420DA Spring Recommissioning Notes

Skip

Well-Known Member
Oct 5, 2006
1,085
Potomac River/Chesapeake Bay
Boat Info
07 58 DB
Truly Blessed IV

2010 Nautica 12' RIB, 40HP Yamaha
Engines
MAN CRM 900s
Boating season began for us about three weeks ago when the shrink wrap came off. We have probably put on 7 hours or so and plan to run this weekend, then go for an overnighter next week. 155 hours to go this season. All good. I note with some irony that the UN now admits that the planet has been cooling for the last 10 years, and la Nina and El Nino will cool the planet more this year. I feel less guilty about burning diesel now.


This was the second full winterization and annual service that I did on the 420, and I continue to learn about big diesel boats thansk to fwebster, Gary, Dom, and others. As regards the winterizatin process, I do services on the Mains, trannies, gen set, Cruisair A/Cs, fresh water system, etc. All seems to be going as it should. We shrink wrap and lay up in the water.

I will e-mail my annual services/ winterization checklist to anyone who may be interested. None of the items are particularly technically difficult, but it is tough work being in the engine room for one or two days in 35 degree weather getting all the work done properly. I am just about done with my spring projects--now it is time to run 160 hours or so before Thanksgiving. I wanted to pass on a couple lessons learned from this spring's re-commissioning.

1. Impellers. I change mine annually, in the spring. This way the well-used impellers sit in the pumps over the winter and take the set-as opposed to the new ones. Replacing the impellers annually was very timely this year. When the impellers came out they had vanes that were more than 50% torn away from the impeller hub. I carry spare impellers and an impeller puller, just in case. At 140 hours last season the impellers were not nearly so worn. I do not run in sand or knowingly allow the mains to ingest silt or river mud. If I go over 150 hours this year I may replace the impellers as a preventive measure. I think that had I cranked the mains to pump out the pink stuff with the old impellers I would still be picking rubber chunks out of the aftercoolers.

2. Valve Lash on C Series Cummins. When I bought my boat in March 2006 the C's had 107 hours on them, but were nearly three years old. I had Cummins out and had the valve lash checked at 180 hours, in June 2006, and every cylinder was out of tolerance. Interestingly, this year, at 410 hours, only two cylinders on the stbd main were out of tolerance. I had Cummins adjust the valve lash into spec to be on the safe side.

3. Coolant. My coolant is, I believe, the factory coolant. The maintenance records on the boat were sketchy when I bought her, but I can't imagine the original owner would have flushed and filled at the one year mark. This year both mains and gen set tested at -34F with proper chemical balance. I change my coolant filters annually, and per the Cummins Tech they contain a charge of additives to keep the system healthy. I had planned to flush and refill this year, but as long as the coolant tests properly on the Cummis test strips I will hang onto my money.

4. Oil leaks. At the end of the 2007 season I noticed a slight oil leak on the stbd main, in the vicinity of the water pump. Turns out the water pump gasket was bad-where it bolts to the engine. This was allowing oil to seep past the gasket and create the leak. A new gasket solved the leak.

5. Engine Room Hatch Linear Actuators. The original owner of the boat never put a grease gun on the grease fittings for the linear actuators which raise and lower the hatch to access the engine room. By the time I bought the boat, I know now, with the value of hindsight, that the gears that help raise and lower the hatch were running dry. I failed to grease the fittings in the first season of ownership, so I, too, bear culpability. At any rate, I finally got around to greasing the actuators last season, but it was too little, too late. My hatch lowered with noticeable grinding and did not come down evenly. So- this year I bit the bullet and replaced both actuators. Taken aback at the SR Parts Counter quote ($360 apiece plus tax and shipping) I called Acculift, the manufacturer, directly. Their price is $330, and you have to pay the FedEx delivery man with a certified check or money order. No Credit Card orders over the phone-so I ordered two from Sea Ray. I got them installed today-and what a delight to have the ER hatch go up and down quickly and silently. Replacing the actuators is not hard, but you have to install one at a time and ensure that they are extended at precisely the same length for the hatch to lower evenly. As I do 99% of the work on my boat solo, this necessitated raising the hatch with the old actuators, installing one new one, plugging it in to power, raising it to the proper level, securing it to the hatch with the pin, then replacing the other one, unplugging the just-installed new one, and running the opposite side up to the same extension as the other side-then plugging both into power. This drill required several trips up the ladder from the ER to the helm to get the final actuator to the right extension length-but once done all worked as it should.

6. Exterior maintenance. I am paranoid about water intrusion in the deck core, so over the winter while the boat was under shrink wrap I re-bed the foredeck sunpad clips and track, windlass foot switches, etc. To do this I removed each screw individually, blew the hole out with compressed air, filled the hole with lifecaulk, covered the screw threads with caulk, then replaced the screws and wiped off the excess caulk.

