Engine repairs completed

The new pipe turned up about 4 pm on Wednesday but we were in Tenby having taken the train to Milford Haven to fetch the car. The train had taken us to Johnstone between Haverford West and Milford Haven. From there we got a bus to the outskirts of Neyland and walked to the car. It was a really short walk.

The part turned out to be copper alloy - not mild steel so that was good. The bolts which hold the pipe in are hollow at the end and have a hole through them at right angles so the oil comes up the bolt and through the hole into the pipe.

So its really important that the tightening leaves the hole in the bolt lined up with the pipe. I marked the bolt heads so I could see the angle of the hole.

I fitted the new short pipe. The bolts seemed to tighten at about the right place. The long pipe seemed a bit less picky but tight enough when the holes were aligned.

We checked the oil level - there seemed to be enough left in so we started the engine.

No drips!

We left it running for a few minutes just above idle while Alison replaced the pads to soak up more oil from the bilges. It all seems fine.

So we are good to go.

I got on to the other job I had planned for this stop - putting the ICOM radio back into service. We had sent it off to ICOM for repair after its shenanigans in Scotland. We have been using the old 1970s radio that came with Robinetta. I don't really think DSC is much use but the ICOM is louder and easier to hear in the cockpit and its dual watch and scanning capabilities are really useful.