Quote:
Originally Posted by SAUERKRAUT
Fortier, Sauerkraut, has been out of water since Oct. 2012, while I was deployed from home and heritage for work. How would you handle a safe restart after all this down time? Engine is a Perkins ST6.3544.
I was cautioned to NOT put the starter to this engine before "manually rolling it over with a wrench on the center flywheel nut". I would risk bending a rod if one of the cylinders had fluid in it, and the engine was "hydro locked".
Great. Placing a wrench on the two obvious 5/16" center nuts of either the alternator or the freshwater impeller does not budge the flywheel because the belt slips. The flywheel has what appears to be a heavy flywheel cover held on with 12 bolts. There is no center nut immediately visible for this maneuver. And what a massive PITA to access the front of this engine in the confines of the boat hold.
I would appreciate advice how to handle this issue. Am I making a problem out of a molehill? Thank you from a non mechanic.
I winterized this boat and engine carefully with fresh water/antifreeze flushing both seawater and freshwater cooling sides. Changed engine oil and all new fuel and oil filters. Boat and engine looked great on uncovering now, despite the interim of time. The boat sits in my driveway, and not close to a marina or a diesel engine mechanic.
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I went through something similar last year with my Cummins 6BTAs. I knew the engines couldn't be hydrolocked because, like you, I had winterized them myself before the layup and the boat had been sitting in the yard for the 4 year layup. So I just fired them up, with no problem. One word of advice though, get her new fuel. The stuff in the tank is garbage by now, and will only complicate your life.