Saturday 3 October 2009

Hot news about Shadow


You remember the overheating problem we had on Shadow on our Easter cruise? Well, it's come back to bite us. I've just had a phone call from a fellow owner to say that the problem is much worse. He tells me the head gasket was replaced a few weeks ago, but the engine is still overheating. He's been running with the coolant filler cap removed,stopping every half hour, refilling the coolant, bleeding the skin tank, and carrying on. And he's been doing this for two weeks!


It seems that combustion gases are entering the cooling system and boiling away the water. Do we need a new engine?

6 comments:

Vallypee said...

Oh No! what a catastrophe. Will this affect your cruising plans?

Martin said...

When the head gasket was replaced, was the head skimmed up true before replacing? If it's not the head it's a cracked block... But you probably know this stuff already!

Halfie said...

VallyP, I hope not. One advantage of the OwnerShips scheme is that if your boat is out of action then it's possible to use another boat in the scheme (providing that that boat's owners are not using it).

Martin, yes, I'm told the head was skimmed before the gasket was replaced, so a cracked block is, unfortunately, a distinct possibility.

Nev Wells said...

Halfie,

We had a new engine on Sylph while we were owners. The ownerships boats do get a lot of use as I'm sure you are aware - they must be the hardest and most used boats on the cut as they are used all year round.

Could be worse - you could own the whole boat rather than 1/12th !

Good luck

Nev

Halfie said...

Nev, it's very tempting to think "I own only a small part of the boat, therefore I'll pay only a small part of the cost", but owning only a small part means I get only a small amount of use of the boat. When considering how much to spend one needs to ask oneself "Would I spend the whole amount if I owned all of the boat?"

Of course, we mostly succumb to temptation. If it comes to it, I'll vote for a new engine!

Bill Rodgers said...

Oh man! I was hoping they had botched the head gasket job. Since it doesn't look that way now, I agree with the cracked block. 1/12th or not, that stinks like old fish.