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Old 07-08-2018, 10:59 PM
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Ok, the next chapter

Fnally got up to the boat for a 4 day weekend. I did my best guess of timing, but my TDC stop does not work with the offset spark plug on the A4. So I judged the best i could by measuring the pin angle so I'm in the ballpark and then painted a line on the flywheel.

After statically timing the engine to TDC (based on my mark) there didn't seem to be any real improvement... the but the wind was up 15-20 knots and we have new sails.

I let the engine warm up for 10 mins, then we took off and motored for about 20 mins to clear the harbor. This "new2me" motor is much stronger and our peak RPM is now 2400 and the boat was cruising. The original motor could only manage 1800 RPM. As we left the harbor we were still burning oil pretty well and pushed it hard since I'm near my home port and could get help if needed. That said, we pretended we were w 2-stroke. (sigh) We experienced the the traditional drop in oil pressure so were 20-25PSI at cruise and then it dropped to 10-12PSI at idle. I bit more than I was expecting, but acceptable for a first real cruise.

I still have a bit of blowby but not where as bad as when we first ran the motor.

We sailed for a about and hour an half and then headed back after clearing a jammed furler in 19.2KT winds... fun. lol

One the way back i didn't push the motor as hard on the way out but noticed that it was not smoking as much, by a lot. Woo-hoo! It's only a 20 min jaunt to get back to the slip. However on the way back... the oil pressure dropped below 20PSI on cruise and was below 10 at idle. I crept back to the slip but was dealing with 15KT windows and as I made the last turn to the slip, I saw my oil pressure pretty much drop to zero. I made to the slip, shut everything down and docked.

The next day I adjusted the oil pressure in two turns and cold I went from 40PSi to 50PSI. I then changed the oil with Rotella 15W40 (the previous owner was running Delo 400 30W) and when I pulled the 3.75 quarts out... the oil had a gas smell to it. So I changed it, ran it for 30 mins in the slip and then changed it again. The engine sounds great, I get 55PSI cold , the smoking has greatly diminished. I rand it for 40 mins the the oil pressure stabilized at 20PSI at 700RPM and pushed up to 45 PSI at 2400 RPM. I still have a bit of blow by but its much better than it was when I first ran the motor.

I think my oil pressure issue on the return back to the slip was due to stuck/gummy rings and between the MMO and the added gas contamination drop the viscosity so I had mimimal/low oil pressure.

More testing needed... but this is a huge improvement in the smoking department, but not to stabilize the oil pressure.

Does this seem similar to others? I'm also looking for methods on accurately finding TDC on an assembled motor, so any thought or wisdom appreciated.
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Ron
Portland, OR
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