The last of the parts needed to complete the engine service had arrived during the week, so now there was no excuse, but to get messy and complete the engine service.

Oil Service

For the oil service you need, an extractor, oil and the new oil filter. When I was reviewing what we needed, I soon realised that I had not got the oil. So I hunted in the port locker to see what oils we had on board. It turned out that we had three different types of oil on board, all with slightly different working temperatures. So it was time to read the manual, where I found I needed the 15/40W. Now that I had all the items required it was time to start the engine.

You need to start the engine and run it for a few minutes so that the oil is warm. It needs to be warm enough to allow the oil to flow easily, but not sufficiently hot so that it can burn you during the service.

With our oil extractor pump, we were supplied with a thin tube which we fed into the tube where the dip stick goes. This having access to the lowest part of the engine. Once the tube was in place we created a vacuum in the pump, which drew the oil out. Maybe we had not got our oil to the ideal temperature, but it seamed to take forever, to extract the oil. We even managed to play a game of cards, interrupted by us priming the pump, to keep the vacuum in the pump.

Prior. to our service. I was concerned that the oil extractor pump that we had purchased wan too small as it was for 2 litres. while the manual stated that we would require 2.75 litres of oil. In the end we only extracted 2 litres as the remaining oil was in various pipes and tubing.

Once all the oil was removed, we needed to remove the oil filter, so I got myself a nappy, a plastic bag, to collect the oil and I got a wrench which I needed to get the oil filter off. When I was doing it I was trying to be clever, and use the plastic bag around the filter as I removed it. The problem with this method was that there was not enough friction between the plastic bag and the filter and at the last second the filter slipped out of my hand and missed the opening of the bag. I quickly put the filter into the bag, but not before the oil went everywhere.

Clean up operations then ensued followed by putting on the filter to just hand tight. Once all the old oil had been cleaned up we poured in the new oil, we then had to run the engine for a short time to distribute the new oil around the system. The engine then needs to cool for half an hour before the oil levels are checked again.

Diesel Service

For this you will need two different filters, a course filter and a fine filter. You will also need a tub to collect the fuel out of the system, a nappy, plastic bags and a wrench.

For this you need a cold engine. The first task is to make sure the engine is starved of fuel, we got everything out of the starboard locker before we realised that the fuel cut off was the emergency cut off valve which is inside in our wet locker. Once we had stopped all the fuel coming into the engine we removed the course filter. This comes in two parts, the course filter itself and a glass or plastic bulb that is below the filter. We managed to remove the bulb quite quickly but the course filter fell apart so it was quite a job to remove all the filter and the washers that were in place. Once the old washers and grommets were removed, we wiped the new grommet in a little of the old diesel and cleaned the bulb section of the filter as well in the old diesel, removing some old dirt from the inside of the bulb. Unfortunately our bulb is made of grey plastic, so we devised a schedule where we would unscrew the screw at the bottom of the bulb on a regular basis.

Once the new filter and cleaned bulb were in place, we cleaned the outside of the bulb and filter to remove any residual diesel smell then primed the system with fuel, which takes ages.

Next was the fine filter, this took ages to remove as it was so stiff, however the old engineers trick of screwing the filter on first, then unscrewing it worked as this breaks the seal. We managed to remove this filter cleanly and is was just a matter of minutes to add the new filter.

Even though the fine filter was smaller than the course filter and bulb combined, priming the fine filter was taking a lot longer to prime. So we hand turned the engine by hand to a set position on the engine when the valves are open and soon the fine filter was primed. It was only then that we started the engine and looked at the engine for leaks.

Costs and equipment

Diesel Service
Item		Cost
Course Filter		£  4.99
Fine Filter		£  9.00
Total		£ 13.99