Canal Boat — January 2018

76 January 2018 Canal Boat canalboat.co.uk

BACK CABIN: EXPERTS

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My engine is a Lister LPWS4 36hp and

on the whole has been running very well

since the service. I haven’t been moving

around much in recent months so the engine is

mostly run stationary to recharge the batteries and

heat water.

A couple of weeks ago I went for a little run and

noticed a great deal of white smoke coming from

the exhaust, particularly at top speed. This stopped

after a while so I assumed it might be because I

hadn’t been running it in gear for a while. Also the

engine did not switch off properly (an intermittent

fault that has happened before but not for a long

time) and I had to switch it off at the relay box

(solenoids?)

Yesterday I decided to take advantage of the

beautiful day and go for a trip. I filled up the engine

water and checked the oil before setting off so

everything should have been fine but again I had

clouds of white smoke even at low speed and I

could smell the engine was very hot and sounding

strange. Within 15 minutes the engine had reached

serious overheat, all the water in the tank had

boiled away and clouds of steam were coming out.

Again the engine did not switch off on the key.

It may be entirely co-incidental but I have been

getting work done inside the boat to demolish

two old bathrooms and build one new one and

lots of pipework has been replaced and re-routed

although not to the calorifier as far as I know.

After the first journey 2 weeks ago I noticed that

my domestic water had not heated up (or wasn’t

coming through) – this may have been an airlock

and this problem seems to have resolved now so

it may be of no consequence to my engine overheat

problem.

My initial thought was to suspect a water pump

failure on the engine but I am ashamed to admit I

cannot locate the water pump despite consulting my

course notes and I am not sure how I would check

it even if I could find it. Is it possible that in draining

down the domestic water system, the builder may have

inadvertently drained the engine cooling system too (I

thought these were totally separate though) or could

there be an airlock that is stopping the engine coolant

from circulating? If so how would I deal with this?

I also noticed on running the Eberspacher to

heat water that there was a hot burning smell and

some smoke from inside the engine room (I couldn’t

quite trace the source) – could this be a diesel leak

somewhere?

JANET FEREDAY

TONY REPLIES: I think your water pump is

connected to the “other” small pulley of the

three driven by the alternator belt (not the

alternator) and it is very unusual for these to give any

trouble other than leaking. If it is you should see stains

or wet down the front of the engine from behind that

pulley. The only cure as far as I know is to fit a new one,

but I doubt that is needed.

The first thing to do is to fill the engine and bleed the

skin tank. You should have a means of letting air out of

the top of the skin tank, possibly a screw, radiator bleed

valve, small bolt or a tap. If air has built up in the top of

the tank it would reduce the cooling area and thus tend

to make the engine overheat.

It sounds as if you had a really good boil-up, so it is

also worth changing the thermostat because (despite

what some experts say) modern thermostats can leak

wax when boiled and then fail to open - hence boiling

now.

If the thermostat has failed shut then as long as

the calorifier coil and pipes were air free and using

the normal method of connecting calorifiers it should

have resulted in scalding water coming from the taps.

It sounds as if there may have been a lot of air in the

cooling system.

I would advise that you change the thermostat and

then fill the system with water only and try to bleed the

skin tank. Keep the system topped up. Then run the

engine out of gear, but with the filler cap off and look

for air bubbling out. Also keep checking the calorifier

coil pipes for getting warm. Eventually the thermostat

should open and more movement will be seen in the

header tank, possibly with more air bubbles.

Then check all the hoses and clips in case one is

leaking somewhere.

Still with the cap off, run it in gear at varying

speeds. The level will come up as the water expands

and some may overflow, but it should not be a lot. If

you get a very fast heat-up, followed by lots of bubbles

and overflowing I fear you may have blown a head

gasket. I am afraid that process is expensive so needs

confirming.

I have no idea about the stop unless you have a

loose connection or a faulty switch.

Unless a lot of dust has got into the diesel heater,

I also have no idea why that should smoke and smell

of burning. I just hope no wiring or hoses have been

routed across the exhaust. Could the smoke be steam

from damp exhaust lagging?

Changing thermostat could be the cure

Tracking down a new belt is tricky

Q

A

The alternator belt on my

2001 3-cylinder Barrus Shire

1653 (serial no 020343) is

getting on a bit and although I have a

(used) spare, ordered a replacement

online. The current belt identifies itself

as an optibelt SUPER TX M=S XPA

1157 Lp. The replacement belt arrived

stamped with optibelt Super X-POWER

M=S 1157. Same length, same width

at the back (1/2”) so should fit, but no,

the new belt has far fewer and much

larger cut outs (cogs), As the current

belt taper to about 3/16” and the new

belt to ¼” it won’t of course seat on

the pulleys. After much rummaging

around online and in chandlers I’m no

further forward. Barrus didn’t respond

to my enquiry. Any idea where to go

from here?

DAVE MULL

TONY REPLIES: Go here

and link to their technical

manual V belts - https://

http://www.optibelt.com/en/power-

transmission/p roducts/v-belts/

super-x-power-span-style-color-0

04885-m-s-span.html?cid=3619

--- XPA belts are definitely belts with

the wedge profile with a top width of

12.7mm. The 1157 is the length. No

bottom width is given because that is

governed by the belt profile. Classic

V belts come in top widths of 13 or

10mm. It would be easy to confuse a

13mm V belt with a 12.7mm wedge

belt. http://www.beltingonline.com/vee-

and-wedge-belts -213/help-identifying-

v-belts-591/ --- shows two belt

profiles with a 13mm top width. One is

8mm deep and one is 10mm deep. It

seems as if Barrus may have supplied

you with a different profile belt. The

dimensions/pitch of the notches is of

no consequence as long as the belt

profile is correct. They take little part

in driving and mainly serve to help

the belt grip smaller pulleys. I would

ring Barrus rather than email or write

to them. I think the last web address

will allow you to order the correct belt

or seek suppliers of Optibelt belts and

use the SPX 1157 number. I hope this

helps but can not be sure I am right

without actually seeing the engine

and belt.

Ask online...

A

Q