Re-powering Pilgrim

No, April fools… well we may be the April fools… re-powering can now be added to all our ongoing Pilgrim projects.   Our plan always included replacing Pilgrim’s original 1979, 30HP Yanmar 3Qm30 with C’est la Vie’s 1998, 34HP Beta Marine engine, but it does feel like we are juggling many, many boat projects concurrently.

Prompted by interest from another boat in the yard in purchasing Pilgrim’s engine, I began the re-powering project a few weeks ago by spending an afternoon removing all the hoses and wires that link the engine to other systems in the boat.

Before…

After…

The following morning I returned to remove the shaft couple and the engine mounting bolts.  De-coupling the shaft  went smoothly.  The combination machine / lag bolts that secured the motor mounts to the engine bed were a bit more stubborn.

The most inaccessible bolts on the engine, the aft bolts on the forward motor mounts, required a metal cutoff wheel on a dremel tool to extricate.   

The engine sat, ready for removal for a couple weeks, while we waited out what we hope will be the final cold snap of a long winter; couple other priority jobs  in the boat yard; and a few rainy days, and…

Thursday, April 3, the Yanmar departed the Pilgrim.

Prior to lifting the engine out of Pilgrim, it had to be moved forward into the galley.  To achieve this I dropped two 2X8s through the mast partners and into the mast bucket.  Once braced and clamped together the 2X8s served as anchor for a come-along that I attached to the two forward motor mounts.  Here are a couple images of the set up -

The anchor…

The come-along…

And the engine…

I used this system to slide the engine along the motor mounts until it resided upon some temporary blocks directly below the companionway.

With the travel lift parked above Pilgrim, we rigged two chain falls off the lift’s cross brace.  Having two chain falls, one rigged to the forward and one to the aft engine lifting eyes proved essential as it took quite a bit of maneuvering to  coax the engine over the galley counter and then through the companionway.

Once in the cockpit we set the engine down on a couple of 2x8s and reset the chain falls in series so that we could clear the stern pulpit and then lower the engine to the ground.

Thanks again to Billy B. for all the assistance.  Lifting the Yanmar out of Pilgrim and onto the awaiting pallet was definitely a two person job. 

Despite having 4 additional horsepower, our Beta Marine engine is smaller and lighter than the Yanmar.  Hopefully inserting the Beta will be less taxing that extricating the Yanmar.  But, there is much work to be done prior to installing the next engine.

As always we have created a photo album to document this project – Repower - 2014