How I pulled the engine out in the open
Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:35 pm
Last weekend I got around to pulling the engine out of my Islander 32 project. Condition of the engine is that it turns over with the hand crank just fine, but there were probably half a dozen cans of ether piled around it. Given that clue and my last boat's engine finally overheating from clogged cooling passages, this one is getting torn down, cleaned up, and rebuilt. The engine is a 1992 Yanmar 2QM15.
I've got the boat in my backyard, which is great for just about every possible boat project, except not having the rig up (and at this point not having a mast in any case) I couldn't use the boom as a lifting rig to pull the engine. Add to this the need to hoist the engine up the companionway, get it over the side and 10+ feet down to the ground and there was quite a problem.
My solution was to built a 16' tall by 16' wide wooden gantry. Using the mainsheet tackle as a hoist the engine could come straight up, using two diameters of pipe in side each other as a roller bearing along the beam would get the engine over to the side, and then it could be lowered into the waiting bed of a pick-up to make the trip across the yard to the garage for the rebuild project.
Being the type to over think things I went ahead and did the structural design to see if the timbers I speced would fail or not. According to the way timbers are engineered the top beam of this structure needed to be a 4x16 to support the 500lbs load of the engine. First off, where does one even find a 4x16? That was just silly, so I went back to the old seat-of-the-pants type engineering and used a couple of 2x6s I had lying around. Screwed together they made a credible 4x6 and I couldn't really see a 4x6 snapping under the weight of 500lbs. The reach check came when we had it all up and a couple of us just hung from the beam for a few moments.
Here's how it all went.
Here is one of the two columns. It is a 16' 4x4 with 2x4 bracing and a 4x4 sole.
Here is the rigging going together, that's my buddy Tim who is working on the project with me.
Here is a wider view of the whole rig.
Here the engine is flying free, looking a bit like a fish out of water. Japanese diesel tractor engines just wern't ment to fly. That's me on the left and Charlie on the right, Tim in the middle you met in a previous photo.
Finally, here is the engine half way down. I have no idea why we took a picture at this moment. I think we were clearing the way for the truck to get in, and it got right in there, lowered the engine right into the bed no problem.
All in all it went very well, no one had an engine dropped on their head, nothing collapsed. The engine is now happily awaiting a major cleaning and rebuilt in the garage on a couple of old boat cushions until the engine stand shows up. In about a year or two we'll do it all again to put the engine back.
The only problem area on the whole day were the prop shaft flange nuts, they were just one ball of metal. I've gotten some pretty rusty flanges apart but this wasn't going to happen, we tried grinding them off but couldn't get a decent angle with the fuel tank directly behind the engine. Ended up having to cut the prop shaft so I'll be needing a new one of those.
I keep having throughts of repowering. Not a new engine, way too much money, but a running take-out 2gm or something along those lines. The 2qm is a fine motor, but it is huge. About 500lbs and it takes up more cabin room than the original P-60 did. A 2gm would save me 250lbs, and a lot of room, not to mention being quieter. The 15hp is plenty for me. I've motored the entire East coast of Florida in an 8000lbs boat with a 9hp Yanmar so I know underpowered, the 15hp will be enough. These days a boat of this size would have more like 30-50hp, which seems crazy to me, I mean the times you'd ever come close to being able to use that much just wouldn't be enough to deal with the fuel consumption, size, etc. of the bigger motor. Maybe if you're turning two 100amp alternators or something that would put some load on it. More than likely the 2qm will go right back in once it is rebuilt and the engine beds are renewed and generally everything is made better than new.
We just ripped out the galley last night. Really the major demo is done now, the galley was pretty bad but the rest of the internal structure is fine, score one for forty year old plywood.
With the initial cleaning, stripping hardware, demo, and engine pulling complete the yard is a mess and the workshop is a wreck with coils of line, spars, PFDs, various electrical and engine parts, etc. I've got to take a few days to get everything squared away, pick up the beer bottles, that sort of thing. The next big project, in the next two weeks, will be building a shed and staging around the boat, I'll ask about that in the shelter section.
