So we blast off this morning for a planned 4 day Labor Day w/e trip, and here's how it went....
Early start, Admiral still in the rack. She gets up as were leaving. Water was flat, so I cast off, with intent on just going at hull speed until she got ready for the day. Ran the genset for her, and left a/c on.
30 minutes later, the Admiral is ready for the day, and she emerges in the cockpit....at which time, I set cruise power, and off we went.
About 3-4 minutes go by, and I notice that I think I'm hearing a slightly louder than usual exhaust noise. I pulled the power back a little, and asked the Admiral if she thought she was hearing something unusual. Her reply.....no, but I think I smell something burning. At almost the exact same time, an engine alarm sounds. I immediately go to idle, and l look down at the engine guages, only to find the Starboard engine temperature guage pegged, and I immediately shut it down. (2 minutes earlier every engine parameter was absolutely normal, but we were at idle then.)
By now, I'm smelling the odor myself.....irrily similar to a fire! Quickly, I grab both of our auto-inflate vests, tell her to put hers on, and just in case, I position our inflatable raft for quick exit. No smoke emerges, but I chose to leave the day hatch closed for a few minutes as a precaution. At this point, the auto fire extinguishing system had not activated, so I was feeling relatively confident that there was no fire. I turned the boat around, and began to limp back to home port. Fun-fun getting back in my slip on one engine, and no power steering. (Note to self....should practice this more often.)
Once secure in the slip, it was inspection time. Didn't take long to find that a hose clamp had broken. To be specific, the discharge side of the hose between the seawater pump, and the heat exchanger. So the water pump was pumping lots of seawater into the bilge, and none thru the engine. Fortunately, all the discharge stayed low, and did not effect components sensitive to seawater. (Think alternators, ect...)
I'm thinking the "burning" odor we smelled was anti-freeze. Once the engine got hot enough, the coolant reservoir's pressure relief valve let go, and dumped anti-freeze all over the exhaust manifolds. Trust me, that odor will get your attention when 4 miles from land!
Anyhow, 1 stainless steel hose clamp, a refill of anti-freeze, and we appear to be back in business. I would have liked to have seen 2 clamps on this hose, but the nipple wasn't large enough. I'm gonna gripe to the engine manufacturer about this. Anyhow, the engine ran fine upon repair, and I'm cautiously optimistic that it is okay, as it was only hot for a very brief period. We'll see tomorrow, as we're gonna try this drill again. If she runs well at cruise power, I'm gonna consider myself fortunate to have dodged a bullet.
Safe and happy Labor Day to all.....
Early start, Admiral still in the rack. She gets up as were leaving. Water was flat, so I cast off, with intent on just going at hull speed until she got ready for the day. Ran the genset for her, and left a/c on.
30 minutes later, the Admiral is ready for the day, and she emerges in the cockpit....at which time, I set cruise power, and off we went.
About 3-4 minutes go by, and I notice that I think I'm hearing a slightly louder than usual exhaust noise. I pulled the power back a little, and asked the Admiral if she thought she was hearing something unusual. Her reply.....no, but I think I smell something burning. At almost the exact same time, an engine alarm sounds. I immediately go to idle, and l look down at the engine guages, only to find the Starboard engine temperature guage pegged, and I immediately shut it down. (2 minutes earlier every engine parameter was absolutely normal, but we were at idle then.)
By now, I'm smelling the odor myself.....irrily similar to a fire! Quickly, I grab both of our auto-inflate vests, tell her to put hers on, and just in case, I position our inflatable raft for quick exit. No smoke emerges, but I chose to leave the day hatch closed for a few minutes as a precaution. At this point, the auto fire extinguishing system had not activated, so I was feeling relatively confident that there was no fire. I turned the boat around, and began to limp back to home port. Fun-fun getting back in my slip on one engine, and no power steering. (Note to self....should practice this more often.)
Once secure in the slip, it was inspection time. Didn't take long to find that a hose clamp had broken. To be specific, the discharge side of the hose between the seawater pump, and the heat exchanger. So the water pump was pumping lots of seawater into the bilge, and none thru the engine. Fortunately, all the discharge stayed low, and did not effect components sensitive to seawater. (Think alternators, ect...)
I'm thinking the "burning" odor we smelled was anti-freeze. Once the engine got hot enough, the coolant reservoir's pressure relief valve let go, and dumped anti-freeze all over the exhaust manifolds. Trust me, that odor will get your attention when 4 miles from land!
Anyhow, 1 stainless steel hose clamp, a refill of anti-freeze, and we appear to be back in business. I would have liked to have seen 2 clamps on this hose, but the nipple wasn't large enough. I'm gonna gripe to the engine manufacturer about this. Anyhow, the engine ran fine upon repair, and I'm cautiously optimistic that it is okay, as it was only hot for a very brief period. We'll see tomorrow, as we're gonna try this drill again. If she runs well at cruise power, I'm gonna consider myself fortunate to have dodged a bullet.
Safe and happy Labor Day to all.....
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