Uncle Mort's motor was a bit slow to start on Sunday morning when I was heating up the water for Mrs B's ablutions. (10 minutes in gear with the Travelpower running the immersion).
I popped into the mooring today to see if there was a repeat of the non-performance. There was. After a considerable wind of the starter motor building up inertia several times the engine limped into life on one cylinder. Followed by a second and then the third. Since last summer the starting has tended to be 2 firing, with some black smoke chuffing until the third joined in. Today's experience had some whitish presumably fuel rich vapour coming out of the exhaust prior to the firing. This suggests that diesel is getting to the cylinders and therefore an air lock is not the problem. I'm wondering if the injectors need to come out for a service - perhaps the spray patterns are poor and therefore the diesel doesn't feel inclined to go "bang". The engine has done about 1300 hours since rebuild. To remove injectors looks fairly simple, apparently, by removing the fuel feeds and spills and the 2 clamping bolts per injector. I remember, though, Terry Streeter's experience when the injectors could not be removed from the FR. Spinning the motor fired at least one out through the side hatches. Once again I presume that judicious gentle tapping with a piece of wood might be a way to tease out the injectors. Where would one take the injectors for service ? There is no reason why they should be kept matched to the original cylinder is there ? Any other theories ? Thanks Beeky
