Hello all. Name's Bill and I'm recently associated with an Ericson 39 that was powered by an Atomic 4. By associated I mean that a good friend and a family member just acquired the boat and I'm working with them by dint of my being an old sailor and former liveaboard.
We went to motor from her launch point to the new slip, around 8 or so hours by the waterways we had to take, and somewhere around an hour into the adventure the A4 gave up the ghost. Sudden complete loss of power and a puff of smoke.
The owner's first thought was to repower with a diesel, but financial reality rears its ugly head. My thought is to dig into the engine and see exactly what happened. Could we be lucky enough that it's just the head gasket? Rings maybe? This is apparently the original 1970 engine that's been "rebuilt" a few times over the decades. I could well be too optimistic.
My credentials for this are so-so, I'll admit. I had antique gasoline tractors that seem very similar, and I've done more than a little work on cars and my motorcycles over the years. Not a mechanic, but a capable wrencher. I can follow instructions.
Any help you might be able to throw my way over the next few months will be much appreciated. I'm really happy to have found the forum.
We went to motor from her launch point to the new slip, around 8 or so hours by the waterways we had to take, and somewhere around an hour into the adventure the A4 gave up the ghost. Sudden complete loss of power and a puff of smoke.
The owner's first thought was to repower with a diesel, but financial reality rears its ugly head. My thought is to dig into the engine and see exactly what happened. Could we be lucky enough that it's just the head gasket? Rings maybe? This is apparently the original 1970 engine that's been "rebuilt" a few times over the decades. I could well be too optimistic.
My credentials for this are so-so, I'll admit. I had antique gasoline tractors that seem very similar, and I've done more than a little work on cars and my motorcycles over the years. Not a mechanic, but a capable wrencher. I can follow instructions.
Any help you might be able to throw my way over the next few months will be much appreciated. I'm really happy to have found the forum.
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