The motor in our Eberspacher had just failed, so we decided that while we were sorting out the motor, we would also sort out our exhaust, which was just exhausted.
We knew that the motor would be failing soon, so we had purchased a new motor from PF Jones. We also knew that the exhaust was on its last legs as Beverley had already patched it up with some gum gum, so we purchased the new exhaust from Butler Technik. As it happened the motor failed just before Christmas, of which we were quite glad, because it would of been dreadful if it had failed while we were in Liverpool for Christmas.
We pulled out the Eberspacher, and put in the new motor, that was such a simple job as the Eberspacher is modular. Seeing as we had the Eberspacher in bits we decided to do a clean, so that everything would be in tip top condition while we were away for Christmas. We have covered a regular service in our Eberspacher Service video, so we just got on with it. Since that video we had brought a new brush which is for cleaning drains, this did a really great job of cleaning the air intake, we also experimented with pipe cleaners but the drain brush was the right brush to use.
Since our last service we had been supplied with a tip from one of our followers to use coke to clean out the combustion chamber, so we decided to give that a try. So I cleaned out the combustion chamber with the brush method first as this would loosen any soot deposits. I then put the whole thing into the sink then poured in the coke. It did a really good job, because I could see a lot of bear metal afterwards. While I was trying the coke method Beverley used WD40 on the burner chamber, this was not bad and did lift soot deposits, but the coke was the most effective. Having said that, I would not use coke to clean out the burner chamber just in case you leave deposits. While any deposits left by the WD40 would just burn off.
Once, the Eberspacher was clean our next task was to replace the exhaust, so I went into transom to get out the exhaust. This was made easier by the fact that one side was already removed from the Eberspacher and the other end of the exhaust just came off, admittedly leaving some of it on the exhaust outlet, but the main task of removing the exhaust was done. Once we had got the exhaust inside I was fascinated at just how brittle the metal had got, it was that bad I could actually break the metal with my little pinky, I would of done more investigations as I found it so fascinating, but the insulation that they had used was crumbling and small bits of fibres were coming into the cabin. The fitting that we needed from the exhaust were removed, along with the brackets, before the exhaust finally went into the bin.
Our next task was to install the new exhaust, we had bought the correct insulation and for the most part, we were able to put double insulation over the pipe. where we only had one layer, we used an exhaust lagging which Beverley had purchased from our local plumbing merchant. We also used this new lagging over various pipes that were quite close by. So once everything was set up, it was time for the all important test. So while I was in the transom, Beverley started the heating system and checked out the other bits. The fitting on the Eberspacher was good, so next came the transom, this is where we found that we still had the weather cap on. Our weather cap is used when we have a following sea, and keeps water out of the exhaust. We had put it on because we had no exhaust on for a night and we had a great big hole in the boat. In a way we had pressure tested the system, but once the weather cap was removed you could here the change in the Eberspacher. We waited for a bit longer and soon there was smoke coming from the lagging, so we had to stop the Eberspacher.
The cause of the smoke was coming from the extra lagging that we had put on, so that was a bust. We also had some smoke from the actual pipe itself, but that was because of oil deposits on the pipe itself. So we had to remove all the extra lagging and wait for the oil deposits to burn off. We were quite glad when that was all done. Over the week before we left for Liverpool, the heating was on every day, so we were quite happy to leave the heating on while we were away.
