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From: Rufus Laggren (no email)
Date: Tue Mar 02 2004 - 12:16:45 EST
> washing..
When washing a functional engine, you usually do it without removing stuff or tearing the engine down - the hope is that you don't have to do extra work and that it remains functional after the washing. Neither water nor sand are good things to get into an engine, but of the two, water is _far_ less damaging. Pressure washes come in different flavors. With the more powerful, it's quite possible to erode the gaskets around the valve cover and other "soft" places, so use with care. My own inclination would be to just hose and brush it off, and slap some paint on the "sheet metal" like the valve cover; the block won't notice paint, rust, or much else, so you don't need to worry about it. Or maybe not even paint it. The engine room is supposed to be fairly dry... Paint in the wrong place can also make life hard for the mechanic. In any case be sure to remove or cover with heavy plastic stuff like the alternator, air intake, any other "holes" you left open when pulling the engine.
IOW, don't buy youself mechanical grief.
> cutting 2x's
Boat builders being like the rest of us, after the first bloom of ambition they settle down to only doing what is really necessary. Thus, those 2x's were likely put there for a reason(s). If you can't determine the reason, you need to plan on having them back in place before you call it done. You can get them out with an angle grinder by cutting a line along the edges where they are tabbed to the hull. However, putting them back will involve completely smoothing and cleaning the area to accept new glass and such. What are you going to do with the space? What problems (aside from removing the old tank) do those braces cost you?
Actually, do you know for a fact that the tank really leaks? (I'm no fan of SS tanks, but it'd be a shame to spend 100 hours then find the leak was really something else - like one of the threaded fittings). You can fill the tank with water, cap everything carefully, install a tire valve and a 10 PSI pressure gauge and pump the tank up to about 5 PSI with a bicycle pump. It should hold that pressure indefinitely (like all day, but consider the affects of temperature change). You fill the tank so that only a small part of it contains air - water doesn't compress, air does. If a tank seam let go with the tank full of water, there would be a little burp and you'd have a bilge full of water; if a seam let go with the tank full of air, the air would take the air 1 or 2 seconds to expand through the gap and all that time it would be pushing hard to get out. It'd be a lot more exciting, and potentially could cause damage or injury. Compressed air stores energy as y ou squeeze it down. Don't pump it up more than 5 PSI. If you lose pressure, make sure it's not the connections - spray the ones with air behind them with water containing a little detergent (leaks blow bubbles). The ones under water you dry carefully and completely with a paper towel, then rub your finger all around the fitting and look at your finger in good light. You can't feel moisture directly, but you can see it. You can clear the tank with a cheap drill pump or anything else you have handy.
If you don't have an inspection port on the tank, you can cut one in the top (mind that there may be baffles in there somewhere) and cover it with a screwed down lid.
Good luck. Rufus
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