Dear Dimitris:



What I am about to relate may seem hard to believe but it is absolutely
true. A few years ago I had symptoms exactly identical to yours. I had my
fuel tested, tested flow rates on my Racor filters and had the best diesel
man in town check my engine and fuel system. All was O.K. Believing that
any repair would be a dreadful ordeal, I called Jacques Carteau at Amel. I
enjoy a good relationship with Jacques and he gets great pleasure out of
teasing me. When he told me to clean my propeller I was sure he was joking.
He insisted and told me that the AUTOPROP is particularly sensitive to ANY
GROWTH, even a small amount. Feeling ridiculous and being certain I was the
victim of a joke, I dove on my boat and, believe it or not, there were
several small gooseneck barnacles, most of them on just one of the blades.
I cleaned them off and used sand paper to polish off their "footprint". The
engine problems disappeared immediately.



How can this be? To make a long story short, the AUTOPROP works as well as
it does and is extremely efficient due to the unusual shape of the propeller
blades. The blades, though not interconnected must work in complete
symmetry/unison. If any one blade is more fouled than another, that effects
it's "pitch" or angle of operation. The vortex of water coming off this
blade then causes the other blades to change pitch...it's complicated but I
hope you can understand the relationship.



I hope this will eliminate your problems. Remember, the prop must be
perfectly clean on all three blades. As a proof to this, last week I sold
an 8 month old SUPER MARAMU that sat at a dock here in Fort Lauderdale for
two months. When we pulled the boat out of the water, the propeller was
fouled, but pretty evenly on all three blades. The boat would only go 4
knots at 2000 max R.P.M. and there was a noticeable increase in vibration.
Once clean, all was normal.



Let me know how you solve your problem, please.



Good luck!



Joel F. Potter

SUPER MARAMU #400 "MARY BROWN"

Joel,

That's amazing-thanks for the info.

Eric





_____

From: Joel F. Potter [mailto:jfpottercys@worldnet.att.net]
Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 11:15 AM
To: amelyachtowners@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Amel Yacht Owners] Engine-Autoprop problem



Dear Dimitris:



What I am about to relate may seem hard to believe but it is absolutely
true. A few years ago I had symptoms exactly identical to yours. I had my
fuel tested, tested flow rates on my Racor filters and had the best diesel
man in town check my engine and fuel system. All was O.K. Believing that
any repair would be a dreadful ordeal, I called Jacques Carteau at Amel. I
enjoy a good relationship with Jacques and he gets great pleasure out of
teasing me. When he told me to clean my propeller I was sure he was joking.
He insisted and told me that the AUTOPROP is particularly sensitive to ANY
GROWTH, even a small amount. Feeling ridiculous and being certain I was the
victim of a joke, I dove on my boat and, believe it or not, there were
several small gooseneck barnacles, most of them on just one of the blades.
I cleaned them off and used sand paper to polish off their "footprint". The
engine problems disappeared immediately.



How can this be? To make a long story short, the AUTOPROP works as well as
it does and is extremely efficient due to the unusual shape of the propeller
blades. The blades, though not interconnected must work in complete
symmetry/unison. If any one blade is more fouled than another, that effects
it's "pitch" or angle of operation. The vortex of water coming off this
blade then causes the other blades to change pitch...it's complicated but I
hope you can understand the relationship.



I hope this will eliminate your problems. Remember, the prop must be
perfectly clean on all three blades. As a proof to this, last week I sold
an 8 month old SUPER MARAMU that sat at a dock here in Fort Lauderdale for
two months. When we pulled the boat out of the water, the propeller was
fouled, but pretty evenly on all three blades. The boat would only go 4
knots at 2000 max R.P.M. and there was a noticeable increase in vibration.
Once clean, all was normal.



Let me know how you solve your problem, please.



Good luck!



Joel F. Potter

SUPER MARAMU #400 "MARY BROWN"















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Message text written by INTERNET:amelyachtowners@yahoogroups.com

<

I am hoping that Dimitris will tell us whether and how he has solved the
engine problem, it certainly sent me under the boat to polish the prop to
gleaming bright with 100 wet and dry sandpaper.
On a minor note the macerator pump on our aft head started leaking after
about two and a half years liveaboard use. I replaced the seal with Jabsco
part no 90197-0000.
Doing this I found that the pumps in both heads had been wrongly assembled
and thus likely to damage the motors when the seals start leaking. The
motor is black and bolted on to it is the pump assembly which can be fitted
in two ways. The correct way will place the weep holes at the bottom and
the top of the motor and the incorrect way will place them horizontally as
my ones were. This means that when the seal goes the back end of the pump
casig will fill to half way before the leaky "water" can escape thus
immersing the front bearing. It is not difficult to remove the whole
assembly and correct the fault before any damage is done.

Best wishes from the new headmaster, John on Bali Hai
SM 319

Dear John,

Regarding the problem I had I am pretty sure that there is a propeller
problem. I have to dive under the boat in clear water to polish the
propeller. I will inform everybody if something changes after that.

I have exactly the same problem with the aft head. I will check according to
your instruction.

Alma Libre SM 2000

_____

From: Anne and John Hollamby [mailto:hollamby@compuserve.com]
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2004 1:57 PM
To: INTERNET:amelyachtowners@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Amel Yacht Owners] Engine-Autoprop problem


Message text written by INTERNET:amelyachtowners@yahoogroups.com

<

I am hoping that Dimitris will tell us whether and how he has solved the
engine problem, it certainly sent me under the boat to polish the prop to
gleaming bright with 100 wet and dry sandpaper.
On a minor note the macerator pump on our aft head started leaking after
about two and a half years liveaboard use. I replaced the seal with Jabsco
part no 90197-0000.
Doing this I found that the pumps in both heads had been wrongly assembled
and thus likely to damage the motors when the seals start leaking. The
motor is black and bolted on to it is the pump assembly which can be fitted
in two ways. The correct way will place the weep holes at the bottom and
the top of the motor and the incorrect way will place them horizontally as
my ones were. This means that when the seal goes the back end of the pump
casig will fill to half way before the leaky "water" can escape thus
immersing the front bearing. It is not difficult to remove the whole
assembly and correct the fault before any damage is done.

Best wishes from the new headmaster, John on Bali Hai
SM 319


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