Running the Engine

Here is a brief video of our second test run of the engine. This is a low miles 1993 12 valve Cummins 5.9 engine that was rescued from a wrecked truck. We stripped it down, added a water-cooled turbo and exhaust manifold and gave all the externals a once over before putting it in the boat last year. The beauty of this particular model engine is that it is almost completely mechanical- it only requires 12 volts to the "fuel-on" solenoid to operate. No other electronics are required for it to run... about as simple as it gets which should translate to good reliability. The first test run was cut short by a missing oil plug in a sender port on the port side of the block. Whoops. In trying to see the glass as half full, lets just say that I gave the engine room bilge a nice thin coat of fresh rust preventative oil. Once that situation was dealt with, the engine fired right back up and runs like a champ. Good oil pressure (50psi cold oil, and 30psi hot oil, at idle), no smoke, and a nice tone from our oversized/overkill exhaust system. With the keel cooler operating as an air cooled radiator, I was able to run the engine for quite a while (fifteen or twenty minutes without reaching high operating temp). Definitely a great milestone... This weekend I'll be installing mechanical engine gauges for the engine room, and electronic ones for the wheelhouse, as well as replacing some of my jury rigged testing wires with a proper engine wiring harness. Santa was kind enough to supply us with a Hurricane hydronic diesel furnace that will supply cabin heat as well as domestic hot water for the boat. This is a really neat compact unit and fits nicely on a custom shelf that I built at the back of the engine room. The next few weeks will be spent hooking up plumbing, exhaust etc. for this unit. Sue did some insulation work in the wheelhouse which we will continue this weekend, with the goal of getting the overhead and lighting finished.