. That's actually a good thing. She does that even though her boat's not moving these days. How often did you say you do that?

Vanessa Linsley 1:09:17

I do that one, I do that once every two weeks, but make sure that it's tied up properly.

Capn Tinsley 1:09:25

Well, I mean, you're but you're talking about pressing that button and then putting it in gear, or are you saying go ahead and you know I could press that button and then throttle up, but you're saying actually don't do that, go ahead and throttle up.

Vanessa Linsley 1:09:41

Throttle up and put it in gear. I mean, you're I'm saying put it in gear and throttle up. Okay, okay. You want to make sure your spring lines are super tight, and you know, don't just just don't forget to check your spring lines first.

Capn Tinsley 1:09:55

Okay, all right. Yeah, I misunderstood that, so okay. Put a load on the engine and uh equestrian video production says she'd just get warmed up. That's finesse. All right, let's talk about some parts. What's the life expectancy if handled correctly? If handled correctly for your environment, um, engine block, lifetime of the boat if not overheated.

Vanessa Linsley 1:10:23

Five to ten thousand hours, yeah. Injectors. Once again, two thousand to four thousand hours, you know. People are funny about that. I I I believe, and this is my own personal opinion, just from a couple of problems that I've had on a couple of situations, the boats that were unknown to me until I got on them. 2,500 hours is a good number to look at your injectors, take them out, pop test them. They're popping out fine, you don't need to worry about it, but it's not a bad and they're serviceable. Yeah, they're serviceable. Fuel pump, carry a spare.

Capn Tinsley 1:11:04

I've I just replaced mine. Fuel pump. I think I can't remember if I have a spare. I need to go back and look at a spare fuel pump.

Vanessa Linsley 1:11:12

So you have two fuel pumps on an engine. Okay, you actually have an internal fuel pump and you have an external fuel pump. Some have an electric fuel pump that's a push pump, others have a manual lift pump.

Capn Tinsley 1:11:27

Right. I got that little button over there. So every time you clean out the bowl, you gotta yeah, yeah.

Vanessa Linsley 1:11:33

And and that little spring load can go bad, and the biggest thing that goes bad is the diaphragm that's in that little pump. Those diaphragm little rubber diaphragm, and when the engine's running, it's going. You know, those can get little little pinholes in them, and then all of a sudden you've got fuel coming in that shouldn't be coming in somewhere, and all of a sudden you realize, hey, my manual lift pump went out. So if you ever have to bleed your engine, you're doing something, you're gonna be pushing the heck out of that little spring load. I carry a spare spare manual lift pump. And those manual lift pumps, a lot of times, um, sometimes people want to change those out about every 500 to a thousand hours because that is something that wears out and can go bad. If you have internal corrosion that's happening because you haven't kept up on your zincs, you got pencil zincs and you have not maintained those. That's those are the types of things little bits of corrosion with. Okay, alternator. Alternators relative to your balancing of your house system. You shouldn't have alternators going bad. If you have alternators going bad, you've got something else going on. It's not necessarily related to your diesel.

Transmissions, Dipsticks, And Alignment

Capn Tinsley 1:12:40

Okay. Starter motor system.

Vanessa Linsley 1:12:43

Starter motor, if you're doing a long trip, I would have a spare, but I would pay attention to the spare that I have. Um, I would have a rebuilt one, and I would change my starter motor out 2,500 to 5,000 hours, no matter what.

Capn Tinsley 1:12:57

Even this one that they just put on, the cheapie, it's there's a little bit of a hesitation when I started it.

Vanessa Linsley 1:13:03

Every starter motor is gonna be a little bit different.

Capn Tinsley 1:13:06

Okay, all right. It sounds different than the one that that was on.

Vanessa Linsley 1:13:09

That's why when you get a starter motor, you know, an engine actually it it seeds itself.

Capn Tinsley 1:13:15

It makes a different noise, I guess, is uh what uh is what I was trying to say.

Vanessa Linsley 1:13:19

Thin out differently, the cogs are gonna be different, it's gonna engage differently, and when you get teeth in those cogs inside of the starter motor that are actually sharp compared to the teeth that have been dull that have had the other one that's seeded to it, of course it's gonna sound differently. And especially the newer ones, it might not be the same material that the cogs.

Capn Tinsley 1:13:38

Yeah, I'm trying to listen, and I heard something different, and I didn't know. I didn't know if I should be concerned.

Vanessa Linsley 1:13:43

Listen to your engine, that's the most important thing.

Capn Tinsley 1:13:46

Um impeller, we kind of said that. Um Chat GPT says one year or one hundred to two hundred hours.

Vanessa Linsley 1:13:55

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley 1:13:56

Belts and hoses, this is not right. Three to five years. No.

