It’s now been about twenty four hours since “the incident”, and the VPD still haven’t shown up. I’m not much looking forward to their visit; it could really only go one of two ways, and those ways depend entirely on who the attending officers are. I figure they will either let me stay – though they may be angry and/or aggressive – or they will tow me out.
The problem with being towed out is that I cannot safely anchor out in English Bay in February weather without an engine – if I drag anchor, I could end up on the rocks, or worse. They can’t – or at least, they shouldn’t – put me into a potentially dangerous situation. That leaves one option: they could choose to tow me to the VPD docks and impound my boat. That would *really* put a damper on my adventures!
Anyhow. I found the part I need. Actually that was easy, as I had already sourced and purchased the part a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, getting another replacement wasn’t so easy, as there apparently isn’t a single water trap in Canada at this time. With some calling around and favours called in I managed to track down a water trap at a marine supply house in Seattle, though due to license agreements they cannot sell it to me in Canada. They did however suggest a shop in Bellingham that they could sell to, who could subsequently sell it to me, and so by way of Sweden to Seattle to Bellingham to FedEx to Vancouver – at significant expense – the part should arrive on Monday.
The real faulty part, the one that I am 95% sure caused all these problems in the first place, is available in Vancouver. According to the internet, the raw water injector elbow apparently only lasts about five years before rusting out and clogging up – honestly, I should have predicted this, it would have saved me a lot of time and money. The injector elbow is attached to the engine block with a… I don’t know what it’s called, an attacher elbow thing. That thing was seriously rusted, though when I last removed it to check it it seemed fine on the inside, and the guys at the marine store said that they last an awfully long time, so I wasn’t worried. Still, when I went to pull the injector elbow off today, the bit connecting the two snapped off in my hands. Not exactly the kind of behavior you expect from an ostensibly solid steel fitting!
The results of running the engine without exhaust cooling are evident in the photo; a big hole burned in the water trap, the plastic elbows melted, and the bit of flexible exhaust hosing is now somewhat suspect. I’ll likely replace the exhaust hose at the same time, probably picking up a few new stainless-steel hose clamps as well. The funny thing about hose clamps is that about 80% of the time they say ‘stainless steel’ on them but the little screw holding them together isn’t actually stainless, so after about a year you come back to find the band is still nice and shiny while the screw is a featureless lump of rust.
Anyhow. This isn’t even close to what I’m supposed to be working on right now. I have a big webserver rollout with a due-date of Monday, which means I’ll likely be working through the weekend. Back to the grind…
This totally reminds me of the BS I went through with my Jeep when I first got it back in November. It’s a concrete/dirt money pit. But, it’s damn close to being mechanically sound. New muffler tomorrow. New gears in the rear axle in the near future to help on the gas. I love the thing though. Good luck with this, man. I feel for ya. It’ll all come together and will be well worth it! Hang in there!