Removing a Westerbeke diesel engine

Before beginning to remove the engine I will need to make room. The table needs to be removed and all the cushions removed in what could turn out to be a messy job in removing the engine.


Here is the Westerbeke 27 as it sits in what one mechanic called the tunnel. This is actually the rear of the engine which faces toward the bow of the boat. The V drive transmission is shown at the bottom of the photo. Not a lot of room to work in there so I will

What I have to deal with

Here is the Westerbeke 27 as it sits in what one mechanic called the tunnel. This is actually the rear of the engine which faces toward the bow of the boat. The V drive transmission is shown at the bottom of the photo. Not a lot of room to work in there so I will remove as much as I can before moving the engine.
This is the view from the other side of the engine. The front of the engine which faces aft in the Nonsuch.Where is the water pump? On the other side of the alternator and under the exhaust manifold. It was so much fun to change the impeller. Oh how I will miss doing that. What really bugs me though is before I decided to remove the engine I installed a Speed Seal cover on the water pump and never did get to use it since I have decided to replace the engine.

How I began.

In order to remove the engine I decided to remove as many of the external parts as I could to make access and removal easier. In addition to the connected hoses and engine control linkages. The two major things I wanted to remove were the heat exchanger and the exhaust manifold.

This photo shows the engine with heat exchanger removed from the engine. The removal of the heat exchanger was first item to remove. It was not that difficult but, really is necessary in order to be able to access other areas of the engine to remove the exhaust manifold exchanger which was located under the rubber hose on the left side of the picture.

This photo shows three of the four exhaust ports that the exhaust manifold attaches to. I was not able to see most of the nuts that had to be removed. Which is why you want a much access as possible which removing the heat exchanger allows.


This is a before photo showing the exhaust manifold still attached to the engine. Note the overflow antifreeze tube which needs to be removed before removing the manifold.


This is a photo after the exhaust manifold has been removed. Note the paper towels shoved into the top of the exhaust port elbows to keep dirt, parts, tools etc... from falling in.




NOTES:
Some things I have found so far that may be helpful to others who may have to work on their engines:
1) I purchased a set of ratcheting box end wrenches thinking they might help in removing the exhaust manifold and it's hard to reach location. They are useless for this task they are too big and do not fit. I have found the most useful tool to be a 1/4" Sears Craftsman metric ratchet kit. It is small enough to reach into the tight spaces needed.

2) I was able to reach six of the eight nuts holding the exhaust elbows to the aluminum exhaust manifold after first removing the heat exchanger creating space enough to reach my arm in and feel my way around to remove the nuts. The two remaining nuts I was able to reach easily from the other side of the engine. It went easier than I expected considering the difficult location.

Next step: Removing the transmission

Removing the transmission well at least attempting to.

The mechanic arrived on a 3:30 ferry. I thought this was strange that he would arrive so late. I had told him I would be available anytime from early in the morning. The boatyard workers leave around four or four thirty. So we would not be able to pull the engine off the boat today anyway and he would have to make another trip to pick it up. I thought coming this late would not make sense but, hey he is a mechanic and must have his reasons so I did not say anything. This was mistake one.

By the time we started to work on removing the engine it was after four in the afternoon. The first step was to remove the Hurth V drive transmission. It was held on to the engine by four bolts the top two bolts were removed quite easily. Unfortunately, the bottom two bolts were quite rusted due to twenty years of saltwater dripping down from zinc changes of the heat exchanger. These bolts are out of sight underneath the transmission and of course in a very difficult place to remove them.

The mechanic and I were able to get the one on the left in the photo out. but, the one on the right just would not budge no matter how much force we used. Heating up the area with a mapp gas torch did nothing but create a lot of smoke. Finally I had to get out my dremel tool and the bolt head was cut off. It was after about two hours of work that we were ready to remove the transmission. The only thing we had to do was slide the shaft back past the transmission lift off the transmission and then work on removing the engine. Should be simple right? Not in the world of marine engines. The shaft slid back only a few inches then stopped.

The photo above shows what the problem was. The boat was in the water and the shaft zinc was hitting the strut and preventing us from pushing the shaft back any further. This would have been a simple five minute fix if the mechanic had arrived earlier in the day and we could have had the boatyard put the boat on a lift, removed the zinc and continued to remove the engine. But, since it was seven o'clock at night the yard guys a had gone home and all work on the engine had to stop. Even the transmission had still not been removed. It gets worse.