Well, did we just get lucky no one was killed with this set up or was this a good approach? I'm curious how others have pulled an engine, I'll have to put it back after all so I'll get another chance to do this again in a year or so.
David
I've got the boat in my backyard, which is great for just about every possible boat project, except not having the rig up (and at this point not having a mast in any case) I couldn't use the boom as a lifting rig to pull the engine. Add to this the need to hoist the engine up the companionway, get it over the side and 10+ feet down to the ground and there was quite a problem.
My solution was to built a 16' tall by 16' wide wooden gantry. Using the mainsheet tackle as a hoist the engine could come straight up, using two diameters of pipe in side each other as a roller bearing along the beam would get the engine over to the side, and then it could be lowered into the waiting bed of a pick-up to make the trip across the yard to the garage for the rebuild project.
Being the type to over think things I went ahead and did the structural design to see if the timbers I speced would fail or not. According to the way timbers are engineered the top beam of this structure needed to be a 4x16 to support the 500lbs load of the engine. First off, where does one even find a 4x16? That was just silly, so I went back to the old seat-of-the-pants type engineering and used a couple of 2x6s I had lying around. Screwed together they made a credible 4x6 and I couldn't really see a 4x6 snapping under the weight of 500lbs. The reach check came when we had it all up and a couple of us just hung from the beam for a few moments.
Here's how it all went.
Here is one of the two columns. It is a 16' 4x4 with 2x4 bracing and a 4x4 sole.
Here is the rigging going together, that's my buddy Tim who is working on the project with me.
Here is a wider view of the whole rig.
Here the engine is flying free, looking a bit like a fish out of water. Japanese diesel tractor engines just wern't ment to fly. That's me on the left and Charlie on the right, Tim in the middle you met in a previous photo.
Finally, here is the engine half way down. I have no idea why we took a picture at this moment. I think we were clearing the way for the truck to get in, and it got right in there, lowered the engine right into the bed no problem.
All in all it went very well, no one had an engine dropped on their head, nothing collapsed. The engine is now happily awaiting a major cleaning and rebuilt in the garage on a couple of old boat cushions until the engine stand shows up. In about a year or two we'll do it all again to put the engine back.
The only problem area on the whole day were the prop shaft flange nuts, they were just one ball of metal. I've gotten some pretty rusty flanges apart but this wasn't going to happen, we tried grinding them off but couldn't get a decent angle with the fuel tank directly behind the engine. Ended up having to cut the prop shaft so I'll be needing a new one of those.
I keep having throughts of repowering. Not a new engine, way too much money, but a running take-out 2gm or something along those lines. The 2qm is a fine motor, but it is huge. About 500lbs and it takes up more cabin room than the original P-60 did. A 2gm would save me 250lbs, and a lot of room, not to mention being quieter. The 15hp is plenty for me. I've motored the entire East coast of Florida in an 8000lbs boat with a 9hp Yanmar so I know underpowered, the 15hp will be enough. These days a boat of this size would have more like 30-50hp, which seems crazy to me, I mean the times you'd ever come close to being able to use that much just wouldn't be enough to deal with the fuel consumption, size, etc. of the bigger motor. Maybe if you're turning two 100amp alternators or something that would put some load on it. More than likely the 2qm will go right back in once it is rebuilt and the engine beds are renewed and generally everything is made better than new.
We just ripped out the galley last night. Really the major demo is done now, the galley was pretty bad but the rest of the internal structure is fine, score one for forty year old plywood.
With the initial cleaning, stripping hardware, demo, and engine pulling complete the yard is a mess and the workshop is a wreck with coils of line, spars, PFDs, various electrical and engine parts, etc. I've got to take a few days to get everything squared away, pick up the beer bottles, that sort of thing. The next big project, in the next two weeks, will be building a shed and staging around the boat, I'll ask about that in the shelter section.
Well, did we just get lucky no one was killed with this set up or was this a good approach? I'm curious how others have pulled an engine, I'll have to put it back after all so I'll get another chance to do this again in a year or so.
David