Engine

Lift the engine out of the boat

February 12, 2019 /

October 2018

We had decided to lift the engine out of the boat, so that we could do a full service of the engine during the winter months. Our engine is a Volvo Penta MD19 with a weight of approximately 270 kg (595 lbs) so it would not be an easy task.

The first thing we did was to remove the gear box, before starting to lift the engine. This was necessary to make it possible to lift the engine out from its position. The gear box weighs approximately 30 kg (66 lbs), so the engine also weighed a little less, not much, but every kg counts.

We built a rig made of wood, with the rig and a chain hoist we were able to lift the engine out from the bilge. The chain hoist was very helpful, since we didn’t need to use our own muscles to lift the engine. Otherwise it wouldn’t be possible with just the two of us, and it would probably cause some pain in the back for those involved lifting. Now we could do the work ourselves, the whole process was very controlled and no back pain afterwards!

scaffolding with chain hoist to lift the engine out from the bilge
Our rig we used to lift the engine out from the bilge in the boat. We used a chain hoist, which was very helpful.
Starting to lift the engine.
Almost there!
Finally up on the flooring.
It was very dirty under the engine. If we wouldn’t have removed the engine, it would have been very hard to do a proper cleaning of the bilge. Now we can go through the bilge during the winter, clean it and take a look at all the hoses and electronics.
We also removed the generator. While we work on the engine we will try to start the generator and, if necessary, do some service to it.
Our next step was to lift the engine out from the boat. We used a derrick, it made the process controlled and no need for brute force.
The engine removed from the boat.
The generator on its way out from the boat.
Since the engine is heavy we built a rig to lift it into the car. The hardest past, we noticed, was to get the engine into the car. The engine is high, and together with the rig and chain hoist, it was higher than the car.
We managed to get the engine inside the car eventually, by using a little force from ourselves.
The engine in the garage, ready for some service 🙂
And the generator as well.

The next thing we will do is starting to remove all the parts of the engine. You can follow our service of the engine under the category Engine. All other renovation we do to our sailboat Anne-Mon can be found under the category Renovation.

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