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Boaters Diet: Fiber or Copper

spartonboat1

Legendary Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2005
Messages
2,494
Hatteras Model
43' DOUBLE CABIN (1970 - 1984)
This is a 1972 43' DCFB Hatteras with J&T 6-71N's at 310hp. I ran a short test run out on Lk MI, in preparation for a full run up the lake from White Lake to Cheboygan and my new-to-me dockominium in Duncan Bay Marina.

Whoa, my son at the helm noticed (very thankfully) that we had lost oil pressure, while at cruise speed, on Stbd engine! Should have shut down!!! But I only throttled back to off idle- dangerous, poor judgement, in retrospect.

We idled back to the dock, dropping from 20#'s, down to 15#'s psi. We docked and I pulled the hatch saw much oil in the bunker, under the engine. I also noticed that the "fiber" washer, under the Oil Canister hold-down bolt looked bad and was squeezed out. But I had to leave for the day, as it was late.

In the interim, I went to Williams Diesel and picked up the only Copper "compressible" washer they had in stock; I found another in my stock, so now had two(2). I also picked up 2 Cases of Delvac 1240 40wgt oil, = 32 qts. The engine capacity is 26 qts.

A couple days later, oil and washers in hand, and bringing two pumps, I came back to investigate. I pumped out all the oil into a 6 gal Bottle, until only residual oil left in the bunker. Seemed to pump out about 3.5-4.5 gals=14-18 gals. So I hoped I had about 4-6 qts in the crankcase. Decent for a car engine, not so much for a DD Diesel!

I pulled the oil filter canister and installed the Copper washer, set to 55#'s Spec torque is 50-60#'s. I then began adding oil back to the engine, until I picked up oil on the dipstick. I started the engine to re-fill the canister: Whew! Good oil pressure, aka normal- 60#s at start, 50#'s, after pressure relief valve lifted off!! and not any more smoking than usual on start-up - 15-20 secs. Then shut down, and added more oil, until at the add mark on the stick. Once again restarted and did some warm up. Shut down and allowed some drain-down. Finally added until qt low. Ran engine until fairly warm.

Well, I was not about to leave the Fiber washer under the Port engine oil canister hold-down bolt! So I installed the Copper washer, under the hold-down bolt on the Port engine. Note that the Fiber washer basically fell out and was not very secure. Started up, filled oil canister, shut down and added oil. After drain-down, observed oil level and added more oil.

Now all set on both engines!

I felt confident in the Copper Washers, so a couple days later, up Lk MI we went and had good oil pressure all the way!

Verdict: Never again will I install a Fiber washer, under the oil canister hold-down bolt; even though Fiber is in the "Oil Filter Kit". I will install only Copper Compressible washers from now on. Williams notes that several auto outlets also sell the correct size Copper compressible washers. He had cross reference part numbers from the DD #.

So for my oil canister "diet", "Copper" is much better than "Fiber"!!
 
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