Installed the Indigo PCV kit today

[Baltimore Sailor]

This afternoon I installed the Indigo PCV kit on my late model A4. I got the Indigo kit instead of the one from Moyer because I didn't need the flame arrestor, and the Indigo kit comes without one.

It was very simple to put on -- in the "easy" category if you're at all handy with tools. I also put on the extended, knurled idle mixture adjustment screw and the adjustable main jet. The main jet adjustment was the trickiest part of all -- I did as the instructions said and opened it up 1 1/2 turns from the seated position, but when I tried to start the engine it wouldn't keep running.

At first I thought it was the fuel line not primed up after having the carb off, but I pumped that up with the bulb pump so I knew that wasn't the problem. Then I thought maybe the fuel pump was acting up, so I took the line off the carb to see how it was doing, and it was fine too.

I knew the problem was fuel starvation, and the only thing left in that line was the adjustable jet, so I cranked it open another whole turn, to 3 turns from the seated postion. That let the engine keep running, though it seemed to prefer having the choke partially closed, so I kept opening up the adjustable jet a little at a time, waiting a couple of minutes between changes to let the engine stabilize, and I finally got the best results somewhere around 4 1/2 turns. (I lost track from not paying close attention to how many times I went through the process.)

It also took forever for the engine to warm up with this cold Rock Creek water, but I finally got it up to 150 deg. and made my final main jet adjustment, getting 2100 rpm out of her in gear tied to the dock. Then I took her out of gear and eased her down to as low as she'd go without stalling and started adjusting the idle mixture.

I started at an idle around 1200 rpm, and enriched the mixture by turning the new idle mixture screw clockwise (love that extended, knurled screw -- it makes idle setting a tool-free exercise!) until the idle increased a bit, then adjusted the idle speed screw down to abut 1000 rpm and made another clockwise adjustment, repeated as necessary until she held a nice steady idle at 800 rpm. Sounded great. Claimed victory.

Then I thought, well, I'll just finish up that last bit of wiring in the house panel and... Oh, dear Lord what is that? Another of the PO's wiring abortions, this time with the steaming light (which he had labeled as the "forward anchor light") and the running lights wires twisted together way back there, with a bit of solder on them and not even any electrical tape on the positive leads. How those lights ever worked I don't know.

So there's my project for this Saturday: getting the last bit of wiring taken care of so that I can start looking at the actual sailing bits of my boat.

Can't wait.

[rigspelt]

Nice feeling, eh? I'm a little behind you, but gittin' there.

[sastanley]

Balt. Sailor, nice work!

I face similar wiring problems, and abominations from the P.O. He certainly knew what he was doing, but it only made sense in his head! I was down at the boat last night grinding on the keel and doing an acid flush, and it was starting to get dark as I was completing the flush. I couldn't get any interior lights to work (or anything on the panel as a matter of fact) I've found clip leads soldered to the hot side of the panel, and lamp wire attached to the engine, grounding something from somewhere!

back on topic, I also have the Indigo kit for the same reason. I spent many evenings cleaning my cushions trying to get the old engine smell out of them. Hopefully the PCV kit will solve that for good.

Do a lot of you late model guys have the adjustable jet? During my carb cleaning exercise this winter, I was going to take out the fixed jet for cleaning, but the brass was so soft, and reading Don's warning in the manual about a proper sized tool, I decided I couldn't get it out without tearing it all up, so I just left it in there and blasted it clean using one of those little red tubes with carb cleaner. We'll see how she runs in the water with all the other 'fixes'. I never could get her over 1,500 or so last fall. I can't imagine what she sounds like at 2,100 RPM - vroooooom!!

[Jesse Delanoy]

I keep the fixed main jet. Engine runs great, and I burn between half and three quarters of a gallon per hour under normal motoring conditions.

In my '77 Catalina 30, I do find that if I run the motor over about 1800 rpm, about five and a half knots, it does start to heat up, about 180, maybe a bit more. What's your experience with rpm/speed (on your Cat 30) and temperature?

[sastanley]

Jesse,

I have only had the boat since September, however it belonged to my father previously, so I grew up on it. I seem to recall that 160-170 degrees was what my father considered "normal", but sometimes it would initially jump to as high as 200 before the thermostat (the original 3-spring type) opened.

During my limited motoring last fall (dirty bottom and half of the motoring with a fouled prop) the engine seemed to run about 160 as well. This past winter, I added the Moyer ball valve bypass system, and also installed a new 140 degree t-stat, along with a new housing & spacer, as the old one was corroded away inside, and from what I have read, could apparently have affected cooling.

This spring, I've only run the motor on land so far, sucking from a 5-gallon bucket. After initial trouble getting the pump to prime, (the temp went up quick!! ) - it seemed to settle a little under 160. I haven't been able to run it under load yet, nor with a tachometer installed to monitor engine speed.

There are only 3 boats blocking us from the travel lift now, so hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll have more data for you!

[Baltimore Sailor]

Balt. Sailor, nice work!

I face similar wiring problems, and abominations from the P.O. He certainly knew what he was doing, but it only made sense in his head! I was down at the boat last night grinding on the keel and doing an acid flush, and it was starting to get dark as I was completing the flush. I couldn't get any interior lights to work (or anything on the panel as a matter of fact). I've found clip leads soldered to the hot side of the panel, and lamp wire attached to the engine, grounding something from somewhere!

back on topic, I also have the Indigo kit for the same reason. I spent many evenings cleaning my cushions trying to get the old engine smell out of them. Hopefully the PCV kit will solve that for good.

Do a lot of you late model guys have the adjustable jet? During my carb cleaning exercise this winter, I was going to take out the fixed jet for cleaning, but the brass was so soft, and reading Don's warning in the manual about a proper sized tool, I decided I couldn't get it out without tearing it all up, so I just left it in there and blasted it clean using one of those little red tubes with carb cleaner. We'll see how she runs in the water with all the other 'fixes'. I never could get her over 1,500 or so last fall. I can't imagine what she sounds like at 2,100 RPM - vroooooom!!

My carb is brand spankin' new from Moyer last year, so my fixed jet came out slick as a whistle with a small flat blade screwdriver. I kept all the old parts together in a ziploc baggie on the boat, because YOU JUST NEVER KNOW.

I was only getting about 13-1400 rpm last year too, and then when I moved my instruments from down on the cockpit floor to up on the cabin bulkhead I was able to get a look at the tach. It was set for 6 cylinder instead of 4 cylinder. Now I get 2100 rpm easy as pie!

[sastanley]

That will remind me to check my tach setting before I install it!