First Start of a 5.8L V8 after sitting 2 seasons outdoors

On Topic-Specific Internet Forums everybody plays Pappa-Bird. Each man shares what he can and feeds whoever is hungry. Some men have infinite knowledge and they answer in a few paragraphs. Some men have less knowledge and a camera, so they provide useful footage.

Here below is some non-useful footage of our wild pet birds. This is the skinny pappa-bird feeding the babies. Mamma just took off to go find more grub. If you get hungry enough you will eat them…. so let them roost is what I say.

That hook above, made of 1/2″ PVC Electrical Conduit and 10AWG wire, was used to grab a balloon 20′ up in the power lines. Dont ask how that turned out.

Onward to the footage

DEPICTED BELOW

  • Removal of the beauty plate, fastener was rusted on
  • Removal of the crank case vent and flame arrestor
  • Finding the dead lead acid batteries

Nothing of note so far
Later on we show WHY you need that flame arrestor. I caught a nice backfire on camera. If you do that with an engine compartment full of gasoline fumes you WILL find out the hard way.

DETICTED BELOW

  • Proving that the Lead Acid is shot
  • Proving that the Safety-Chargers are Obnoxious
  • Attaching the IP63 Lithium Jumpers
  • Low Current Electrical Checks (Trim etc)

DEPICTED BELOW

  • Very first crank, and pretty sure it has been 2 seasons, not 1
  • No starter spray used, priming the bowl by cranking
  • Choke starts closed, starter actually bumps!
  • Throttle cracks the choke and Accelerator pump works
  • Jumper Pack turns S T R O N G!

The goal above was not to start the engine, but to prime the carb. We dont even have water hooked up at that point. When I prime with the throttle I disengage the prop by pressing in on the button at the pivot. If you dont do this… well… THEN CLEAR THE FUCKING PROP.

Shit gets real super quick
Dont be that guy…. chopping up the dogs and such

DEPICTED BELOW

  • Water muffs are attached
  • Fuel bowl may or may not be full by now (likely is)
  • Tries to light on second turn (great!)
  • Choke appears to be working
  • Engine Lights, CHOKE IS WORKING
  • Engine displays expected cold running performance
  • Engine stabilizes and starts warming up
  • CHOKE STARTS TO LET GO AROUND TIME 2:50
  • By time 3:40 the Choke opens wide
  • By time 4:20 the Choke is totally open
  • By 4:40 the Choke stays open across Starting Cycle
  • By time 5:00 I see no excess fuel pouring in
  • Fucking Great!

Wow… Appears to be perfect operation.
Someone must have come in the night and finished my half-ass carb rebuild.

DEPICTED BELOW

  • Zooming in on the Carb
  • Operation at ~140F
  • Around 2:15 the thermostat opens
  • Alternator making 14.5V
  • Impeller moving plenty of water
  • Repeat proof that the Lead is Dead
  • Lithium Packs CHARGE FAST to full (<——–)
  • Lithium Packs starting like a champ, even over clamps

DEPICTED BELOW

Normally I am inclined to SLAM the throttle forward (Step Response) and BLIP the throttle full and back to Idle (Impulse Response). I do a soft job of it below… but we do get a backfire. These backfires can beat the crap out of components inside the carb (what is it called, the Power Valve?) and of course they can ignite trapped fumes that are of an A/F ratio suitable for ignition (like 3:1 to 20:1 and anything in between)

TL;DR

  • Avoid Creating Backfires up thru the Carburetor
  • Use the Coast Guard Approved Arrestor
  • Time 1:00 visible backfire up out of carb

DEPICTED BELOW

  • Starts on 1st turn with no prime after sitting 30 min (THE GOAL!)
  • We aint there yet tho… hold off on celebration

DEPICTED BELOW

  • Trailering Safety Disclaimer
  • Visually Check your pin and pin lock
  • Visually Check your chains, both of them, with a clip
  • Visually Check your rims and measure your tire pressure
  • Keep the speed down, I run in compound low
  • REMEMBER THAT FUCKING THING IS BACK THERE!
  • Dont clip corners
  • Dont drive fast
  • AND WHAT ABOUT YOUR BRAKES MAN !!!!
  • Dont tow on soft brakes!
  • Worry more about your Mission Critical Systems and less about your Lights and Tags
  • Humph

I live at the Harbor (I can see the boat ramp from my porch) and almost DAILY some sap pulls a major fuckup towing his boat