7. Gelcoat. I compound, polish, and wax the entire boat each spring, and then do periodic reapplications of polish and wax on the foredeck, transom, and other areas where the sun is particulary hard on the boat. This year I followed the same regimen, but made it a point to clean, polish, and wax the foredeck right before the shrink wrap went on. This really paid dividends in terms of spring recommissioning. The foredeck took the polish and wax very well. Meguiars is my preferred brand for boat detailing, and this year Meguiars came out with a paste version of the Flagship Wax. I am anxious to try that on the transom and hullsides.

We plan to haul her in May and do bottom paint, replace the anodes (aluminum seems to be working well in the fresh water of the Potomac) swap out props (the boat came with a set of spare Sea Ray props, and I want to put them on and get the current set scanned) and install line cutters. The crabbers believe they own the river and lay pots and floats in the channel on the Potomac. I've been lucky so far, but do not want to take chances. I'm going cuttin'

best regards
Skip
 
Skip,
I have been mostly on the sidelines reading and trying to learn about diesel engines and maintenance. I was also a member of SRO where you had emailed me a about your purchase of your current 420. We are planning, maybe this year but more likely next year, to upgrade from our current 280 to a 390/40. I am always on the lookout for advise on maintenance of a larger SR 390/40 or 420/44 since they are very similar.

If you have a check list that you could send, please do as this would go into my file for future use WHEN we purchase the larger SR. I like the fact that you can work on your own boat and enjoy doing (it would seem). Thanks for the info and when I eventually purchase our new boat, I am sure I will 'pick your brain' along with fwebster,Gary, etc.
 
Tom,
We really love the 420-perfect boat for my family-and fairly economical to run. There are some killer deals out there now on Soft Top 420 Diesel Dancers-I have seen list prices as low as $250K. Still a ton of money, but these were probably 450K boats new.

Here is my checklist and lessons learned/notes from last year:

Winterize the Boat
Fresh water system

Purge water from lines
Bow anchor wash down
Master stateroom sink, toilet, shower
Galley sink and sprayer
Guest stateroom sink, toilet, shower
Cockpit wetbar sink
Ice maker
Engine room wash down
Hot water heater and hot water lines
Transom shower
Transom wash down inside trunk
Air conditioners
Purge fresh water from lines
Fill lines and compressors with antifreeze
Clean a/c filters
Toilets and holding tank
Fill sewer lines with antifreeze
Empty holding tank and fill (partial) with antifreeze
Onan Generator
Change oil and filter
Remove impeller
Drain all water from cooling system
Fill with anti freeze
Change zinc in heat exchanger
Cummins Diesels
Change oil and filters
Change RACOR elements
Change primary diesel filters
Change coolant filters
Change zincs in aftercoolers
Clean AIRSEP elements
Drain all water from cooling system and fill with antifreeze
Remove impellers
Spot paint rust on engines
Boat exterior
Wash boat
Wax boat
Tighten fittings and fasteners
Re-caulk seams as required
Clean all stainless steel
Inspect and adjust life line tension
Inspect windlass and tighten clutch
Inspect all running lights and change bulbs as required
Inspect and tighten radar connections
Boat interior
Clean carpets
Wash and replace carpet runners
Defrost and clean refrigerator and freezer
Clean out microwave
Clean out cabinets (all)
Unpack unnecessary gear
Clean shower sump
Inspect bilge pump operation
Engine room
Tighten all hose clamps and replace as needed
Re-seal forward bilge pump screws
Canvas
Remove and clean all isenglass
Remove and clean all canvas
Treat canvas with 303 Fabric Protectant
Remove and clean all carpet
Replace missing snaps
Lubricate zippers

Shrink Wrap Boat


Lessons I learned:

The Jabsco 12V flat tank Oil Pump Out System I bought worked really well ($129 at *******). It took about 30 minutes or so to pump the 5 quarts of 30 weight out of each of the ZF 280 Series IV transmissions. The 12V clips on the Jabsco unit were not long enough to reach the batteries on the boat, so I bought an inexpensive deep cycle battery from Wal Mart and used it to power the Jabsco pump. Worked great. My only challenge with the trannies was the filter caps: they require a 36MM socket to remove. I did not have one, nor could I find one locally. Lowes and Home Depot were no help…so I refilled the trannies with fresh oil and will clean the filters in the spring. In the meantime, for $45, I got a metric socket set from Harbor Freight Tools online, which has 22-40MM sockets and ½ ratchet, ratchet extension, and breaker bar. Not first quality tools, but more than adequate to the job. I should have had the right tool before I started, but I assumed that an adjustable wrench would get it done. Not so. These filter caps are in a tight spot and you require the right tool.

