Mermaid marine inboard

[nightingale300]

Has anyone had mermaid marine do any work on any diesel inboard, had the boat out for refurb for 6 weeks, mark who dad bought the boat off just turned the key and she started, he then kindly brings the boat with my dad to cobbs quay without any problem at all .

 

Well mermaid had fitted a new wiring loom and a full service with

[Coddy]

Hi Malcolm

 

Which engine do you have in the boat?

I can think of a few things to check depending on the model of engine it is.

 

I think I would be contacting the MD of Mermaid asking why their mechanics think the engine needs a rebuild, having just been serviced by them, as surely this level of repair would have been picked up when the service/repair was being done and should have been reported at the time! Sounds like their engineers don't know much about their engines!

 

I was on Kind of Magic following you when you left Cobbs Quay on the day of the open comp and apart from stopping near the end of the channel into Cobbs I don't recall seeing any nasty smoke or anything out of the ordinary.

 

Dave

[nightingale300]

Hi Dave

 

It is a 180hp turbo four

They say that when they completed thier work they run the engine to make sure all was ok hmmm ( how did they do this when it was out of the water) on the day of the comp when Clive from sea start came along i watched him completely bleed the system and as he said they could not of run the engine due to him having to do this, a bit of easy start (not good) but it fired and we went fishing, as you say dave no smoke or anything untoward and later that day 26knots was reached.

I have been into mermaid and asked why it does not start when its cold, Ed Nugent area manager has said that the guys have been back down to the boat and think air is getting into the fuel. NO sea start done complete check and no leaks at all and fuel pressure all correct. Eds engineers reported back to him saying they got it started after cranking it over for about 80 cranks so as far as they are concerned it starts.

Off i march again to Mermaid after thier bill lands on the mat, they really think im going to let my dad pay this

[niggle]

Malcolm,give me a ring 07877195090

Nige

[mw]

malcolm make sure the stop leaver on the fuel pump is back on the start position

if the solinoid is not fitted the leaver needs to be pushed towards the back of boat to start and forward to stop .

 

I used to push the pump the throttle to about halfway a couple times to pump the fuel in and she would start second or third time it needs alot of fuel to start as it has no glow plugs

 

what did they do to get a bill like that?

 

hope this helps mark

[nightingale300]

Hi mark

Glad you looked on this link, nige has put me intouch with a guy who knows about these thing and won't take the piss, but first you know this engine better than anybody as you never had a problem starting it and we know it runs sweet. So after work I will go and remove the battery and place on charge over night so on Saturday I can go down with a video camera and do exactly how you discribbed and because this makes sense as I asked them to fit the new stop part as you advised us the spring had disapeared, but you started it no problem.

Well know we know how you started it god help mermaid if this works as they will recive a camera shoved up them with a title of, Training video, how to start our own engines without costing

[shytalk]

a non return valve in the fuel line can help as when left the fuel runs back into the tank hence needing to be bled again

[Mike Fox]

I suffered really poor starting all of last year. Finally traced it to a poorly seated secondary fuel filter allowing the tiniest bit of air in, forcing the engine to effectively self-bleed the system from cold...and with the boat being mainly used at weekends it was always cold.

 

Replaced the filter and starting improved (but I know it will never be instant!). Think it might have been something like a small bit of grit on the seal.

 

Mike

[great white]

Hi

we used to have these engines in Navy RIBs

 

Good units but in the ribs they were prone to issues with the fuel systems. mainly caused by too many 90degree fittings on the supply line from the tank.

That tended to give poor performance rather than poor starting. but eventally it would make it impossible to start.

 

 

I would agree with the advice about contacting the Boss at Mermaid Marine. Servicing an engine and not bleeding the fuel system is an aprentice type error.

If it were me I would expect them to be correcting that without charge and checking that the service was done correctly, something as simple as an incorrectly fitted seal or a slightly loose filter could give you these problems.

 

Fitting a non return valve in the LP fuel system is very good advice. and priming the fuel lift pump prior to the first start of the day helps with Alfresco when its cold.

 

Could not say about the battery, it may have just been tired and not helping to crank the engine.

 

 

Does not sound like a good report for mermaid Marine.

