Sorting out the Atomic 4

When we took the boat to Block Island the engine overheated at the worst time. I kept pushing it regardless to get up through the East River. When I saw cracks opening in the cylinder head, I figured the engine was toast.  I shut it down and managed to sail through Hell Gate. The atomic 4 became a last resort for the remainder of our voyage.  It started right up every time, but the water oozing all over couldn't be good.  I swore I'd replace the atomic 4 with a diesel.  After I read discussions on the issue, I was swayed away from the idea considering the cost being greater than could be recovered through the value of the boat.  One argued if you want a boat with a diesel engine, then sell your boat and buy one with a diesel.   Others stood firmly with the reliability of the atomic 4, something I had not experienced.  Reluctantly I turned my attention to repairing the atomic 4.

I researched replacement cylinder heads.  I sold the original atomic 4 from the Redwing for $50 to get it out of my garage.  Maybe that wasn't such a good idea as I saw prices for another used atomic 4.  I checked Moyer Marine and they sell a new aftermarket head for about $400.  For that price I could have another used engine taking up space in my garage, but it could be pretty worn out.  I notice the Moyer Marines rebuilt engine comes with a new cylinder head.  I decided to ordered the new head.

While on craigslist I saw someone selling a Moyer Marine re-designed water pump.  It comes with 4 thumb screws to remove the impeller cover plate rather than the six tiny screws I had struggled with every time.  The guy was also selling Moyer Marines cooling bypass kit.  I got them both.

Lastly, I wanted to flush the block.  There are two recommended ways to flush, acid flush and pressure flush.  Both are recommended, but I fell short on buying the pressure flush kit.  I did finally follow Moyer's recommendation of installing a tee in the raw water intake line so I could draw muriatic acid solution into the engine for the acid flush.  My failure to follow this recommendation, I determined, could very well be the reason for my cracked head.  Not only is the tee good for acid flush, it's also used for drawing antifreeze in the engine during winterization.  I hadn't been doing that step.  I just unscrewed the drain plugs to drain the engine of cooling water before winter.  Last winter was extremely cold.  When I launched in the spring and started my engine, I had cooling water pouring all over only to discover a freeze plug in the head had popped out.  I put the freeze plug back and the engine seemed ok.  I pondered whether the overheating could have cracked the head.  I feel it's more likely it cracked from freezing water, and the cracks opened up when the engine overheated.  This time I'm following Moyer's recommendations all the way.

My new cylinder head arrive from Moyer Marine.  My water pump and bypass kit arrived from the craigslist seller, and I got a tee, ball valve and hose from Home Depot.  The old cylinder head came off without any problems.  All the water passages in the head were completely plugged.  It never had a chance to cool.  The water passages from the head into the block were also clogged.  I took a coat hanger and compressed air to open them up.  After I had the block cleaned up, I installed the new head.

                                 

                                    

Next I installed the improved water pump and bypass kit.  I wasn't sure I needed the bypass kit, but figured why not.  It's not bad having a valve in the bypass line to control flow if needed.  Then came the tee fitting with ball valve and hose so I can draw intake water from a bucket.  I started the engine and performed the acid flush twice.  Each time black water spewed out of the exhaust pipe.  I took the boat for a test ride down river expecting great improvement.  The temp improved but it still seemed to rise above the comfortable level when I pushed the RPMs.  

I was eager to get the Redwing back out to the ocean.  I decided to take the boat to Sandy Hook, NJ.  We only had a four day weekend.  Just a little more time than it takes to get there and back.  The night before our departure, I paddled out to the mooring so I could take the Redwing to the nearby dock to pack for our trip.  I started the engine, then it stalled.  It turned it over again and nothing.  I couldn't believe it!  The engine always started right up.  Now after all the work, nothing.

