New Old Boat, Part II

[seagrave79]

Don and all--

Since my last posts, life with our new old boat, a 1969 Pearson Coaster, has been fine. The A4 and I are becoming friends, and I'm learning to work on it.

However, I have one question for the community: How do you know it's time for a rebuild or an overhaul?

General engine stats: compression good (approx. 120 each at survey in July), oil pressure good (30-40 running, 15-20 idling), temp seems fine, though I distrust the gauge.

Issues: engine smokes, occasional sudden stall with increase of throttle (still runs around 5 knots), plugs may be oily.

Recent work: crankcase vent kit, new spark plug wires, fuel filter, MMO in gas and manifold. Coming: new plugs, oil change and filter.

Just ordered: Moyer A4 manual, maps to Maryland.

Walt
Pearson Coaster #114
"Passages"

[Don Moyer]

Walt,

Interestingly enough, we have heard of a few isolated cases where a crankcase venting kit has caused smoking and oily plugs. It turns out that the Indigo crankcase venting kit is so effective that in a few cases where an engine produces little or no blow-by for the PCV valve to scavenge, the crankcase venting kit actually draws a higher percentage of oily vapors from the crankcase than normal. You might try disconnecting the crankcase venting kit for a test to see if the smoking improves.

Don

[seagrave79]

Thanks, Don, and welcome back. We had the vent kit installed last month to deal with a blowby problem, but the engine has always smoked. With storage coming, I'm just wondering if it's time for rings or a valve job or something.

Walt

[JimG]

How much MMO are you putting in the gas?

[Don Moyer]

Walt,

With your good compression (not to mention temperature and oil pressure), my instinct is that there's something else going on that's affecting the general health of the engine, or perhaps something external to the engine like elevated exhaust back pressure.

I'd follow through with your plans for a tune up (including a plug change) and be sure your timing is optimized by performing the timing check under load (rotating distributor for best RPM at your favorite cruising power setting).

Don