Broken Marine Engine Heat Exchanger - How we 'Unbroke' it!

I'd been asked to repair a badly corroded heat exchanger from a small marine engine.
This involved machining some new parts, then a trip to Maximus Ironthumper's workshop for a bit of blasting, spraying and burger eating before heading down to the boatyard in Plymouth for fitting and testing.
No vessels were sunk in the making of this video!

[@maximusironthumper]

Good stuff! Nice to see it back in the water and chugging along, top marks all round.

[@spungletrumpet]

Yes, the skipper is very pleased to have her back in the water again. Thanks for your help, as always! I think I've got enough footage for an ironthumper instructional paintspraying video at some point as well!

[@twoflower8264]

Looking good, nice to see you sharing your expertise with each other and learning new things

[@spungletrumpet]

It's always good to work with people who have skills that compliment your own. There's always something new to learn!

[@mpersad]

Great fix, and lovely to see you and Max working on it together!

[@johnsavage248]

Great video & T-shirt "Get Angry - Take Action", I concur

[@MartsGarage]

Excellent job, Mr. Trumpet. Lovely weather for messing about in a boat.

[@spungletrumpet]

Cheers! There was a lot of rain, but I mostly hid below decks for that!

[@thepintman6166]

Your House looks like organised chaos.....I love it 😁😁😁

[@spungletrumpet]

Cheers! Though it's far more disorganised than it appears!

[@davidhaywood8029]

Extremely interesting -- grand work on an awkward wee repair!

[@dboboc]

Wow! Gipsy Moth lll ! I got to sail on Gipsy Moth lV when she was still at Bucklers Hard.

[@grahameroberts8109]

Very interesting and something different. Good to see you and Max working together as ‘old’, as in long time, mates. 👍🏻🙏🏽😷🦘

[@MOOSEDOWNUNDER]

I love it, Peter Wrights Spy Catcher and a curry takeaway box folded into a "how to" video. lol. My kind of man cave.

[@spungletrumpet]

The curry container contains one of my Daughter's 'experiments' involving melted candle wax and brass wire. I have no idea what it's supposed to be! There's a lot of stuff like that round here! ;)

[@bertboy13]

Love you both, keep up the wacky and wonderful content!

[@iosilver9920]

Top job 👍

[@simonmercer9530]

Good vid. Is there anything you or Max don’t know about? Oh yes Maxs mystery lady from the Fair ground 😂😂😂😂😂

[@dana5648]

Hello Mark. That was an enjoyable video, nice to see the story through.

[@spungletrumpet]

Thanks. It turned into quite an interesting little job!

[@MapleMarmite]

Excellent job and very entertaining! Have to say on the parting shot you looked like Hells Angels Marine Division! Looking forward to next upload - keep ‘em coming. 👍🏻

[@boatman323]

Nicely done. The price of Beta spares is truly eye-watering.

[@aidanscapeing]

Well done

[@venenareligioest410]

Superb 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@pyrrhical3423]

As soon as you said Plymouth, my ears perked up as I live here. Then at 20:00 my old boat shows up!! Didn’t know she is kept there! I sold her last year so this must be millbrook? It’s the blue 19ft caprice. I do miss the boat.. just not the wallet damage !

[@spungletrumpet]

Ha! Small World! Yes, the boat I was working on was in Millbrook. They are a great bunch of guys there and it's always an interesting place to launch from. Gipsy Moth III was in the yard at the same time I was down there and launched the same week as we did. Really wish I had more time to spend actually crewing, rather than working on boats out on the hard standing!

[@dustymiller7758]

Great entertainment, well done.

[@stephenwilliamson1491]

Love that you can repair somthing have it back together all in the one video. Max takes weeks to do somthing start to finish. Think he over exsplains stuff mind you 😂

[@aljotock]

Awesome!

[@ASCIITerminal]

Regarding the price of spares, anybody who has been around boats for any length of time knows that "boat" is actually an acronym for "bung out another thousand". Those Beta Marine engines are pretty fair (marinised Kubota from memory) but Max's Lister will probably last longer!

[@spungletrumpet]

Yes, they are a Kubota with a few bits added. I quite like the Beta engines, and the newer ones seem to have completely solved the little issues that this particular engine had. May Father always warned me about sailing that it was "Akin to standing fully clothed under a cold shower tearing up twenty pound notes." I always like to think that anything I can do to help extend the life of components as much as possible helps to mitigate that slightly for the owner! ;)

[@jankedmediagroup6784]

Suberb sir! Keep it up 👍

[@Simon78]

@Hambini would’ve had a fit at the factory alignment of those end pieces! Nice work getting that cleaned and sealed.