I began my sequence of debugging.  I had spark.  I wasn't getting fuel.  The electric fuel pump has an oil pressure safety switch that stops power to the fuel pump at low or no pressure.  I topped up the oil which was low.  I adjust the oil pressure, which was low.  The engine started, and I got the boat to the dock.  We packed and readied the boat for an early start in the morning.  The next morning we motored off the mooring and the engine stalled.  I was so pissed. I bypassed the oil pressure switch and motored south.

We made good time.  I was hoping to make Sandy Hook in a day.  As we approached New York Harbor the engine stalled.  We must be out of gas.  My fuel gauge still not working,  I pulled a fuel container from the locker and dumped it into the tank.  I tried to start the engine again.  It turned over, but nothing.  Once again we were in a bad place without an engine.  I hoisted sail and we sailed to Graves End Bay where we dropped anchor for the night.

The next morning instead of sailing to Sandy Hook, I was working on the atomic 4 again.  I began my process of debugging.  Now there was no spark.  I touched the coil and it was real hot.  It was a fairly new coil, put I decided it was the likely culprit.  I grabbed my cell phone and searched for auto parts stores.  There was an Autozone 1.5 miles away.  I pulled my coil and noticed it had a label on it that said for use with external resistor.  I didn't have an external resistor with my coil, it was supposed to be the coil with an internal resistor.  Why didn't I see that when I got the coil?  A short paddle to shore and walk to the auto parts store, I was back with the new coil.  After installing the new coil,  I turned the engine over.  It started right up.  Sigh of relief!

We made it to Sandy Hook, had some beach time and sailing time, then after a short stay headed back to Kingston.  After our return I was back on the phone with Moyer Marine, I ordered a new oil pressure switch, and pressure flush kit.  I replaced the pressure switch and took the boat to the nearby dock to performed the pressure flush.  With each flush, a surge of black water came out.  Another test ride and all seemed ok.

I wanted to get to Sandy Hook again before end of season.  This time it was early October and we only had three days.  We packed the boat and got an early start down river.  Almost immediately the temperature began to rise.  I couldn't believe it!  I was crawling at three knots and the engine was running hot.  Once again I pulled the engine cover and started debugging by tracing the flow of water.  Getting water to the pump.  Getting water through the bypass.  Getting water through the thermostat.  NOT getting water through the exhaust manifold.  I pulled the hoses off the manifold, then removed the fitting on the outlet side.  It was all clogged.  I ran a wire through manifold and cleared the fittings.  I started the engine with the outlet house disconnected and pointed into my cockpit drain. A black surge came out the hose.  I reconnected the hose and continued down the river watching the temp gauge.  The temp was low now, but as I motored it started to climb again.  When it started to push to 180, I stopped and pulled the manifold outlet hose again and pointed toward the cockpit drain.  Starting the engine, I  saw another black surge of crud dump into the cock pit.  I reconnected and motored on.  It kept going on like this all day.  By the time we were below the tapanzee bridge I had gotten most the crud out of the engine and it was running below temperature and not heating up.  All the crud seemed to be out.

We spent one night in Sandy Hook then motored back.  Temp below normal all the way and lots of water pumping out the exhaust, no matter how hard I ran the engine.  Did I finally purge the engine of all the crap inside?  It seems so. I was pushing over 6 knots with engine temp below 145 degrees.   Now I have to figure out why the thermostat isn’t bringing the temp to operating temperature, which seems a better place to be.  

The Redwing is out of the water for winter.  The engine is properly winterized by drawing the antifreeze in through the tee fitting.  The guy who sold me the water pump also gave me extra thermostats.  I just have to figure out which one works best.

The Redwing Takes Flight...with a few sputters

When I first bought the C&C Redwing, it was docked south of Poughkeepsie at a marina in New Hamburg.  My first voyage was a trip motoring north up the Hudson River to Kingston.  I set my mooring in a cove and sailed her for the season.  That winter after haul out I undertook her refurbishment.  That effort reversed the boat from it's aging condition.  Each succeeding season has generated a growth spurt in my sailing, maintenance, and repair skills.  This past summer I was ready to break past the Hudson River and appreciate the true value of the Redwing.

