Engine Room Mod's

Caution! You may recoginize my engine as being a Phasor marinization of a Kubota engine. While I cannot say enough good things about Kubota, I also cannot say enough bad things about Phasor. If you are considering a similar project, I would recommend you get in touch with BetaMarine. Enough said!

The engine room without the engine.  While the room is bare, we will take the opportunity to install a new fuel tank, holding tank, hot water heater, add some insulation and  replace much of the existing wiring. As you can see, we have a real opportunity here to shine!

The engine room BEFORE any work has been done. We removed the old engine, a 2-cylinder Volvo, piece by piece, finally using a chain off the crane to lift out the old block. A TON of scrubbing was necessary to get the crud out!  As you can see the old owner had some left-over bottom paint (but not enough to paint the whole engine room)!

Step 1: This view shows the addition of  new hot water heater supports on the far left. These were epoxyed for strength and durability and then glassed into place.  Also some of the insulation is visible on the aft bulkhead. In front, we have utilized wasted space in the bottom of the bilge by using it to create a reinforced fiberglass and plywood baffled holding tank.  We ran 1" PVC along the bottom from aft of the tank into the bilge sump for normal bilge drainage. We plan on using oil absorbent cloths on top of the holding tank to keep things as clean as possible.

To the right, we see the plumbing into and out of the holding tank, plus one of the two vents and the capacity sensor.   We have plumbed it to accommodate the pump-out station deck fitting methodology and also have a whale gusher pump for those times when we do manual pump-outs.  A valve determines which way the flow goes. For a good article on marine sanitation, check out Peggy Hall's discussion on maintaining a healthy tank.

This is the first VOILA shot!  It shows the results of applying 2-part epoxy primer and paint.  This was a real boost.  Nothing like a clean, fresh engine room to inspire the Capt'n to get the new engine, 4-cylinder Kubota shown below, installed... (Did I mention that He was getting pretty sick of being tied to the dock)!

AND FINALLY....

Here is the shot of it installed. HOORAY! Click on the picture for a larger shot. The shot to the left is looking aft from the companionway.  Beyond the engine (to the left of it) is the new hot water heater.  We did heat/sound insulation all the way around and on the ceiling.  A fluorescent fixture is mounted above the engine, and next will be the blower system to keep things well ventilated. The shot below is from inside the engine room looking forward.

Well, we finished this project up in early May, 2000 and have since put quite a few hours on the Kubota during the break-in period this summer and fall.  So far, it's performing beautifully. I think we both feel a lot of relief knowing that we can crank and go whenever we need to.  The Volvo had gotten to the point where it over-heated at the drop of a hat and needed to be coaxed, begged and pleaded-with to get you where you needed to go.