Moderators - Feel free to put this under whatever topic seems appropriate as it spans several. I'll use several posts to lay out the story.
I recently bought a 1977 Tartan 30. After a couple of months working on other projects I dove into the engine, an Atomic 4 of course! The previous owner died, so I had no history on the boat or engine. It was a positive indication though, that it looked reasonably clean and had the Indigo oil filter kit installed. Well, the first thing I did was purchase Don's manual. Then I did the usual tune up items (points, condenser, plugs, cap, rotor, filters). I cleaned the carburetor and took apart the raw water pump for inspection/service. After all this, it seemed to run pretty well and had no issues during a weekend trip with a total of about 6 hours running. Some notable findings were: Inoperable gauges, no thermostat in the housing, but a bypass constricting valve had been installed, the carb was pretty dirty and much of the wiring looked questionable with only one fuse (to fuel pump).
So here is where the trouble starts. I went for an afternoon sail. The engine ran fine getting us out of the marina, at which point the sails went up and we sailed in light to medium breeze for a hour or so. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. I went to start it up when the wind died and it had a pronounced loud tapping, and a significant reduction in power (about 50%). Some minor troubleshooting revealed cylinder one operating reliably, 2 and 3 intermittent, and 4 not firing at all. The oil was a little milky, but the level was not noticably higher. After a while I couldn't get it to start at all and the wind had picked up so we finished our sail. I tried to get it started again just before going back into the marina. No dice. I've only been sailing for 9 months, so it was with some trepidation that I decided to sail into the marina and into my slip. Well, as it turns out, this is not nearly as difficult as it might seem and (though there were some tense moments) it went off without a hitch.
The next day I went back to the boat and did some more troubleshooting. I had good compression on all cylinders, good spark, and fuel in the throat of the carburetor, but still no starting. Don was very helpful on the phone and we determined that water had gotten into the cylinders from the exhaust and killed the plugs. I verified this by detaching the hot exhaust from the manifold and finding it wet in there. After extensive drying of the cylinders and following Don's direction, I finally got it to start up again, but it ran horribly, never did work on cylinder 1, and both 2 and 3 were intermittent.
To be continued...
Qben Oliver
1977 Tartan 30
I recently bought a 1977 Tartan 30. After a couple of months working on other projects I dove into the engine, an Atomic 4 of course! The previous owner died, so I had no history on the boat or engine. It was a positive indication though, that it looked reasonably clean and had the Indigo oil filter kit installed. Well, the first thing I did was purchase Don's manual. Then I did the usual tune up items (points, condenser, plugs, cap, rotor, filters). I cleaned the carburetor and took apart the raw water pump for inspection/service. After all this, it seemed to run pretty well and had no issues during a weekend trip with a total of about 6 hours running. Some notable findings were: Inoperable gauges, no thermostat in the housing, but a bypass constricting valve had been installed, the carb was pretty dirty and much of the wiring looked questionable with only one fuse (to fuel pump).
So here is where the trouble starts. I went for an afternoon sail. The engine ran fine getting us out of the marina, at which point the sails went up and we sailed in light to medium breeze for a hour or so. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. I went to start it up when the wind died and it had a pronounced loud tapping, and a significant reduction in power (about 50%). Some minor troubleshooting revealed cylinder one operating reliably, 2 and 3 intermittent, and 4 not firing at all. The oil was a little milky, but the level was not noticably higher. After a while I couldn't get it to start at all and the wind had picked up so we finished our sail. I tried to get it started again just before going back into the marina. No dice. I've only been sailing for 9 months, so it was with some trepidation that I decided to sail into the marina and into my slip. Well, as it turns out, this is not nearly as difficult as it might seem and (though there were some tense moments) it went off without a hitch.
The next day I went back to the boat and did some more troubleshooting. I had good compression on all cylinders, good spark, and fuel in the throat of the carburetor, but still no starting. Don was very helpful on the phone and we determined that water had gotten into the cylinders from the exhaust and killed the plugs. I verified this by detaching the hot exhaust from the manifold and finding it wet in there. After extensive drying of the cylinders and following Don's direction, I finally got it to start up again, but it ran horribly, never did work on cylinder 1, and both 2 and 3 were intermittent.
To be continued...
Qben Oliver
1977 Tartan 30
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