420/44 DB Owners Club

cod said:
Ah!!!!! Everone was knocking Steve's large 20 gallon pail with large dia. hose for flushing and winterizing(except for Ron).
Alex, read my post # 291 again about fill the pail with water and then putting a garden hose in it to flush
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Yeah, Steve. I 100% guilty as charged :grin:. After laughing it out I'm going to buy the same hose, not sure if I need a new/larger bucket though.

Can you clarify what size hose did you use, same as Dom 1.5"?
 
You could always tie 3 or 4 hoses together and run that into your strainers.
 
Alex
When I start my engines on land in the spring, I fill the bucket with water and leave the hose dangling in the bucket RUNNING at full blast. As the engine depletes the contents, the hose fills the container back up and the raw water pump pulls what it needs. In your case you can maybe drape two hoses from two spigots into the container to keep up with the demand. No fear of ingestion, no pressure on the supply. A bit impractical for flushing weekly (while in the water) which is one reason why I bagged that practice. But again, at your marina, you really do NOT need to be flushing due to the "freshness" of the river.
 
cod said:
... The hose size is about 2" so there is plenty of antifreeze getting to the engine. The pump sucks it up quickly. Last year, I filled the pail up with fresh water first and put a hose in it and the engine was able to pull the water out of the 30 gallon pail faster then the hose was pumping it in. Not by much but definately faster. I empty the strainer, make my connection, fill the pail with antifreeze, open the valve, then go into the cockpit and my wife starts the engine and waits for my signal to shut it down.
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Steve,

I forgot that this post pretty much answered some questions I had. I guess, as Mike suggested I can have 3-4 hoses filling the bucket with fresh water while the engines is being flushed.
 
rondds said:
Alex
When I start my engines on land in the spring, I fill the bucket with water and leave the hose dangling in the bucket RUNNING at full blast. As the engine depletes the contents, the hose fills the container back up and the raw water pump pulls what it needs. In your case you can maybe drape two hoses from two spigots into the container to keep up with the demand. No fear of ingestion, no pressure on the supply. A bit impractical for flushing weekly (while in the water) which is one reason why I bagged that practice. But again, at your marina, you really do NOT need to be flushing due to the "freshness" of the river.
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Yes, Ron. This is what I'll need to do as well. I guess, I'll have plenty of time to modify my setup and I'll be testing new rig in spring prior launching the boat.
 
Alex F said:
Brian, are you joking with me buddy :grin:? Maybe you store in water, but I always stored on land. So, in this case obviously it wouldn't make any sense for me to winterize the engines when the boat is still in water. I still have to drive it to the lift to be hauled out. Anyway, yes. I allways run my engines on land.

This year I winterized pretty much everything except the mains by the time she was hauled out. I liked it very much, b/c we were able to mix work with pleasure of using what was left from the season. Next year I'll try to do even more while the boat is still in water.
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No Alex, I'm not joking with you. The reason I asked if you flush in or out of the water is that I think the reason I see pink come out my side exhaust (while the boat is in the water and which my wife can see from the bridge) is that, just as with the normal operation, the backpressure on the underwater exhaust forces the discharge out the side. I usually run pink through my engines while the boat is in the launch slip waiting to be lifted out. The few times I haven't been quick enough to get it done before being lifted out and blocked, the pink comes out the underwater exhaust, leaving large pink puddles on the ground. I get hauled out every year just like you. A short haul in the spring doesn't give me the prep time I want.
 
bmac said:
No Alex, I'm not joking with you. The reason I asked if you flush in or out of the water is that I think the reason I see pink come out my side exhaust (while the boat is in the water and which my wife can see from the bridge) is that, just as with the normal operation, the backpressure on the underwater exhaust forces the discharge out the side. I usually run pink through my engines while the boat is in the launch slip waiting to be lifted out. The few times I haven't been quick enough to get it done before being lifted out and blocked, the pink comes out the underwater exhaust, leaving large pink puddles on the ground. I get hauled out every year just like you. A short haul in the spring doesn't give me the prep time I want.
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Brian, the reason I thought you were joking was b/c that's something I've never seen done in our area or at least in marinas I'v been around. Everytime I'm in the launch slip the marina crew is right there waiting for me to get off the boat so they can proceed with their tasks. They have very busy schedule on the weekends, but I guess it wouldn't much of an issue if I was hauling the boat during the week days. Anyway, I wouldn't even thought of this b/c I'm task oriented person and I like get out of the way and marina crew do their stuff and later on the ball is back in my hands where I take all the time I need to prep everything and do at my will. I really don't see much of advantage of doing anything in the launch slip. The only "shortcuts" we've gone through, is when marina crew would haul the boat and they would just leave it hanging in slings while we continue on with our tasks. Then, they would block the boat when they have time. This was in my rpevious marina. In current marina it's pretty streight forward process (haul, wash and block). It takes about 1.5hrs and you have your boat back. I like it that way.
 