I was re-married in late June.  We set out on our sailing adventure honeymoon.  Three weeks were planned for the journey. Our destination.....Block Island, RI. We packed enough food  and clothes to last two months.  On top of that we had 2 un-kicked kegs leftover from the wedding.  With a laptop as a gps plotter we caught an early outgoing tide and motored south down river.  I monitored engine temperature as I ran her up to about 5 knots.  Any more speed was pushing my temp gauge beyond a comfortable level.  Down past the Esopus Lighthouse, past Pougkeepsie, past New Hamburg where I first got the Redwing, we made a pit-stop at the Newburgh Yacht Club.

I wasn't sure what my fuel consumption would be.  My fuel gauge showed full since last season. We brought two extra containers of gas to keep us from running empty.  I love the Newburg Yacht Club. They have a dock with self service fuel pumps, free pump out, water and a dock shower.  We topped off fuel and water, emptied our holding tank, gave the boat and ourselves a rinse and went on our way towards West Point.

We were past the Bear Mountain Bridge down to Haverstraw just as the tide was starting back up river.  The wind was picking up a bit so I unfurled the genoa to add a little push from the wind.  The boat was healing to port and my speed was increasing when I notice my temp gauge past 200.  "Oh sh#t", I quickly shut down the engine and ponder the problem.  I figured the healing was preventing cooling water from getting to the engine, so I furled the genoa and restarted the engine.  The temp came back down, but now as I motored it was continuing to climb to the dangerously high levels.  "I should have replaced that impeller" I thought.  One item on my list that I didn't get to.  I even had the replacement impeller.  The engine temp continued to stay high,  I peered aft down at the transom to see more steam and smoke than water.  "Let's drop anchor".  We found a spot near shore to anchor and I cursed as I pulled off the engine cover and grabbed my tool box.  I checked the impeller.  It looked ok.  I wanted to put the new one on, but I didn't have the right size allen wrench for the set screw.  I put the water pump back together, pulled the thermostat, reassembled everything and continued motoring. The engine temperature seemed ok.  We made it past the Tappanzee Bridge and anchored for the night.

I was well advised to bring the Eldridge Tide and Pilot book along.  Flood current up the East River would begin around 9am so I planned for and early start.  I hoped to refuel, but low tide and the early start didn't allow an opportunity.  My eyes were on the temp gauge as we motored past Manhattan and rounded the Battery up the East River.  We dodged the Staten Island ferries and motored along the FDR Dive.  As we approached Roosevelt Island I could see the temp gauge start to rise again.  I began cursing as I looked at the transom and only saw smoke and steam coming from the exhaust.  I put the engine in neutral and raced the throttle.  The needle dropped a little and I continued to motor forward despite temps rising back up  again. This is the last place to be without an engine. As I was passing Roosevelt Island the engine temp was at 240 and wasn't dropping.  I pulled the top step off the engine cover and saw water begin to spray through cracks opening in the top of the cylinder head.  That was it.  I had to shut it off.

I cursed the atomic 4! With all the work I've put into it, it always lets me down when I need it most!  I swore I'd replace it with a diesel. There was a light breeze.  I hoisted my drifter.  We sailed past the Harlem River and tacked against a north easterly wind towards Hell Gate.  As I tried beating east under the Hell Gate Bridge the boat spun out of control 180 degrees back toward the direction we just came.  I let my sail out, headed up wind and tried again with the same result.  I thought we were going to hit the rocks along the Astoria shore.  We hurriedly hoisted the main to balance the sails. With mainsail and drifter we sailed away from the rocks and managed to sail through Hell Gate to the Long Island Sound.

Now what?  "The engine's toast" I told my bride.  We were two days into our three week honeymoon.  Either we head back now, or continue to Block without an engine.  We chose continue on.  It's a sailboat after all. An engine is just for security. We had wind so we sailed on.  It was pleasant without engine noise or exhaust..   We anchored for the second night off Great Captains Island. This was my old sailing ground where I grew up and learned to sail.  Its a private town beach and popular anchorage for the town's boaters. We set anchor and for kicks I turned over the engine.  It started right up.  I shut it back down. It's still a last resort.

