Engine still in the boat....

Despite my best efforts, the engine remains in the boat!

It's not however the end of the world, and it should be out on Monday.

Upin trying to lift the engine, it soon became very obvious that with the long Borg Warner gearbox, the engine would need to be tilted nearly on end to get it out of the engine compartment, let alone through the hole in the cockpit floor.

The yard, understandably weren't happy lifting such a heavy engine that way without a frame, as one bolt shearing on the engine mounts as they were used in an unintended direction and the engine would go straight through the bottom of the boat!

So, I spent until mid afternoon trying to separate the gearbox.... in the end I had to undo the bolts holding the bellhousing onto the block, as the gearbox mounting bolts themselves had rusted to unidentifiable blobs.... the bellhousing bolts were in pretty poor nick too, so it took me a long while to tease them all undone.... especially the ones under the gearbox, which were, frankly, nearly impossible to get at.... skin lost, and covered from head to foot in 38 years worth of accumlated engine grease and dirt...

Once the bolts were undone, it should have been easy.... should.

The splines on the output shaft had welded themselves to the drive plate....

So, two hours with a large screwdriver and a hammer, and I'd shifted the gearbox an eight of an inch back from the engine.

In frustration, I went to the yard to ask advice. They handed me two VERY large crowbars, and sent me packing!

As ever, ask a pro when you need advice.... half a dozen good aggressive pushes with a 3' long, one inch diameter crowbar, and pop... off it came!

Unfortunately, this success was too late for the yard, and the crane driver had departed for the weekend.... so the yard promised to pull the engine out on monday morning.

Instead, I started a new task, one i'd been putting off. The cockpit sole has been painted with a horrible blue rubberised paint... This  was not only nasty, but also, needed removing so that I can seal the access hatch back up properly... so it needed to come off. Easier said than done. So I have spent 3 hours with a chisel scraping. In 3 hours, I have probably removed 40% of the paint.... so a bit more to do yet.

I want to get it done before the new engine goes in, and ideally before the engine compartment is cleaned, as the scraping is messy, and I certainly don't want that muck all over the engine let alone the clean space!

Back next weekend with a huge pile of kitchen roll, washing up liquid, gunk de-greaser and scrubbing brushes to get that space cleaned.... its disgusting!