The mechanic turns to me and says I need to get three hundred and fifty dollars from you. I say for what? Well, I really worked hard in trying to get this transmission off he says. But, I say part of the deal was you were supposed to help me remove the engine. He just shrugged. So much for deals. So work stops and I have laid out another three hundred and fifty dollars and the engine is still in the boat. Such is the life of a sailor.

NEXT: If you want something done....

If you want something done...

As the saying goes if you want something done you have to do it yourself. Now that I have reached the mechanical cul de sac with the transmission removal I will do just that. I've had my fill of relying on mechanics. I spoke to the boatyard who now say they will be able remove the engine with their crane when the boat is in the yard. Before they wanted to do it when it was in the water because they said it was easier to move the boat around than the crane. I wish they would have told me this earlier. It was now late November and after they pull the boat they want to put other boats in front of mine so I am under a two day time limit to pull the engine. Can I do it? If I don't I will have to wait until next spring before they will be able to get the crane near enough to the boat to pull the engine. Meanwhile the iron pig waits on board....

Removing my Diesel:The tools needed and not needed.

So after a season of frustration, waiting, phone calls, dealing with mechanics and writing checks, it still came down to me having to remove the engine. I needed to get it done soon since the boatyard was pulling boats and filling up the yard. My boat would soon be surrounded by boats and they would not be able to get the crane close enough to pull the engine off the boat until next spring if I did not act soon. I sat down and tried to figure what I would need in the way of tools to move the 424 pound engine. I made one mistake in ordering but, it only cost me about thirty bucks. That was in thinking that an engine leveler would be helpful in helping to move the Westerbeke 27 out from "the tunnel" under the cockpit. It turned out to be useless and unneeded. But, the two 18 inch chains that came with it were invaluable in moving the engine.
Well, maybe I made two ordering mistakes. The other mistake due to increasing age occurred in ordering a 2 ton hoist from Northern Tool. I was looking at the catalog online and thinking with a 424 pound engine to lift that half ton hoist would be too close in in weight to be safe. My thinking was clouded as I was in my mind thinking that ton equals 1,000 pounds not 2,000 pounds. So in order to add an extra safety factor I ordered a 2 ton hoist! Doh! But, it did the job a little on the big side but, got the job done even if it was overkill.
In addition to the usual tools like metric socket wrenches and box end wrenches, a hand held 3lb mallet and various blocks and pieces of wood. I found the following tools also enabled me to remove the engine by myself.

The above photo shows basically what I used to lift the engine. The two 18" chains at the left came with the unneeded engine leveler. At the top of the photo is the 3" gas pipe was bought at Home Depot. I had two end caps put on to prevent the pipe from sliding over the lip the hatch when lifting the engine. It was added insurance besides making sure the pipe was secure. One should always make safety a top priority when doing this job. Finally, there is the two ton hoist. Big and hefty but, it did the job with ease and did not complain.
Some other indispensable tools I used:

CROWBARS! In addition to the two shown above. I also used an addition smaller one about a foot long that I keep on board and a small pry bar. I used everyone of them a some point in removing the engine. Sometimes I used two at once. They all came in very handy along with some long ago forgotten physics lessons regarding leverage.

NEXT: REMOVING THE TRANSMISSION.

REMOVING THE TRANSMISSION

I had all my tools and a two day time limit to move the Westerbeke 27 engine into the cabin area to be removed by the yard crane. If I did not get it done in that time the engine would stay on board until late spring at the earliest. There was no time to waste but, I had absolutely no experience in doing this either. I got some helpful advice and encouragement from fellow Nonsuch owners at the International Nonsuch Association list serv. But, I would be on my own once on the boat. First I still needed to get the transmission off of the engine. So I set up my hoist system over the hatch as shown in the photo below:

Then I slid back the shaft that had been that had been the cause of the work stoppage in the previous attempt to remove the transmission.

I tied some strong braided line around the transmission and attached it to hoist. I did this to help lift the transmission slightly and hold it suspended while I worked it of of the engine shaft. Removing the transmission was harder than I thought it would be. It did not slid off the engine shaft as easily as I thought it would. I guess after being mated to the engine for twenty years the shaft and transmission get pretty attached to one another. I had to pry and tap it off for about 45 minutes. All the time thinking that I might be doing something wrong because at first it hardly budged. But, finally it came loose after my gentle nudging. once the transmission was removed it was time to tackle the rest of the engine

NEXT: THE FIRST LIFT