Day three we had a northerly wind and reached from Great Captains Island to Greenport Long Island with the drifter and main.  It felt so good in the Long Island Sound with the Redwing.  One comfortable tack all day.  We had a friend who was vacationing in Montauk and thought it would be fun to meet him there.  On day four we sailed through Plum Gut into Gardiners Sound.  The tide and current changed before reaching Montauk, I found myself loosing ground as I attempted to round Gardners Island.  We finished the day not much farther than where we started and anchored in a small bay in Shelter Island.

Past Plum Island, across the race past Fishers Island, we anchored day five on the sound side of Watch Hill. Eldridge's showed the favorable currents from Watch Hill to Block.  After two days of little progress I wanted to go with the flow.   I knew we weren't in the best spot with a big storm predicted overnight.  Active Captain was serving us well for finding achorages along the way.  It described a narrow shallow channel on the cove side of Watch Hill.  I didn't feel comfortable sailing down the narrow shallow channel without an engine. With a Northeasterly wind forecast, I felt we should be well enough protected.

We paddled to shore.  I wanted ice cream.  I remembered the great homemade ice cream in Watch Hill.  At the moment it was my driving motivation. We looked pretty derelict as we walked from the beach into town.   We even caught the attention of the owner while we rested with our ice cream cones in front of St Clair Annex. "That's your boat?" as he nodded toward the beach.  "Yes, that's us" we acknowledged. "That's not the best spot to anchor.  There's a big blow coming tonight".  He checked the weather forecast on his phone.  "It's coming from the northeast.  You got plenty of scope?"  I shook my head yes. "You should be ok" he said with some hesitation.  So I had some sort of reassurance to my anchorage choice.  We ordered chili, burgers and beer and were offered a rest room to cleanup.   Back on the boat I let out more scope and settled in.

The wind kicked up good.  It was howling.  The boat bobbed in the waves all night.  It was the first time I felt slightly nauseous from the motion.  I settled into bed and went to sleep.  "The wind is still blowing!" she said.  I opened my eyes.  It was 1 am.  I looked at the lights on shore.  We were still in the same place.  It went on like that all night. By morning the wind  eased.  A man walked from a large waterfront home out to his dock and yelled out to us..."Ahoy...Ahoy...Are you Ok?"  I was doing yoga stretches on deck. "Yes".  "Where you on the boat all night?" he hollered.  "Yes" I yelled back.   We and the boat did just fine, although my wife didn't sleep all night.

We stayed put for the day with a small craft advisory in affect.  I wanted to go to shore again.  The water seemed calm and after rocking on the boat all night, I needed to stand on land.  Well it seemed calmed until we paddle closer to shore.  "Let's catch a wave it'll take us in" I shouted.  We paddle as a wave approached from behind and the dinghy quickly began to pick up speed toward shore.  I imagined us surfing skillfully onto the beach, until the wave broke.  The bow nose dived into the sand and the dinghy flipped over on top of us. We managed to collect our gear and pull the dinghy up on the beach.  We looked at the waves pounding the shore and the Redwing sitting calmly.  I could see getting back out to the boat was going to be a challenge.

Our appetite for ice cream was gone.  We took a long walk giving the surf some time to calm.  The small cove we were anchored in was protected from rough water by a jetty with a light house. Seeing people on surfboards on the unprotected side was a confidence builder.  "See, there out there having fun" I said.  We returned back to the dinghy and looked for the calmest place along the beach.  Then after waiting for some big waves to break we pushed off between the waves and manage to paddle past the surf.  It was good to get back on the Redwing.  We settled in for the night and planned our sail to block the next day.