Vanessa Linsley 1:14:02

No, this is where the beach Alabama thing comes in, and depending on your hoses, um, your your exhaust side hoses, your coolant side hoses of your water system, you know, even though you've got coolant and you've got stuff going through those, when you get water, salt water that's going through things, you're gonna get calcification in those hoses. It's gonna build up from the heat, just like in a toilet hose. You're gonna get some calcification in those hoses. So you've got to pay attention to that.

Capn Tinsley 1:14:31

That's a good analogy. I I understood that.

Vanessa Linsley 1:14:35

Yeah, pay attention to that. The other thing that you always do is look on your surface area on your hoses, look for cracks, look for heat induction peeling of those hoses or the rubber on the outside. Make sure if it's a wire-reinforced hose that you're using a wire-reinforced hose, that's a proper quality hose that's not gonna collapse on the inside of the jacket that has a heat rating on it. Those hoses have heating.

Capn Tinsley 1:14:57

Okay, so again, don't use cheap parts.

Vanessa Linsley 1:15:00

Uh-uh.

Capn Tinsley 1:15:00

Especially if you don't want to get stuck somewhere.

Vanessa Linsley 1:15:03

The most important thing: a lot of engines have pre-formed hoses. If you have a pre-formed hose, order that preformed hose. Don't try to make something that's a huge long loop work. Okay, order a pre-formed hose for your engine. Do not try to make a form on a preformed hose.

Capn Tinsley 1:15:23

Save yourself a lot of grief. Copy that cap. Okay, motor mounts. I was thinking the whole time that we well, I just had to replace one. I mean, I just had to well, the bolt broke, you know.

Vanessa Linsley 1:15:36

So motor mounts are relative to how you're running in your engine and what kind of abuse you're putting your boat through. You know, motor mounts are meant to go for long periods of time, and and what's really funny is the way that a motor mount is built, it's got a rubber area in the middle of that mount. It's supposed to be a vibration dampener. Right. Now, there's two things that can actually extend the life of your motor mounts. One is making sure that they're not corroded to heck, which everybody always lets water and everything drip down on them. They let them get rusty. Ah, it's a motor mount, it's gonna do that. Take your corrosion block, spray it down, clean them up, paint them every once in a while, keep them clean. Outside corrosion is gonna break them down just as much as inside corrosion. Make sure that your bolts are in place, they're seated nicely, and they're not moving out. You know, you can go down there to the foot on the edge of your engine where you're getting ready to do a long trip, grab a hold of it, give it a crank. That engine should move around a little bit. If it's not, take a double check of that motor mount, make sure that that sleeve's not separating. You can also get a crowbar, you can stick it under the edge of the foot and just give it a little bump and see that thing move and make sure that you don't have the rubber inside of the jacket separating. Okay, it's huge. Yeah, so I have seen so many boats lately. It's amazing where you know you have a number that's in the middle of a motor mount, and that's a poundage, that's a torque rating. So a lot of these Yanmars that are these size engines, they'll be 100 or 150 or 200 pound motor mounts, right? Taking torque load. So you don't put the big ones in the front and the little ones in the back, they are going to be right to left. So your big ones, if you've got a right-handed screw, are typically gonna be on the front, right, and the back right.

Capn Tinsley 1:17:31

The small they have specific purposes, each one. Yeah, yeah.

Vanessa Linsley 1:17:36

That's huge. Because if you have a smaller motor mount on a heavy torque side, chances are you're gonna separate that rubber from the inside of that housing at some point in that motor mount's life within a few hundred hours.

Capn Tinsley 1:17:50

So Mike wants to know about the flux capacitor.

Vanessa Linsley 1:17:54

Oh, you're fucking so but one other thing I want to add about those, about those motor mounts, yeah, that I also don't see a lot of people do, and this is a transmission thing. There is a little phenol disc, and a lot of people see them and they're like, What is that? Where the two discs that come together off of the flanges on your coupler come in. They're called drive savers. You can get them, they're bright orange in color, they've got bolts that come through them. You can get them then white, the RB ones. There's several different manufacturers. They're about a hundred bucks worth its weight in gold. If you're in the Gulf Coast, you're on the Atlantic side, an area where you've got lobster pots, crab pots, anything that you're gonna hang. What this is designed to do is to break instead of breaking your coupler and busting your transmission. It's called a drive saver. I've I've heard of this. So those drive savers will also save your motor mounts.

Capn Tinsley 1:18:58

Okay.

Vanessa Linsley 1:18:59

Instead of breaking a motor mount, if you hang a line, catch a dock line, whatever, the drive saver will break and it will actually save your transmission and save your motor mounts.

Capn Tinsley 1:19:10

Sometimes people put like something on the on the prop to cut.

Vanessa Linsley 1:19:16

If you pick up one thing, but those are not going to handle cables, and those are not gonna handle a lot of pot lines, especially not the new Dynemas and some of the other ones that are going on.