  • Dragging the stag
  • Rolling the rear wheels into the water between swells
  • Dropping the boat on the ramp above the water line!
  • Losing the hitch a mile from the ramp
  • Setting the boat too far back on the trailer
  • Setting the boat crooked as hell on the trailer
  • Not using the rear straps
  • Grossly over-loading the trailer with weight
  • Running with weight aft of the axle (light tongue)
  • Miss-adjusted ball tongue
  • Ball attached with a nut and no washer
  • Undersized Vehicle for the load
  • Small ball with a 2″ trailer
  • On and on and on… YES… Boats DO get wrecked around here regularly

Captain Schindler

Lets close with the 3 ways a man can become a Captain

  1. You can Earn It by working every single station and being a strong and experienced leader
  2. You can Stumble into a half working boat with half baked advice and learn as you go
  3. You can build your own boat from scratch and learn EVERY hard lesson

The first is the best… you are ready. The second is most common, call it “half cocked”. The third… sigh… may just be better than the second. A little bit of knowledge can be VERY DANGEROUS boating in open water.

THIS BOAT?

  • Can take you 20 miles out into open water in under half an hour
  • Can take you vertical in high surf

It is probably the most scary and dangerous toy I own, so… TAKE IT SERIOUS. This thing is more of a Death Machine than my guns, high voltage power supplies, giant batteries, ebikes, etc. Voted most likely to cause Death and Destruction of Property.

-Schindler

Snipe Hunt for the Bad Automatic Choke

A man figures that if he puts a 32 year old carbureted engine out to pasture (for at least 1 season. . .) that he will have trouble starting it when he returns.

You approach the machine on the ASSUMPTION that there will be a laundry list of issues including chewed wires, rats nests, rotted hoses, clogged jets, stuck needles, stuck floats, rusted fasteners, clotted ethanol gas, hungry spiders, wet rot, corroded electrical, dead batteries, parts missing, flat tires, rusted bearings, etc ………….

What you dont expect is that some bandit came in the night and repaired your carburetor. Lol… right? Like, the one thing you can count on in life…. is that nobody is going to rebuild your 4bbl carburetor under cover of darkness without consent. I mean, it happens, but only in hippy communes and military bases. Anywhere else a man can safely assume that if he puts something away fucked… that it will be fucked when he brings it back out.

I guess the Roulette wheel rolls 00 sometimes.

  • Boat Started with no issues
  • Choke appeared to work perfectly (on camera)
  • Idle Fuel Adjustment no longer shows waterfall

I have been around long enough to be more BAFFLED than Pleased. A man who is pleased by such a thing has yet to encounter the hardest lesson available….

INTERMITENT FAILURE MODES

So lets review

How I stored the Engine
I dont recall with great clarity but I did stow it knowing that it would be 2 years until next service. I am positive that I got 2 year stabilizer in the 1/4 tank of gas. I am positive that the cooling system was washed out with fresh water (but not coated, my conditioner spilt out).

I cant remember if I ran the carb dry, probably not. I can remember that I did not shoot any oil down the carb. I am positive the boat got swamped by rain at least once (before we built the frame above). I am positive the plug was out and draining properly.

I approached the engine as I always do… with a can of Spider Killer and skepticism. I checked all the fluids, even those I cant identify. All fluids were at the top of the stick (this one cold) and I saw no immediate indication of water ingress.

That’s the Power Steering Pump, FYI

Even tho we had a Rats Nest on the rear deck. . . no rats got into the boat! I am pretty sure it has been TWO seasons… because Season 1 I had rat traps set. Season 2 I did not. So … 2 years and no rats. That is Double Zero for certain.

  • Bilge Pump turns on
  • Engine Cabin Vent turns on
  • Trim goes up and down…..

So Suspicious….

Two Two Marine Batteries (wired parallel) were resting around 7V but totally sulfated. The system was set to OFF and there was a 4.5A trickle on there, but… nobody plugged it in. No power where the boat was parked (sigh)… and I had not yet built a Solar Charger for it.

The spiders left us exactly this much silk (above). Most of them were hiding in the Engine Compartment. I dispatched with them immediately. NOBODY wants to take a ride in a boat that has random large spiders crawling out at full clip. The spiders around here get big… like… See it in your pocket big.

Hmmm… No rat traps yet no rats in the boat

A singular STARTING of a nest outside of the boat…. but not complete. In fact, that does not even look right. Looks like it came from somewhere else and was placed there. No idea. Animals in the woods do strange shit.

Coolant was good….. even Green?

Oil was good…. even clear?

Its not all perfect. The ratted out 12V electrical is still waiting for my loving touch.

Somehow water is getting past the Engine Compartment and pooling on the top of the engine. Usually I suspect rat piss, but this time condensation. Only thing it could be… unless some how it is soaking thru the engine compartment and following something down.

