Engine service complete

 After a damp Monday morning leading to a lovely afternoon Tuesday came in with a bang. Bright sunshine, no wind. Julian headed off to work on a picnic bench by the marina car park, while I made sure the bilges were not too wet, and took out the cockpit sole to give more light in the engine bay.

Two engineers turned up around 10:00, took pictures of the filters to make sure they got the correct size, wrote down the engine serial number to make sure they knew exactly what Yanmar they were dealing with, then turned on Robinetta's engine to warm up the oil before leaving again.

As I looked at the engine gently chugging away I noticed that the prop shaft seemed to be going round. On a closer look I realised that the shaft was still, but the fitting on the end of the stuffing box was turning. This is not normal, but I would not have noticed it without the extra light streaming in through the normally closed off cockpit. I then walked up to have a chat with Julian. 

When I got back the engineer apologetically told that the fuel cut off from the diesel tank was not working. Very strange, until I realised that he did not know there were two tanks.... I should have hung around! He had tried siphoning off the fuel to stop it dripping, so was able to tell me that the it was really clean, with no sign of bug, which was good to know.

It seems that having paired fuel tanks is unusual, although two water tanks is pretty common.

Once the engine service was done a specialist in oil burning arrived to see if he could find the cause of the burning oil that Julian keeps noticing. The only possible cause was an oil drip that had been noticed before the oil filter was changed, so I hope the problem is over.

After that they tightened up the nut on the stuffing box, and tie wrapped it in place. The problem is that there is no where obvious to fix the tie wrap too, and we will need to keep an eye on it.

All in in great service from Swordfish Marine at Holyloch Marina