With the proper tool, the Tranny service in fall '07 was no problem. I bought an extra set of ZF 280 Series IV Transmission Filters, put the new ones in, and cleaned the old filters out in mineral spirits. Once clean I ran a magnet over the mineral spirits to see if I had any ferrous metal--indicating bearing wear or some other unfortunate circumstance. No ferrous metal, and thanks to fwebster for this tip.

The reverso oil change system Sea Ray installs is a great, great piece of gear. It took no time at all to change oil in the mains and generator. Based on Gary's advice I carry a spare impeller for the Reverso pump in case the impeller heads south in the middle of an oil change.

I failed to buy a water heater bypass, so I used an extra 8-10 gallons of RV antifreeze on my freshwater system. I plan to recycle the pink stuff, so no big deal. I also avoid any drying out of the water line o-rings this way.

I used the K&N air filter cleaner and oil, and the filters on the Airseps look brand new.

I winterized the Onan gen set and the mains by using a thoroflush cap and running a mix of -100 and -50 RV antifreeze through the entire raw water side. Same for the A/C systems. On each I made sure that pink stuff was present from the sea cock forward in the system. Once all were winterized I used tie-wraps on each sea cock to verify that they are properly and completely closed

I found yet another use for the Porter Cable 7424. The isinglass panels were a bit dirty, so after I cleaned them with fresh water I let them dry, then used Meguiar’s Clear Plastic cleaner on a soft foam buffing pad on the Porter Cable. I set the unit to speed setting 2 and away I went—and the isinglass cleaned up really, really well. I followed this with a hand application of Meguair’s clear plastic polish and my isinglass will easily get me another couple seasons.

I put my wife’s new high capacity (and far too expensive IMO) clothes washer to good use as well. I washed all the Sunbrella on the hand-wash cold water setting, let it hang over a basement couch to dry, then treated all pieces with 303 Fabric treatment. The sunbrella looks great. I’ll have to do the fastback enclosure by hand, but all other pieces, including the fore and aft biminis, cleaned up really well, and took the 303 application very well.

I was really blessed with the weather. The day I winterized I had a buddy along who waxed the boat down to the rubrail. A week later I washed the boat and just as I was getting off the last black streak the shrink wrap guy arrived..so she got wrapped clean. My shrink wrap guy did a great job. He ran a line between my stern cleats and shrink wrapped forward of the line—so I can access my platform safely on snow/icey days and also raise my engine hatch enough to get into the engine room—very important to me.

I learned a lot and feel like the boat was winterized properly. It was a two advil day each time, but to ease the pain I downloaded my local dealer’s winterization rates for 2006. A sample:

Winterize twin diesel engines (Oil, filter, fuel filters) $2200 (does not include transmissions)
Winterize Generator: $250
Winterize A/C: $100 per unit
Winterize Marine Toilets: $50 per unit
Winterize ice maker: $50 per unit
Winterize windshield washer: $50
Shrink wrap: $20/Foot.

All told, I spent under $1K, including shrink wrap and all materials—oil, oil filters, primary and secondary diesel filters, etc. To have the dealer do it would have been nearly $5K. The 4K savings goes a long way towards the 08 fuel budget.

regards
 
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I find the impeller failure interesting. Do you suppose sitting during the off-season for months on end is what caused them to fail? I would expect them to last more than one season, and a northern one at that. Maybe year-round use contributes to longevity, I was told I should get two years (200-250 hrs).
 
Not sure. The boat sits for three months in winter layup-but I had hoped that I'd get more than a season--but at 58 bucks each new impellers are comparatively cheap insurance

regards
Skip
 
Great post, Skip. The excessive wear you are seeing on your impellers may be pump wear??? Tony Athens is a master at raw water pumps and may be able to advise you. My pumps are different, but I get 500+ hours on impellers in a season with no issues and I can push 1.5 - 2 seasons at that rate with Tony's impellers.
 
I just bought a used 390 with QSB 380's and the dealer tells me the impellars ar fine with out looking. Am I wrong to ask to have them replaced before delivery?
 
You will find that the replace-ables all have a pretty defined life span. Like I replace my impellers at 300 hours because experience has taught me that when I let them go longer there is usually an "emergency" impeller service that is required at the most inconvienent time possible. While your engines may be pumping fine, you really have no idea how long the impellers have been in the engines and, therefore, when you can expect to have to service them. If it were me, I would ask the dealer to look up the service records and see if they are available so you both know when the impellers were changed last. If they either haven't been changed or you just can't find out, I'd probably ask the dealer to change the Cummins and the generator impellers now even if you have to bear some of the cost so you are starting out with a known.