Capn Tinsley 1:19:25

Okay, yeah, it's definitely a problem in the Gulf this time of year. Or well, just any rock.

Vanessa Linsley 1:19:32

You know, a drive saver is huge, but the other thing that goes in with those motor mounts is making sure that your engine is aligned properly. Yes, so your engine alignment is huge for your motor mounts, huge for your transmission, huge for a drive saver, huge to keep other things from happening to the boat. Also huge for the efficiency and the running of your engine because you can burn and blow an engine up by not allowing that thing to be a Aligned properly. And if you don't understand how to use a feeler gauge on a coupler and align your engine, hire a professional that you hire a professional to do. Not all professionals are good at aligning engines.

Capn Tinsley 1:20:14

Mine was just done when they changed out.

Vanessa Linsley 1:20:17

Take note, but that is something that is worthy to learn how to do.

Capn Tinsley 1:20:21

So when the the bolt broke on my rear mount, they took off the flywheel. Yeah. Took it back to the shop. Everything was sanded down. Everything was um clean painted

Engines To Buy, Parts Availability, Beta Talk

Capn Tinsley 1:20:40

sanded and brought it back. Looks beautiful. But they said that with that mount, if the engine could have broken loose, fallen back, and water could have come in. Yep. What a disaster. Disaster avoided.

Vanessa Linsley 1:20:55

All from hanging a line or doing something because you don't have a drive saver, you got a busted motor mount.

Capn Tinsley 1:21:00

There you go. Okay. Um, so we just talked we talked about buying a boat and evaluating a diesel engine. We recommend. I know from personal experience to get the independent diesel survey. Uh we talked about that. Um land the plane. We're gonna land the plane here. Yeah, you've encouraged the listeners to and the watchers to learn the engine, read your manual. Chat GPT is also can be helpful. They're not always right though.

Vanessa Linsley 1:21:36

Listen to your engine, always listen to the regular running of your engine. Don't always keep your music turned up. Sometimes it's a good thing to listen to that low and slow.

Capn Tinsley 1:21:47

I have heard what it sounds like when a fuel injection injector opened up. Uh, because it just went all of a sudden, it was like from going the normal diesel sound of boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, black smoke.

Vanessa Linsley 1:22:01

Knocking in a pinion.

Capn Tinsley 1:22:03

Yeah. And and uh I had to get towed. Uh the first time um the mechanic came out, he said, your engine's done. That was wrong. I had to pay a bunch of money to first of all, they had to get everything replaced and then had to run it and uh change the oil, run it, change the oil again because it was all that fuel. So but we saved the engine. This was on my IP27 I no longer have. Um let's see. Uh hell of a sailor. Do I need to modify the prop shaft to install the drive saver?

Vanessa Linsley 1:22:45

No, you do not have to modify your prop shaft. Very rarely back. Um, they are set up so that um the it'll sit back about six inches. That's about it. But look up a drive saver for your size coupler, talk to a local mechanic and see which ones they recommend. The one that I like is actually an orange one, and when you pull up drive savers, you can pull them up on on um on Google, and you're gonna see about 20 different ones. Um, you know, some larger boats use a compression drive saver, you don't need to go to that extent with these small diesels. So you're talking about something that's gonna be about uh maybe an inch and a half to two inches wide, and it's gonna fit into your coupler, the bolts are there in the coupler, and they all sink into the coupler, and it's what's important is your alignment with your drive saver.

Capn Tinsley 1:23:41

So how much does something like that cost?

Vanessa Linsley 1:23:45

A drive saver and getting it aligned should be around 100 bucks.

Capn Tinsley 1:23:49

Wow, what it that's worth it.

Vanessa Linsley 1:23:51

What you're gonna protect by having a drive saver in there, yeah. So usually the drive savers are running around 65 to 128 dollars for a four-cent from a two-cylinder to a four-cylinder engine.

Capn Tinsley 1:24:04

Nice. Okay.

Vanessa Linsley 1:24:08

Um drive savers, um, you know, go up a size on your motor mount. If you're worried about the torque in your engine, you're gonna be gone for a long period of time. You know, that's the other thing a spare spare to carry. Sometimes some people will carry two motor mounts. I carry two motor mounts.

Capn Tinsley 1:24:24

All right. Well, I think what um uh what I'd like to do is get with you um after, you know, in the next few days or a week, whenever you have time, and must come up with a spare part list for people, and they can email me at saltyband.com. That's another way for you to get your name out there. Um, let's see, here's my email address, and we'll put together that spare part list. Like if you're doing what I'm doing right now, you're just going for months at a time and going to the Bahamas because they don't have everything. They they don't have most things, even like screws and stuff that are for the right, you know, the right size. So, would you be interested in doing that with me? I'll help you out doing that.