 

[nightingale300]

Like lambs to the slaughter. Looks like the petrol can will have to be connected to the aux motor if I want to go fishing anytime soon, anyone know where I can get a good sail from haha. Still not starting.com.

[nightingale300]

GREAT NEWS .

tweedle dum and tweedle de, from mermaid met me on the boat this morning, after watching there every move checking this and that i turned to them after an hour after still no start and told them they are useless and a disgrace to people who are engineers, i told them to forget it and clean up when they leave, at this point i left.

 

an hour later the phone rings from the manager saying he has had a call from the guys on the boat and it now starts and is running ok, GREAT I THOUGHT WITH A BIG GRIN, the manager requested we go and settle the bill.

 

I said i will once i have been down and started the boat myself

 

well i have just returned from the boat and tried to call mermaid but guess what they close at 4pm.

Yes the boat starts lovely, no smoke, only aprox 6-10 cranks and she fires, BUT WAIT A BLOODY MINUTE IT WONT SWITCH OFF.

the only way i can turn it off now is disconect the battery AAAARRRRGGGGHH

[mw]

They have moved the fuel delivery leaver to far to start one or two splines out and it will not cut the fuel off to stop the engine and the other way it will not start

I did tell your dad not to change the name of the boat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mark w

[Guest]

i think you have dumb and dumber working on your boat!!

[great white]

Sorry I am getting a little lost here.

and its over 20 years since I worked on a mermaid.

 

How does the engine stop when you disconnect the battery? I thought the turbo 4 was a diesel.

The rib ones had a shut down solonoid that closed the air intake at idle revs.

 

I suppose that could be held open by electrics and shut with no voltage by the spring.

 

Sounds like a bodge up to get you to pay the bill to me.

 

[nightingale300]

Hi

Yes it's a diesel and has the electric solinoid, I took engine box off and pushed the leaver into the solinoid to try and stop it and this and it didn't have any effect, maybe as I was not in the cab trying to push the stop button at the same time. So I was beging to wonder how to shut it down so I just turned all power off and it stopped, I have no idea how or why as I don't know enough about diesel engines YET but will be doing a course soon. Going to give Nigel's contact a call tomorrow as he is very highly recommended.

[mw]

I am not sure what they have fitted but with the old solonoid pulled the the stop leaver in to move the leaver unless they have fitted to keep it open removing the battery should not stop the engine the leaver that stops the engine is on a spline with a nut clamping it on if i remember it was a 7mm socket to remove the leaver

Also removing the battery when the engines on can cause more problems

 

If you can wait until thursday or friday I will come and look at it for you

mark w

[nightingale300]

Thanks Mark

[nightingale300]

Thanks for coming down yesterday Mark and trying to get it to start, it's a bit worring that when it cranks over you said it sounds totaly different since mermaid have touched it and still does not fire.

Were so blooming mad with mermaid and can see the cod season slipping away this year, but I do get a bash at them on the 25th as booked on with my old charter boat buddy Rapid fisher, I will start to use the large amount of squid I have.

Niggles mate Richard is comming out next week to inspect and do a full report on the work been carried out by mermaid as they say they want to completely rebuild the engine for

[mw]

Thats ok was it not mermaid that said how good the engine was and that it had been well looked after?

 

I think if you bleed the air out and have the batttery fully charged I think it will start the engine does not need rebuilding if you can got 28knots then there not much wrong with the lump its the starting thats the issue thinking back if mermaid did bleed it and you had clive bleed it again I am thnk the air is getting in some were I would bleed it again and have both bateries charged the engine needs to crank quicker than it did yesterday if you bleed it again and get it started if you leave it a couple of days and it want start again then you will have to find the leak

mark

[great white]

Hi

 

It seems to me like you are doing the right thing and getting another engineer to look at your engine

 

The hardest thing can be trouble shooting

 

A constant need to bleed the fuel system is pointing at a fault that should be in the l.p. side of that system.

 

Good luck with your hunt for the cause of all of this grief. And ln your cod trip.

 

Charlie

 

 

[nightingale300]

Managed to get on rapid fisher for a trip tomorrow so hopefully get some cod sooner than I thought