I don't really have any pictures to include in this post of "the longest ongoing A-4 rebuild thread ever" because the next chain of events were mostly intangible.
After correcting the timing (detonation) issue, and running the engine with a mechanical oil pressure gauge hooked up to eliminate any potential electric gauge inconsistencies, I discovered that I had insufficient oil pressure. Like, very insufficient. It would start out around 20-ish psi and then rapidly decline to around 5 psi when the Cole Hersee low pressure/high temp switch I had installed earlier would kill the engine. I read every thread on this website involving oil pressure issues, oil type choices, etc. I purchased the fancy oil pressure regulating valve seat tool from Moyer, replaced the 'ball type' regulating valve with the 'cone type' valve, changed the oil to 15W-40 Rotella, dumped in bottles of Lucas Oil Stabilizer, all to no avail. After all of this effort, time, and money spent, the reality of the situation was that the motor needed to be rebuilt. The bottom end was just worn out. I'm not sure if running the engine as hard as I did with the timing so hideously off contributed to the bearings/crankshaft getting prematurely worn out but either way, this motor needed to come out of the boat. However I had another problem: I had scheduled our first haul-out for bottom paint etc 6 months prior with the expectation that I would have a running A-4 by this point. (April 2017) Without the motor running, I would have to get towed up to the boatyard (about 10 miles) and then back to my marina again after the haul-out was complete.
What followed was the most epic miscalculation of a project since the Boston 'Big Dig.' What I thought would take 4 days, took almost a month. What I thought would be around $1000, instead had my wife and I considering cutting our losses and abandoning the boat. The forthcoming post will be a little bit of a tangent from the specifically A-4 rebuild thread but I hope you'll indulge me so that I can show how such a seemingly straightforward task as doing a 'bottom job' could insidiously morph into such a boondoggle that a person would question their life choices. Give me a little time to edit the pictures and type the narrative but in the meantime, here was the beginning of haul-out nightmare 2017:
P.S. In case it takes me a little bit to type up the next post I'll quickly say that Berkeley Marine Center (as inferred from the Travel-lift) had nothing to do with our headaches. The folks there were great, and whenever we sober up enough from this first haul-out experience, we'll happily give them our business again...if they'll have us.