Vanessa Linsley 1:25:10

That's easy. It's and I rattle that up really easily for you know, have an extended duration spare parts list and then a medium duration, just a postwise cruising.

Capn Tinsley 1:25:23

And I do have a maintenance of general maintenance list for sailboats that I did with uh another person, and um a lot of people are still asking for that. So I'd like to come up with this. That's a nice that's a nice thing to offer. Um, again, um I want to say if you are buying a boat or selling a boat, Vanessa Lindsley, and the name of her company is right there. Adventure yacht sales. She's in QS, but she sells everywhere. Correct? Yep.

Vanessa Linsley 1:25:58

Give me a shout all the way up the eastern seaboard. I work with Terry Ivans and we got it covered.

Capn Tinsley 1:26:05

Okay.

Vanessa Linsley 1:26:06

Cruising boats, power boats, catamarans, but I'm big into big cruising boats, I'm big into catamarans. And you've been around the world yourself. Yep, been around the world a couple of different situations. And um, you know, one of the things I want to add about this engine stuff that we're talking about, yeah, a lot of the same stuff is applicable to your generator.

Capn Tinsley 1:26:28

Oh, okay.

Vanessa Linsley 1:26:30

Just throwing it out there.

Capn Tinsley 1:26:32

Okay. Now that that would be your that would be a diesel generator, yes. Okay, all right.

Merch Plug And Broker CTA

Capn Tinsley 1:26:40

Honda decktop, a diesel generator. Okay, because I have a little Honda 2200 on on that I never have to use because I have great power on this boat. Yeah, but it's here if I need it. Um, okay, can you think of anything else?

Vanessa Linsley 1:26:57

No, I mean engines are great. You should learn your engine, know your engine. Biggest thing is always listen to your engine. It's like your little baby, it's the heart of your system, and take care of your, you know, you got to take care of your heart. So that pumps your blood, gives you your electricity, actually keeps your boat moving, and uh helps you out of a pinch no matter what.

Capn Tinsley 1:27:16

So, Mike, Mike has another question. I put a PSS PYI, it's a game changer. Any comments? I don't know what that is, but what is it? Packing gland, dripless stuff. Yeah, do you recommend that?

Vanessa Linsley 1:27:32

Um, I myself am a traditionalist. I love my traditional stuffing box. I'm happy changing my flax backing, making sure that I can tighten the nut up underway, especially in the heavy seas and big conditions. It's gonna be relative to your boat. If you do have a PYI or a PSS packing gland, no matter what, look at and you'll know what I'm talking about. Look at the stainless steel donut on the shaft. Do yourself a favor and put a hose clamp around that shaft when that donut is compressed in a compressed position, so that you will never have a problem. You have two sets of stainless set screws in those donuts. Be very careful with those and make sure they're maintained. There was a general recall on many of those PSS stuffing boxes, those packing glands, a number of years ago, and a lot of people still have not gotten past all of those. So there are different kinds. There's a Tides as well, there's a company called Tides. They make a great dripless packing gland as well. I prefer the tides over the PSS. But as I said, do yourself a favor, especially if you're around lobster pots or areas like that, put a hose clamp around your shaft, nice and snug, up against where the stainless donut is, with the bellows compressed, and always keep an eye on your set screws. There should be two in a row in each one of the little holes in that stainless donut.

Capn Tinsley 1:28:52

Okay, all right. My brother says tell Vanessa that a book of matches is a great for a feeler gauge. I use use them to set the gap in the distributor points.

Vanessa Linsley 1:29:02

That's correct.

Capn Tinsley 1:29:03

In those gas engines, yeah, he's a gas guy. Yep, and in a paper match book at that. Yeah, there we go. So that that hit. Okay, thank you so much for doing this, Vanessa. I call her all the time and go, why is this happening? Thank God she answers the phone.

Vanessa Linsley 1:29:30

I love to be able to do that, and I think that that for me. It's a it's a challenge, but it's fun, and it's what keeps it it keeps it new.

Capn Tinsley 1:29:41

Gotcha. All right, and I know that I know that what that someone there it's not very often that a woman knows this much stuff. I mean, usually, and and I believe it's an interest thing. Most guys are interested in engines, and women are interested in other things, but you have got such skill, and you know, she does this with everything. I can you look at a car or a boat or when I broke my ankle. You knew what you knew what you could tell me what's to expect. I mean, it's really amazing.

Vanessa Linsley 1:30:18

It's about a matter of curiosity, and and you gotta like what you do, and it makes life fun. And you do love boats. I do love boats.

Capn Tinsley 1:30:26

We need to get you back out on the water.

Vanessa Linsley 1:30:28

I'm working on it.

Why Engine Surveys And Oil Analysis Matter

Capn Tinsley 1:30:30

All right. With that, we're gonna say salty abandoned. What's up? Happy New Year. Happy New Year, Salty Abandoned out.