welcome to sailing vessel seeker sitting outside callahan's cove on kerr lake right
here in oklahoma you have leaky turbo pipes if you have a turbo you might want to check
watch this yeah i can hear it yeah that's great all right so you found a good problem
andy's back with us this is andy he's a mechanical genius down in there is our turbo charger there's
a better shot of it what happens is gases come off the exhaust they spin this fin it has a shaft
that goes through and spins a fin on the front side it sucks air in blows it through this pipe
up through an air to liquid cooler that makes the gases more dense out the other side of that
cooler and into the engine what it's looking to do is put more air in and cooler air so
it's denser air more oxygen molecules more bang in the top of the cylinder but andy being the diesel
whiz kid is says this thing leaks any and those soap bubbles mean leaks then you don't get the
pressure that you want and all he's done is he's got some hardware fittings and he plumbed in
an airline to the front of the turbo that normally sucks in the air and he's blowing air into it and
checking for these leaks with soapy bubbles simple thing good fix and yeah that's just
sewage parts with a air chuck fit into the back of it so we tighten up these clamps get this thing
not leaking air more high pressure air goes into the engine engine feels better about it check your
turbo maybe it's leaking too oh that's extremely loose is it yeah maybe we just forgot to tighten
it all together geez amateurs yeah so here's what that contraption looks like we just tapped a hole
in here for the brass fitting but most of it comes out of the sewer and drain department we even had
that joint loose so it's all tightened up now and pressure tested and it's all good so we should get
more turbo boost and to check that in the future this plug right here is where we're going to put
a gauge that gauge will tell us how much psi is in the system so if it's drops you know you've got a
leak somewhere and if you're 19 your dad gave you a lot of money for a turbo truck you can brag to
your friends my turbo boosters yeah it's that thing oh yeah and this doesn't have to be that
well built in our case because our turbo only does 15 psi it's in that neighborhood so that's what it
was tested to check out your turbo if it goes to 45 or something you might need to build this
little stouter and you got to put that much air pressure in to test for your leaks and you might
get lucky all the exhaust valves on your engine might be closed but if they're not just get a
wrench down there on the crankshaft and roll your engine over a little bit sometimes there's not
enough to do that with on the crankshaft however there's an alternator to use that bolt right there
on the front of the alternator will often do the job we found out we can hear it at 1050 rpm now
so that is better many thanks to andy for taking care of the engine it's always nice to have it
running better we're going to set a baseline now this is going to be like a starting point
for us and we do that with a bollard pull test we basically tie this ship to the tree put it in gear
put it up to like 1500 rpm something not too crazy and see how much power she pulls with that'll be
of interest because it's a baseline for us any changes we make to the propeller or the shroud
or the engine we can always go back and do that test again and see if she pulls with more power
now it's a static test but that's still something that's very useful because and by static i
mean you know we're not moving along we're not looking for speed here we're looking for how much
she has for yanking and it's a great thing for this boat because we're gonna pull equipment
scientific equipment behind us we're going to pull ourselves off the shores when we ground
ourselves we're going to pull other boats off so how much we can actually pull from a standstill
is an important number for us and it's a great way to measure the power of an engine like a
tugboat does but it's also something that you'll see is fun in smaller boats because we have some
piranha propellers and they're fantastic all right i've already had people tell me oh yeah
i love my piranha propeller especially uh chris pelling they they hit rocks all the
time up there in minnesota and those shallow lakes and snap that blade off they just take
the hub off throw a new blade on off they go so look forward to that and uh be sure to send us
photos of your projects that you're working on in your shop what did you make today and
i don't mean today as in today you know when i started this boat i made one promise to myself
every day i would do something to further this project down there down the road you know
and i'm here now and darwin and i are getting ready to go for a nice swim in the lake here so
we've made it and we're going to continue to keep making it and that's the secret i want to tell
you is just go out in your shop do something small even if it's just going out your shop and cleaning
off your table that's progress you know some days that's all i got i got my clothes changed i went
out to shop and i stood there and i thought about something i don't know what to do so you go back
in tomorrow you do the same thing i got an idea that's the way it works gentlemen get out there
in your shop make something if you make something you're making progress if you don't come on
so
me