Log XXVI - Artemis 1 (Last Days of My Engines) - Part 1

My current engines are Mercruiser 454 Horizon inboard petrol engines. They were taking turns to give me problems. First it was the port engine which had a chipped exhaust manifold.

Exhaust was leaking out from the manifold and making a lot of noise. So I ordered a new one with new gaskets. Remember to always change the gaskets whenever you replace an engine part. I learn this lesson through the hard way and you will find out in my later posts.

However this did not solve the problem yet because the exhaust holes on the engine body were badly corroded too.

You notice that the walls are getting very thin. Even with a new manifold and gasket, it will not completely prevent the exhaust from leaking out. To change the engine block is a huge operation. It is almost as good as overhaul the whole engine, so I decided to live with this flaw.

Next problem was more irritating. This same engine started to stop running randomly. At first we thought it might be the same problem as the previous time when there was debris stuck in the fuel intake pipes. But this time the fuel feeding to the engine was intermittent. We decided to change the fuel pump.

This existing fuel pump looks old and corroded and needed a change. After changing the fuel pump, the engine was running normally but only just for a while. I only managed to find out what was the problem many months later. Anyway I was also contemplating to change my engines to diesel ones mainly because the cost of diesel is only a quarter of the price of petrol.

After talking to several mechanics and boaters, who all offered very different views, I decided to change them. In my next post, I will explain why I wanted to change my engines. Not because the current ones were giving lots of problems, as all marine engines will have their own sets of problems anyway.