I recall touring several boats for PMM that shared a glaring flaw: none had drip pans beneath the engines. There have been only a few, fortunately, but generally the builders brushed away my questions. “Engines don’t leak,” several said.
I scoffed, and replied that might be true for a while but eventually an engine will drip fluids into the bilge. And, I added, there’s a better chance the owner or an engine technician will create an oil spill.
How right I am.
Before leaving on a cruise of nearly seven weeks, I hurriedly did some work in the engine room. It included installation of an oil-changing system I designed and built. It went together quickly but not too well.
Back home, with about 160 hours on the engine oil, I switched on my new oil changer. The oil was still hot and it took only a few minutes to empty the port engine. I took the waste oil up into my marina and poured it into a tank for recycling.
Next, I opened the valve for the starboard engine. Soon, it made the distinctive sputtering-sucking sound that indicates all the oil was out of the engine. As I carried the oil container to the recycling tank I thought it felt light.
Back in the engine room, I peered into the murkiness beneath the engine and saw a huge puddle of oil. Then I saw that the oil change hose had fallen from the drain plug fitting. In my rush, I had not attached it properly.
But I own a Grand Banks. And it has a huge drip pan.
I spilled about a pint of waste oil into the bilge once and didn’t discover the mess for a day or two. It had spread far beyond the point at which it spilled. It took forever to clean up. I’m not sure how I would have reacted had two gallons of oil slopped into the bilge.
The puddled oil had cooled and congealed in the pan and pumping it out was difficult. That was followed by a lot of wiping and scrubbing to make the pan sparkle again.
What did that plastic drip pan cost GB? A couple of dollars, maybe? But think of the horrid mess and environmental damage had my black oil spilled into the bilge and even a little pumped overboard. I would have been subject to fines, also.
Creation of Bob’s oil change system was not difficult and cost less than $75. I had the two major pieces – a one-third horsepower 120VAC General Electric motor and a ½ -inch bronze gear pump by Jabsco. I bought three-eights inch push-to-lock rubber hose, some quarter-turn valves, barbed fittings and nipples and some electrical wire, a box and a switch. The motor and pump are joined by a flexible coupling. A manifold lets me select which engine will be drained.
Suction lines run to outlet ports with quarter-turn valves where drain plugs were originally installed on the pans of each engine. I pump them individually, with the waste oil flowing into the jerry can I use to haul oil to the recycling dump. A third suction line will reach to the generator, but is not permanently attached. It was the line I used to suck the spilled oil from the starboard drain pan and I believe it may have other clean-up and pumping uses, too.
Now that it’s ship-shape, I’m kind of proud of my project and more than relieved that my mistake didn’t cause serious harm.
So, builders, learn from my mistake. Make your engines goof proof.