Enjoy the new boat..........
 
Well... When my boat was new, I got 1.5 seasons out of the originals and then I was picking fins out of the heat exchanger inlet. I change mine every year. It isn't worth the hassle to try and wait longer (for me anyway). As soon as fins start falling off, a 10 minute job becomes a 2 hour job.

My generator impeller gets replaced twice a year.... and I don't believe I've ever done a generator impeller change with all the fins still on the impeller.... and you have to remove the oil filter to get the end cap of the heat exchanger off so it requires draining the oil... another 10 minute job becomes a 2 hour job if you wait too long.

I actually had two emergency impeller changes last year... one was because I was stupid and left the stbd sea cock closed and the other happened on the same stbd engine when I ran over some lilly pad seeds/pods and it completely blocked the strainer and hose back to the sea cock... I'm getting pretty quick at changing that stbd one out.
 
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Hey Matt, I did not consider pump wear-good thought.
I spend a fair amount of time at boatdiesel.com as well-if I see similar impeller wear this year I may contact Tony for some advice.

Robert-unless your dealer (or Cummins Power Systems out of Glen Burnie, who probably did the work on your 5.9Bs-before you bought her-) can demonstrate that the impellers are new, I'd install new ones. This is really cheap insurance, and the diesels move a lot of water to stay at the right temperature.
You are also close to valve lash adjustment depending on the hours on your engines. Did Cummins participate in the Sea Trial of your boat?
You have 600 hours of warranty on the major components of your Cummins Engines. You will also want to have your coolant tested for proper chemical balance as your boat is at the three year point.
You can also get all the Cummins Tech Bulletins (fuel additives, etc) mailed to you by contacting Cummins-and you can get Cummins Parts in 24-48 hours via UPS. The Cummins dealer in Glen Burnie has a parts warehouse in southeast Pennsylvania and they are very responsive.

regards
Skip
 
I dont know if anyone saw my genset impeller but it was trashed. 50 % of the spine was gone and she pumped fine as frank has said . The only hint something was up, was at commisoning she wouldnt self prime. As Gary said its way not worth the hastle of searching for rubber in the heat exchanger.

Rob
 
.......I continue to learn about big diesel boats thansk to fwebster, Gary, Dom, and others. .........

I appreciate the mention, but I am far from teacher when it comes to diesels....My butt is still firmly planted in a desk in the classroom as a student....

Just today I had to put out a maday to mission central ....aka FrankW.

I decided to do a complete maintenance cleaning of the Racor bowls, so I removed the entire housings from both mains and brought them into the garage for a thoro cleaning. I installed new 2010 Racor filters in the housings and then also changed the secondary engine mounted filters with a new set of CAT specified part # 1R-0751. This whole process took about 2-2.5 hours including the setup of tools, buckets, rags, etc, etc.

Well, when it came time to start'em up and check for leaks, I started the port engine first. As always, after a filter change, the motors 'bang' a bit until the filters 'completely' refill with fuel and purge any air. Well this time the engine started to stall so I juiced the throttle and it just got worse. I jumped back into the ER and removed the secondary filter and noticed it was low on fuel, so I poured some fuel back into the filter and re-installed it on the mount. I attempted to re-start the port motor but she just didn't want to fire. That was when the cell phone came out, and I speed dialed the mayday call. Only problem, Frank wasn't available so I was on my own. I had these nightmare visions of completely losing the prime and having to "open" the rack to get fuel in and air out. So, I stepped back and just said to myself "get back to the basics"....that's when it hit me.....The first thing I had done 2 or so hours before I even starte the project was........drum roll please......shut the fuel crossover valves so fuel wouldn't leak out from the hoses when I removed the Racor housings.......Open the valves you IDIOT...:smt021......It sure was a good feeling when the motor fired up...

Frank returned my mayday later in the day, and I thought about making up some heroic story....but I just told him the truth and chaulked it up as another lesson learned....
 
Bet you won't do that again. I know I won't because I did the same thing the first time I changed the Racors..........Makes one feel a bit stupid...Fortunately, I had someone at the marina I could turn to and he diagnosed the problem from the clubhouse with a beer in his hand without ever having to set foot on the boat....DUH........
 
I've done that... I was up in Annapolis a few years ago and being bored one day I changed the racors and didn't turn them back on. Then engines died after I pushed off and was drifting in the middle of Spa Creek...
 
Just a thought to share.

When ever I start a significant piece of work I draw out the state of affairs before I take out a wrench. Now with digital cameras I photograph it all.

When things go back I have a visual aid to refer to so I can over come "halfheimer" moments where I forget which way the flidgelfladgel was set before I messed with it.
 

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