Could be

There are a few decroded turds from Yester-Year. I am positive that at one point I pressure washed ALL TURDS from the engine. Those look to be quite seasoned.

Above you can spot standing water with brown rust below the Main Coil.

There is that Power Steering stick, right up to the cold line

Hmmm… Something must be wrong. There is always something wrong….

That above looks awful but its not as bad as it looks. 4 years back I removed all that, cleaned the contacts, and over-coated with grease. It now attracts particulates but it performs its duty well.

Long story short I fired it up, it ran, and now its time to learn a lesson out in the open water.

Below is a trick I learned while helping a man who lost a $70k boat at a stop sign. Pin fell out. He made it almost a mile, up a steep hill, … then Crack. Saw it happen in real time. Boat came off the back, gave two wags, then harpooned the back of his SUV.

He had a floor jack but no stick. While he brought the boat up with his finger, I ran home and got him a hitch pin. The lesson I learned is to keep a FLOOR JACK with your Boat Trailer for when you have to park on uneven ground. The scene below is all too common! You cant get an aftermarket trailer jack to stand up with this little clearance.

Hence the Jack

Next post I go thru the Video Footage

-Schindler

Surviving the Storm. . .

Be that Nature or Man Made*

For the last year+ I have basically live-streamed life at 60hz frame rate. Youtube leaves a lot to be desired as a platform, so here I am back at the ol’ WordPress site. A site like this is very easy to set up and not very expensive… maybe $1/day. If you want to know how to do it just ask.

I did make it out into the Ocean yesterday. I currently use a low-cost wetsuit that zips up the back. When I go regularly we use a suit that comes overhead and zips across the chest. For me – a 4/3 – that is 4mm thick in your core and 3mm thick at the extremities.

We augment with booties, hoodie, and helmet. ONWARD.

We live in the middle of the Monterey Bay. We have 2 harbors, 3 depending on how you count. I am at the Santa Cruz Harbor. Up the way by the Power Plant there is Moss Landing. If you keep going you get to Monterey.

It is only tens of miles how the crow files from here to Monterey… but it is not something that many pass. If they do, they do it once and never again. We get very large swell, thick fog, nasty wind, and… you can readily die in the short voyage.

I will make that Voyage

So… lets get our 12V systems up to a reliability standard I can tolerate

That is how I will be taking the system out to the Boat today. I also have some much smaller 10W panels that are about 1sqft. Those are 12V and wired in series we would produce sufficient voltage to charge (24V where 18V is minimum). I cover the same topics over and over… so stop by every once in a while if you want to learn more.

Above are pet birds. They dont mind welding, angle grinding, compressors, racket, pulling things out from under them. FYI you are on a BLOG, not a concentrated source of answers so if you are in a big hurry…. move on.

PAUSE

I just got fired then re-hired for the 4th time in 2 years. WTF.

RESUME

I have lost my place in the story. I will dump the videos I prepared here.

BELOW
Using a Fluke 87V Max to prove that our Cell Balancing technique results in perfect balance.

BELOW
Discovering that the 50mA (0.050A) medical grade BMS balance current has not yet balanced the last pack. This is likely because the cells were not pre-balanced and the pack has not rested on charger for any period of time.

The BMS does perform

  • Cell Level LVC cutout
  • Cell Level HVC cutout
  • Short Circuit Protection
  • Over-Temp Lockout
  • Balancing WHEN fully charged

BELOW
I demonstrate the activity of bringing back into service a very old but very reliable piece of gear. This is a Sorensen DCS 60-18E from the 90’s. That is now a 30 year old supply. I bought all of these USED for PARTS

  • Replaced the output caps
  • Replaced the main AC caps
  • Replaced the main fan
  • Reverse Engineered the design

… so, if you have time to waste… this is 20min of a man showing you how to take something NON-FUNCTIONAL to FUNCTIONAL.

I explain in the video things like scrubbing the PCB with Simple Green to clear away electrolyte from burst electrolytic caps, cleaning with 99% ISO, etc. I can get full rail to rail performance out of this piece of gear that is older than most of the people I work with.

-Schindler

Demonstration of Balancing Salvage Headway LiFePo4

If someone or something bumps that Voltage dial you are going to learn about what the old timers (me….) call THE SPARKLES

Smoke, Spraying electrolyte, maybe eruptions… It is just a thing have to understand similar to:

  • The fan in an engine bay
  • getting your shirt sleeved caught in a belt
  • chainsaws
  • razor blades
  • concentrated sodium hydroxide
  • concentrated sulfuric acid
  • concentrated nitric acid
  • concentrated hydrochloric acid
  • gasoline
  • fireworks and mortars
  • nunchucks
  • Chuck Norris
  • Strange Sex
  • …. All the same

Those cells are a pressure vessel and they have a blow off plate. If you’re lucky they will just go pssssssssss. If you are unlucky it will get extremely hot, melt their heat shrink, melt the insulation of the wires attached, melt their mounting points, Start sparking together, light The fuming electrolyte, big fire.