[@spungletrumpet]

It's an odd design. The bits that had corroded are only really there to hold the O-rings between the tube stack and the end caps in place so it doesn't matter too much if they aren't straight. The end caps aren't even designed to be a tight fit! It does seem a bit shoddy though.

[@richarddavies-scourfield8413]

Just seen this great video. I MAY have a similar problem. Why not make the rings from a suitable plastic. Then the bronze is insulated from the alloy and the ring will not corrode?

[@tedoffgrid2279]

Hey my man how are you and yours, id love to see an update of your garden and you chickens, thanks mark Peace and much love

[@earthtoskymodelworks9952]

Is there anything you can’t fix or make? Terrific video!

[@spungletrumpet]

Thanks! Though my house is full of things I haven't managed to fix yet. Probably hundreds of KZbin videos worth of material there is I was more motivated! ;)

[@earthtoskymodelworks9952]

@@spungletrumpet That’s the most exciting thing I’ve heard in a long time…I think we all would eagerly watch the hundreds of videos that would result! Brilliant.

[@nicholasviney5975]

Good old lister engine in the blasting room, that thing will be running long after we are all dust

[@bobbod8069]

Putting your finger in and tasting it, isn't a good enough test to see if there's any salt in there. In order to follow best engineering practice, the correct test is to make a cup of tea with the water and see what it tastes like. A dipped Hobnob can be used as a secondary test. Other than that, welldone.

[@spungletrumpet]

I tend to use the 'taste test' for battery acid too. Which has been known to raise a few eyebrows!

[@edgeeffect]

As a representative of the safety police... I'm glad to see the tasting was done before the addition of anti freeze.... if only our stupid cat could grasp this simple rule.

[@acey4994]

@@spungletrumpet You mean remove a few eyebrows.

[@edgeeffect]

"If I talk enough, you'll just get frustrated and do it".... sound like a good methodology to me! Watching American KZbin channels I've often thought about what "we" use instead of JBWeld.... seems the answer is... um... JBWeld.

[@spungletrumpet]

It does seem that JBWeld is ubiquitous in the 'bodging cooling systems' world.

[@edgeeffect]

@@spungletrumpet it seems a lot of people on "the tube" swear by it for pressure and vacuum stuff.

[@chriswills9530]

So what was the next job? I've just gotta know, now. Being in Plymouth, you were very nearly in the best part of the UK. CORNWALL- Buddha's own country.

[@spungletrumpet]

Well, the boat was launched from Torpoint so we were actually in Buddha's own country, even if only just! The next job was 250 miles away in West Wales, working on a little off-grid cottage in the mountains. Unfortunately it's not something I'm allowed to put on KZbin - but maybe one day!

[@chriswills9530]

@@spungletrumpet Thank you, I can rest easy now. I kind of hope you were converting the cottage to a huge, multi-pipe organ, but I suspect it was a much more practical and useful job, that we would all admire equally.

[@jeffcrawford6061]

How did you get the old sleeves out? Thanks.

[@bigbraincontent]

100 100 100 100 100 100 (in welsh)

[@PillSharks]

We have a few beta engines in our work boats and I do rate them. We did have the same sort of problem with a large build up of corrosion, I asked Beta who we have a good relationship with on a good price for a new heat exchanger and I nearly fell over!! I ended up having the engineers at Bristol Port do a quick repair as the engine wasn’t it great condition , a year later I put a beta 30 in which is running fine… anyway, good fix and nice sailing boat, it looked like a Cobra 750?

[@spungletrumpet]

Cheers! Yes, this one is a Cobra 750. It's surprising how many of them still seem to be about. I've been provisionally booked to change the saildrive seals next year (as the insurance company insists on it). That is always a nightmare of a job.

[@cosminpicleanu133]

Do you have the size of the collers that you made. I got the same problem on my beta engine Thank you

[@spungletrumpet]

It was a while ago, but I think I've got some drawings somewhere. Feel free to remind me if you don't hear from me in a few days.

[@anthonyexmouth]

@@spungletrumpet I'd really like to know the sizes too, Just bought a use B10 with the same issue. Is there any reason to not weld the rings in place?

[@davidotness6199]

Makes me raise my eyebrows regarding Beta engines...

[@willtricks9432]

Hello sweetie pie.

[@spungletrumpet]

Howdy, ducky!