Engine Schematic

I just whipped up a schematic that shows how I intend to wire the engine.

Well... I am not sure there is any other way to wire a gas engine actually...



I didn't spell out the engine indicators other than the power and ground connections. The ammeter shunt (the sensing part of the ammeter) will go between the battery and alternator wherever it is convenient. The voltermeter is connected across the battery terminals. The water temp and oil pressure circuits have the sensors downstream of the indicator and before the ground.

All the grounds are actually the engine block or connections to the engine block.

The Moyer Marine illustration is a PDF document. I tried making a direct link but it didn't go through. I could figure it out or I could be lazy and just post the link. I am posting the link to the forum thread. Don Moyer's reply has a link to the picture. Its worth looking at.

http://www.moyermarine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=214

[Edit- here is a low pixel version]

Spicing it up

I spent what time I had on the spice rack this weekend.
Silly title for this post I know.

The spice rack on the original boat also doubled as the electrical panel. Here is picture showing the spice rack/electrical panel right after I bought the boat and cleaned it up. (sometimes I wonder if I could have learned to live with the formica and dirty overhead and just left it all alone...)



Most people that redesign a Triton dump the spice rack but I kinda liked it where it was. I am not a great cook but a spice rack full of spices makes it all a bit more homey I think. The original boat wiring was a mess so I ripped it out everywhere I saw it. I spent some time thinking about making the old electrical panel location into some sort of storage cubby but in the end I decided to install a switch panel for the engine and other items I wanted to get to from the cockpit.

While I was varnishing this past year, I cleaned up the rack (made of teak no less) and gave it three coats of varnish- a coat of regular spar varnish and two coats of rubbed effect varnish. It shined up nicely.



Originally, I had planned on making a back panel out of stainless steel and had a piece cut for me. Painting it proved tricky and I wasn't happy with the results so a friend of mine pulled some black shiny acrylic out of the 'scrap bin' and passed it along. It helps to have friends in the industry...

The acrylic was thicker than the original formica so I had to pull out the original fiddles and reposition them.



Then I had to cut out the acrylic panel to accept the electrical switch panel and extras I wanted to install.



Cutting the acrylic was not at all like cutting the Lexan I had done earlier for the cabin windows. The acrylic would quickly heat up and weld itself back together right behind the jigsaw cutting blade. Even going very slowly didn't seem to help. In the end I just kept making the same cut over and over until the kerf became wide enough so that the edges didn't touch and melt back together. I am sure there is a better way but I didn't take the time to find out how it should have been done. Drilling went easily enough. I used regular wood drill bits and went slowly. I am sure I ran the risk of cracking the acrylic doing it this way but I got away with it this time.

I didn't get the job finished today as I had to help out a friend on his car and run some other errands. That's probably better since I should let the glue dry behind the fiddles before I mount the acrylic permanently. Just to show how it will look I set it up with the protective paper still on. The panel, as I mentioned, is a gloss black and looks much better than my painted version.



Wire and lables are on order so that I can continue wiring the engine in the near future.

The switch panel will have the following functions (from top to bottom)

1.) Blower motor. Always the first thing that should go on so right on top.

2.) Ignition. I am not using a key switch so this turns on the ignition. It also will turn on the fuel pump (oil pressure safety switch downstream too) and the engine instruments.

3.) Alternator. A throwback to my aviation background. Probably not necessary in this case but I like the ability to shut off the alternator and disconnect it electrically from the system.

4.) Navigation lights. For the moment the red/green/white lights at deck level. Eventually this will probably become the masthead light switch.

5.) The steaming light. For the moment just the steaming light. Eventually, when I add a masthead light I think this switch will control the steaming light and the deck mounted nav lights. I don't forsee a reason to run deck mounted lights without the steaming light once I have a masthead light. The steaming light switch will also control the engine instrument lights. If I can't read the guages then it must be time to turn on the lights...

6.) LPG solenoid. Just because it is a very convenient to the stove.

I should add that this Blue Sea switch panel is 'weather proof' and has lighted LED's in the switches to indicate when they are on.

Right below the switch panel is a push button starter switch. Push the button and the starter turns. No key necessary. I will install a secret kill switch somewhere else in the system to prevent unwanted guests from borrowing my boat and motoring away. No, I am not going to discuss it in the blog. To anyone with a little mechanical knowledge it isn't very hard to bypass any secure switch. Keys don't help much and I would probably drop them overboard or lose them anyway.

Below the starter switch is a 12 volt accessory plug like what we all have in our cars. There is always something you want to run in the cockpit that needs to be plugged in to one of these. This seemed like a good place to put it.

Everything always takes longer than you expect and this is all I got done this weekend.

Except of course I went out to the boat and spent some quality time on board. The heater made the cabin quite comfortable in about five minutes. (it is 20 degrees outside) and I had a chance to figure out the rest of my engine wiring. I spent a few hours yesterday at home figuring out exactly how I wanted the wiring to go and drew out a schematic. I don't have time now but if I can draw out a schematic with Microsoft paint or something I will post it.

Moyer Marine (www.moyermarine.com) has a nice picture of the engine wiring. Here is the link address, http://www.moyermarine.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5&d=1112372128

The problem for me is that I can see how the system works much better with a schematic. I get confused looking at real pictures. If you just want to wire up an Atomic Four without needing to understand how it works then I would recomend the picture. Just follow the example and it will work fine.

That's it for this weekend.

Taking a holiday

Its hard to get anything done over the holidays. There are too many things and people vying for your attention. Having to maintain steady employment is more than a little bit of a drag too.



The only productive thing this week was I installed the fuel tank fittings.