The sail from Watch Hill to Block Island was effortless.  We had been warned about the potentially rough conditions out on the Block Island Sound.  It was sunny, windy and the currents were favorable.  Now down to my cell phone for a chart plotter, my house battery was barely keeping a charge and the laptop chart plotter didn't last.  Without the engine to recharge, a small solar panel on deck is all we had to keep our cellphones going.  The active captain reviews of the Great Salt Pond were filled with horror stories of a crowded anchorage with poor holding.  We entered the anchorage in Block Island and looked for an area with some space to drop anchor.  We dropped the anchor and tried to settle in.

"We're moving", I reluctantly started the engine and re-positioned the boat before coming dangerously close to a nearby sailing yacht.  We dropped the anchor again.  I kept my eye out for a while, then went below deck to rest.  "Your dragging anchor!' I heard a shout from above.  It was harbor patrol and they were trying to keep  the Redwing from broadsiding another boat.  We made another attempt to anchor, but by then the owner of the other boat was in his dinghy motoring along side us.  "Do you mind if I give you a hand?" he yelled from his dinghy.  He gave us step by step instructions as we set anchor again.  "Now you can relax and have cocktails" he said before motoring back to his sailboat.

I stayed on deck with eyes peeled.  My neighbor was back in his dinghy on his way to shore.  "I'm afraid of the boat dragging anchor again" I told him.  "You aren't going anywhere, your anchor is set good" he said as he motored past.  We loaded a backpack and paddled to shore.  It seemed like a long paddle with the wind against us.  We made it to shore and scoped out the island by foot.  We grabbed a bite to eat, then hit the beach.  Life was good.  As we made the long paddle back to the boat, I assured my wife we would go to dinner by taking a launch to shore.

We had a romantic dinner.  The next day was another great beach day.  We met up with my neighbor and his wife for dinner then made the rounds.  We discovered BI famous mudslides, though were weren't so impressed with the frozen drink.  Where's the alcohol?  It was a good night of bar hopping and an easy ride back on the launch

.

We were noticing more and more boats arriving in the anchorage.  My neighbor tried to sell us on staying for the weekend.  "Fourth of July is lot of fun here" he pitched. But we had reached our destination and I wanted to leave plenty of time for the return trip, anticipating a sail up the Hudson. With all the scope I had out, I didn't feel comfortable with boats crowding around.  We decided to leave before the weekend and take the south side of Long Island back.

I started a thread on Cruiser Forums to get feedback on my plan to sail the south shore back without a reliable engine.  I was advised to choose a window with favorable wind conditions, stay at least 2 nautical miles offshore, and sail nonstop to Graves End Bay.  We left Great Salt Pond and headed to Montauk.  It was slow going.  The wind was light and currents were strong.  I finally started the engine just off Montauk point.  We motored to a cove and  anchorage for the night.

It was a little windier the next day as we rounded Montauk and headed west.  We had a light easterly wind all day and through the night.  It was 4th of July.   I was hoping to make it past Grave End so we could see the fireworks in NY Harbor.  We were barely to Rockaway beach as the sunset and fireworks began to light the shoreline.  We could see fireworks in the distance across Long Island and NJ.  But the wind died before we could reach Grave End.  I had to start the motor again and hope for the best.  It was running well except for the salt water spraying all over the engine from the cracks in the head.  We made it to Graves End.

We attempted to sail up through NY Harbor, but the wind was not in our favor.  As the barges, ships, and ferries moved in, out, and across the harbor I was forced to run the engine again.  We refueled just above Manhattan and motored all day up to Haverstraw.  The next day we motored up to Newburg and stopped for refuel and pump-out.  By mid afternoon, two weeks after we left, we were back to the mooring in Kingston.

What did I learn from this trip?  Number one lesson is the Redwing belongs in bigger water where it can take you places. We learned how to properly set the anchor.  While I was determined to dump the Atomic 4, all my research shows it's not practical to replace, so I better fix it.  The cockpit shower I installed was limited by the small water tank.  Storage space seemed limited, but then again we over packed.  We gained confidence in our abilities to take the boat places and get home safely,  Lastly, you have to keep the kegs cold if you want the beer to last!