Engine

Installing our Volvo Penta engine

It was finally time to lift our Volvo Penta engine to its correct position in the boat and start the installation, after an entire winter of doing a full renovation of the engine (read all our blog posts about the renovation HERE). But before starting the installation we had to fix a small diesel leakage in the connection between our two fuel tanks. We noticed the leakage when lifting the engine into the boat but didn’t have the time to fix it immediately.

A not so nice surprise, finding diesel at the bottom of the bilge. Good thing that the bilge pump wasn’t connected and all this would have gone into the water. Now we could throw it into an environmental station instead.

So the first thing we needed to do was to fix the connection. We had a hard time get the connections in the correct position last time, since it is not very much room in the bilge and that is probably the reason for the leakage. We changed the connection and hopefully we won’t have any more leakages here.

Fixing the leaking connection between the fuel tanks.

As mentioned earlier, we had noticed a mysterious hatch. At first we wanted to open it to see what is inside it. But when we tried to open it we almost broke the plastic in the bilge so we decided to not open it and re-sealed it.

Sealing the mysterious hatch.

Then it was time to lift the generator into its position.

Lifting the generator into its position.
The generator in position.
The generator in position, seen from the cabin on starboard side. It is located under the bed in this cabin. The end of the bed can be removed so it is pretty easy to do maintenance on the generator if needed.

And finally it was time for the engine. First up was to get the external oil sump into its position.

External oil sump in position.

We used the same rig we built when lifting the engine out from the boat. It is made out of wood and we secured it towards the interior in the boat to get it really stable.

Time to get the engine into its position using our beloved chain hoist.
First we lifted it just enough to loosen it from the engine rig it is standing on right now.
Removing the engine brackets from the rig.
Then we moved it step by step, using the chain hoist and a strap to get it above its final position.
It was a precision task to get all of the engine brackets in the correct position. We sent the engine up and down for a while to get everything in position.
Finally in position!

Before it is time to try to start the engine we need to connect the gearbox to the engine and the shaft. We also need to connect the diesel, sea water, cooling system to the boiler and some electricity before we do our first test start inside the boat.

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