I wasn't smart enough to specify exactly what size fittings I needed for the tank when it was built and the sizes were a bit more 'industrial sized' than I would have liked. I guess I should have expected it from a welding shop that builds tanks for the local commercial fishing fleet. I needed to reduced the sizes for the 5/16 inch fuel hose I am using (per Moyer Marine's recomendation- I think 1/4 inch would have been fine too). A problem I had is that the aluminum fittings aren't available and bronze would set up a potential for dissimiliar meta corrosion. I used a stainless reducer on the tank that goes between the aluminum tank and the bronze hose fittings. That brought its own set of probems. The stainless threads, being much tougher, tends to cut into the threads in the aluminum tank making it difficult to tighten sufficiently without destroying the tank fitting. I think I got it but I will have to see how it holds up.

I have a shut-off valve at the tank which should prevent any accidental fuel siphoning disasters. The hose runs to the forward end of the engine where I have a mini 'service center' still under re-construction. The hose will connect with a fuel/water separater, electric fuel pump, final inline fuel filter, second shut-off valve and then the carburetor.

The holidays are almost over and progress will accelerate shortly.

I promise.

Snug as a bug in a rug

Snowstorms all weekend so I don't expect any progress.

Its not really the snow on the boat though. As you can see the cover sheds snow well and the boat is dry and comfy underneath.

The problem is all the shoveling around the house and the fact that I have barely begun my holiday shopping.

Oh well, that's what happens when you try to work on boats in the winter. If I get anything done this weekend I will post it.

Cozy warm

With the temperature around 20 degrees today there wasn't much I could do outside. I grabbed a blanket and tossed it over the companionway, fired up the electric heater, and surprised myself by sweating ten minutes later. With the heater running it was quite comfortable in the cabin. Not 70 degrees but maybe 50. Apparently, all that hull insulation is doing something. What a surprise :-)



I picked a temperature tolerant job today and plumbed in my raw water intake for the engine. Last spring I moved the raw water seacock to a point in the keel on the port side. Just like before I included a 'T' valve so I can switch between drawing from the seacock and drawing from a 4 foot section of hose inside. That makes running the engine on the hard really simple. Drop the end of the hose in a bucket of water and I am ready. I don't have to loosen the plumbing; just throw the valve.





I needed a few more 90 degree elbows so I stole them from another upcoming project of lesser priority. Actually, I think the new installation is much cleaner and simpler. I like it. I also replaced the normal engine water hose with heavy reinforced hose. I ran into problems with the suction line collapsing last time and the reinforced hose is much stiffer so I shouldn't have a problem again.

Because it was so cozy inside I decided to start routing the potable water fill lines. Not exactly high priority but a good inside job. You will have to forgive the mess. I did not have a vacuum to clean up after myself. I didn't secure the hoses in place either as I need to dress up the cuts I made (paint) and figure out a way to secure the hose in position.

The two fill lines drop down the starboard side forward of the main bulkhead in the V-berth. I sleep on the port side so these aren't a problem. The forward hose goes through the V-berth, turns 90 degrees and attaches to the V-berth water tank. The aft hose goes down and makes the same 90 degree bend to the aft end of the V-berth water tank, then hangs a tight 180 degree turn and ducks under the sole. I should have thought to put the inlet for the bilge water tank on one side instead of right in the middle. Oh well.

(leaving the water hoses in my basement for a year didn't make them look any nicer. Luckily they clean up easily...)







Temps should be warmer tomorrow so I might break out the sealant and get the cockpit scuppers in place and do some other plumbing under the cockpit sole.

Or maybe I will enjoy a day off...

Other People's Boats

Working for a living has been the story for the week.

Just before I was offered a new full time job last week, (that I accepted) I had taken on the job of bottom stripping another boat.



Now I have two jobs.

I initially started with 40 grit paper in my DA. This has worked for me in the past. After all, there was only a little bit of paint to take off...

Well, the red 'signal coat' that was supposed to be the bottom layer before the barrier coat was in reality just a layer on top of several more layers. The paint is quite thick. Sanding was going too slow and I was using a sandpaper disc every square foot. Since materials are coming out of my pocket I went to plan 'B'.



A couple of months ago I helped a friend strip another boat bottom. While I was there I was shown the proper way to use a scraper. It's brutal work but very effective. Putting one's full body weight into the scraper you can take off 10-20 years of paint in a single swipe. Its also a great cardio workout. Scrape for 30 seconds and then stand back and rest for a minute or two. It isn't fun but it gets the job done quicker and safer than any other method I have tried. Don't skimp on scraper blades, changing them on the hour keeps the progress coming.

I didn't take a picture but in the past, around the rudder, someone had used a pressure washer to remove paint. The pressure washer managed to fracture the laminate along with the paint and left pock marks in the hull. I looked into soda blasting the hull, supposedly relatively safe and effective, but the equipment is very expensive and the blasting media alone would cost around $500. If I had a full time business stripping boat bottoms this would be the way to go but since I am being paid a flat rate for this one boat, scraping was my answer.

The owner suggested a disc sander and we tried it. I was hesitant because I had seen grinders with sanding discs make a real mess of the hull; creating a scalloped surface. The disc sander was better but 36 grit was still incredibly slow and while 24 grit worked, it was leaving deep grooves in the hull that would have to be sanded out later. In a side by side comparison the scraping was still a bit faster so I just had to suck it up and scrape.


As far as my own boat, she is well. I took some measurements for some hoses so I can do some cold weather tolerant projects; namely, cockpit drains, bilge pump plumbing, and engine exhausts.