  • Just like 20 gallons in your car
  • just like 5 gallons in a tote
  • Its energy density
  • chemical energy

The difference for all you fools to understand is that gasoline is one time use chemical energy. This can be used about 5,000 times and it can be refilled directly from sunlight.

FOR FREE RETARD

So… Go Check in at the local Republican pot banger society if you can’t figure it out. We have a special place in hell for people who can’t understand and lithium batteries, solar panels, MPPT inverters, ingress protection, acknowledgment of shock and vibration, thermal management, specifications, wire insulating temperatures, wire ampacity, I^2*R heating, dielectric grease, adhesive line heat shrink, proper fastening, voltage potential standoff, Kapton tape, 3.3V vs 3.6V lithium chemistry, The fundamentals of heat + fuel + oxygen, general chemistry, general physics, basic math, algebra, somewhat complex math, formulas, integration and differentiation, …..

Carry On, As you were

-Captain Schindler

P.S Gas tight crimps, swaged crimps, pull tests, latching connectors, IP rated connectors, The fact that there are pins and sockets, also housings… Sacrificial abrasion layers, electrolysis, corrosion, Noble metals, things that are counterfeit, when you can use things that are counterfeit, overpriced hyped up commercial garbage, profiteers, capitalists, people who aren’t Republican again or Democrat, logical fallacies, false dilemmas, The existence of the internet……………..

Salvage Cells are Always Imbalanced

Due to the fact that salvage cells come from different packs…. And those packs are at a different state of charge…. It’s a wise move to pre-balance any salvage cells by wiring them all in parallel and applying ~3.65 volts.

3.3V chemistry has an almost perfectly flat discharge curve through a huge branch of the capacity…. So just attaching them in parallel is like cutting a 2×4 with a nail file. You really want to apply a voltage that brings the chemistry up into the steep part of the curve…

  • 3.2V too flat
  • 3.3V too flat
  • 3.4V transition
  • 3.5V looking good
  • 3.6V steep part of the curve
  • 3.7V that can work but more than needed
  • 3.8V they will tolerate it
  • You can go higher, I dont

If anyone tells you some NONSENSE GARBAGE like…. “The cells tend not to drift, so I don’t use a BMS”

  • Those are the guys that burn down your boat
  • Those are the guys that burn down your RV
  • Those are the guys that get catastrophic failures after 3 or 5 years
  • Dont be that guy

If you can’t set up a BMS then you really do need to check the cells regularly to make sure they are reasonably in balance. This can’t be done in the middle of the discharge curve, You have to do it while they are empty or full.

See how easy this is with Headway cells? They are stupendous. Compare that to my soldered pouch cells… Sigh.

… The next step is to short the negatives, set the CV/CC power supply to 3.65V, confirm that with the four digit fluke, Set the current to 5 amps, Attach the leads and walk away.

  • 5 hours will be done
  • 1 hour it will likely be done

8Ah x 4 cells = 32Ah

Get them to +/- 20mV (0.020V) resting imbalance

-Schindler

Solar HiJack to Charge Batteries

This is how I use an MPPT Solar Charger to convert an arbitrary power source to a CC/CV controlled charge profile.

  • Charge a 12 volt battery from a 24 volt battery
  • Charge a 12-V battery from a 36 volt or 48 volt battery
  • charge a 12 volt battery from a 48 volt power supply
  • charge a 12 volt battery from a 48 volt golf cart charger
  • Charge a 24 volt battery from a 48V battery
  • Control the maximum charge current
  • Control the maximum charge voltage
  • calculate the watt hours delivered
  • …..
  • Boost a 5A charger to 15A (shown)
  • Has battery over-temp cut out
  • works with any DC power source that is within the states limits (like 18V to 60V)

The proof is in the video. I show that we can charge a 12 volt battery at about 60 W with an 18 volt source. I then crank the source up to 60 volts and show that we can charge the same battery at over 200 watts.

In this case the MPPT is doing current multiplying for us, as well as some safety features.

Totally Legit

How I built the Sparkles Machine

This is how it was built
I am P.Schindler

If you want a demonstration on how to troubleshoot, repair, measure, etc… let me know and I will do what I can to show you how I get it done.

Building the Cables from Junk in Fast Forward

-methods