Jon, keep in mind the result of our discussion regarding usage of garden hose on diesel engines. Apparently, we need much larger hose to supply greater volume of water or antifreeze to the engines. I'll be modifying my setup, so I guess you should also look at something different than those strainer caps.
 
Hey guys,

I have a question regarding generator oil change. On my previous boat I always did an anual oil change, so I did the same with my current Onan. Due to the fact that 420DB is very different boat from my previous boats, this was the first season when I've put 246hrs on the generator during the season. After reviewing the manual I've noticed that the interval is 200hrs or anual (whatever comes first). I know one thing is that I want to store the generator with fresh oil over the winter. So, my question is how do you guys do it if your hours exceed 200hrs (or whatever your specs state)? Do you change the oil at 200hrs mark and then in fall before storring the boat or if you have only 50hrs or so on the new oil you just store it that way and change when the hours approach to 200 the following season?
 
Alex, how did the oil look when you changed it this year? I'll bet you will put 300hrs on the gen. next year so you may want to adj. your schedule to change it at the 150 mark then again when winterizing. BTW great story and pics of your trip this year. Safe boating always, Mitch
 
Thanks Mitch.

The oil looked fine, but I don't think you can tell much of a difference between 150hrs oil vs. 200hrs oil just by looking, feeling and smelling it. This is why I used advise from our experts (just like I did when I purchasing the boat) I took the samples and sent them to the lab. That's pretty much what triggered my question. The lab made the comment that the oil had high hours which resulted some readings to be higher than normal, so they recommended to change the oil at earlier interval and monitor the readings from the next lab test. I call it a true return on investment (the oil samples test). Those $16 sure saved me big trouble in the long run, b/c as many folks I would think what's the big deal if I go only 50hrs over the recommended interval (saves me 2 oil changes). As we can see it's not that simple. Now I know that there's not much "play room" in Cummins specs.
 
Alex,

Westerbeke owners have the same problem.........I change my generator oil & filter at 100 hours. At annual service time, I look at the hours and make a decision then on the genset oil. If I am past about 50 hours, I go ahead and change it; 50 hours or less and I run it a while longer, but remember we use our boat 12 months a year and don't have a winter lay-up.

The idea behind frequent oil changes is to remove impurities from the engine. The longer interval you run, the more fuel, carbon, moisture, sulfur, etc. you have in the oil and the less effective the oil is as a lubricant. Since an oil change for me amounts to 1 gal of oil and a $6 filter (I don't know about the Kubota in your Onan, but that is close) which is about the cost of lunch at McDonald's so it isn't enough to worry about.
 
What do you eat at McDonald's that costs $32?

Oh, and when mowing the lawn, watch out for the brown piles.
 
Nobody but you understands this, but when I do avoid the brown stuff, my neighbors think I was drunk when I cut the grass.

Didn't you have a boat trip to take about now.............?
 
Turtlesboat said:
What do you eat at McDonald's that costs $32?

Oh, and when mowing the lawn, watch out for the brown piles.
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The better question is what kind of oil are you buying for $26 a gallon? Must be synthetic.
 
Alex
Send an analysis to Blackstone. They'll let you know if your interval is working or should be more frequent based on the test results they come up with. OR, for about the same cost, change it twice a year!
 
techmitch said:
...so you may want to adj. your schedule to change it at the 150 mark then again when winterizing.....
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It sounds like Mitch's suggestion is most likelly what I'll end up doing. No reason to wait for 200hrs to know that at this point I have to change it right away. So, if I change it at around 150hrs, then chances are I'll put enough hours on the genny to justify another oil change right before layup for the winter.

I totally agree that the money it cost and the time it takes it's not worth worrying about it. Got to love the reversa oil system!

Man, Cummins filter must have golden gasket, b/c it cost $19. If Walmart has 1g for $13-$14 or so, it's like Mike said, just a little over $32 job. That's less than what I spend on additives with each fill up.

rondds said:
Alex
Send an analysis to Blackstone. They'll let you know if your interval is working or should be more frequent based on the test results they come up with. ...
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Ron,

I had my samples done by Ransome CAT in Toms River. So, I got the results and that's what triggered my question.

....................
Guys,

What about the impeller? I was planning on doing it annually. Is there a reason doing it more often, considering about 250-300hrs usage? I just checked the specs and it states 500hrs or annually. I guess, when I'll take the old one in the following spring I'll have pretty good idea how it holds up after 250hrs.

I just remember reading that some people change their impellers mid season. I guess this could be due to closed seacocks or restricted water supply, and not necessary due to normal ware.
 
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