T&T: Digging a hole in the water

[JSpence47 at aol.com]

TK
There are a lot of things that can be done to narrow your search down and  to 
spend money on experts on the finalist.
1. does the owner have maintenance logs? read every word on them.
2. Look at the engines and generators. Look for the following:
    are cooling hoses cracked or reinforcing wire  showing?
    are fuel hoses cracked or rusty connections?
    condition of hose clamps, rusted?
    color of antifreeze it will usually be green, purple, or  red. black or 
gray color is bad.
    Look at underside of coolant pressure cap, oily brownish  residue or rust 
is bad.
    pull oil dipstick diesel engine oil will be black but  look at the top of 
the stick for brownish residue (bad)
    Pull oil filler cap look for brownish residue  (bad)
    Take oil from dipstick and put some on a clean paper  towel. look for any 
thing shiny (metal)
 3. Make sure engines are cold to the touch (if the engine are not  cold come 
back on another day) go to stern of the boat or if the boat is backed  in to 
the dock stand on the dock and have the owner start the engines one at a  
time. White smoke on start up that quickly dissipates is not unusual especially  
on Detroits. Watch for continued black, gray or white smoke.  All  indicate 
different potential problems all of which can be researched either here  or at 
Boat Diesel or any of several different books.
4. Find out the rated max rpm for the engines you are looking at. Have the  
owner run the engines up to that rpm. this is noload rpm and usually will 
exceed  max rpm by about 50-100 rpm. The correct way to check this is with a hand 
help  infared rpm tester. Lacking that check to see if the engine room has 
direct  drive tachometers and use them to check rpm. (during a sea trial you are 
going  to want to be sure that the engines are within 50 rpm of max while  
underload.)
 
I am sure that others on this site can give you more things that a layman  
can check for himself this will get you started. If you have specific questions  
let me know.
 
    
 
Jim aboard  m/v Sea Eagle

"Semper Fi"



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