Today again was a day of getting hands dirty aboard Pesto. Very dirty indeed.
Pesto came equipped with two diesel engines. A large Main Engine which propels her through the water, and a smaller one which is the boat’s electricity generator.
Whereas maintenance seems to be straightforward with the Main Engine, the Generator has proven yet and again to be a fussy engine.
One of the maintenance items on my to-do list was to replace both engine’s oils. With the Main Engine, it was a one hour affair. All I had to do was to connect a hose to the engine, switch a button, and wait for all the oil to be sucked out of it. Done. No contorsionism, no spills, no cursing. Within an hour the large green engine was purring happily with its new clean lube.
Than came the time for the fussy red generator. To start with, access to it is an exercise in contortionism. Second, I just couldn’t find a way to connect the hose to suck the oil out. The Generator has an elaborate set up of bronze fittings, but the parts just didn’t seem to connect to one another. I even went to a marine supplies store and bought new connectors, only to find the threads were of different specifications … NPT vs FPT …. aaaaaaahhhhh! An activity that represented just half of an item on my to-do list had become a full-fledged project.
Then this morning I had an epiphany … take as many connections out of the way as possible.
After a couple hours on the weirdest positions, and having cramps on muscles I didn’t even know that I had, I finally managed to connect the oil draining hoses together.
And then, with the flick of a button, I finally had the pleasure of seeing the dark used oil being drained out of the Generator.
With the old oil out of the way, I then proceeded to replace the oil filter, and fill the engine with new oil.
But just as I thought the battle was won and over, the fussy red engine reared up its ugly head again. When I switched it on to test all was right, it gushed oil from the connection between the filter and the engine.
Now in addition to having this item unfinished on my list, I’ve got an engine room all smeared with the Generator’s oil to clean. Sweet.
Well, at least I did manage to get the old dark used gunk out ……………..