Johnson 115 4 stroke - hole in the exhaust manifold

I have a 19' center console with a 2003 115 hp 4 stroke Johnson (Suzuki) that pushes her well and hasn't given me any trouble until the last year. It started not idling well, especially after it was warm. Then, it really started acting badly!  I almost got into trouble near the outflow of a certain nuclear power plant, when I lost power, and then was almost swept into some of the local infrastructure.

I took it to Newport Marine in Newport News, VA. They looked it over and couldn't figure what was wrong. They were extremely fair about it and said that they wouldn't charge me since they couldn't diagnose it. Now that's admirable! Scott at Newport suggested Sports Marine on 17 because they're a Suzuki dealer and they have the computer that could interface for diagnosis.

So, reluctantly, I went to Sports. The guy told me that my wiring harness was fried and he replaced it with a used on. He also told me as an afterthought that I had a hole in my exhaust manifold but that he slapped some Marine Tech in there which "should hold up for a good long time".  So I paid him the $500+ and went on my way. It worked fine for about two runs and then acted up again. It idled terribly and then when I slowed I smelled burning plastic and so I shut it down and got towed in. Good thing!

I went back to Newport and told them about what Sports told me and asked them to check it out. They did and said that sure enough, I have a hole in the manifold and no Marine Tech to be found anywhere!  They charged me $30 for this look and gave me an estimate of $1000 for parts and $1000 for labor. Said that the power-head had to be removed to do this job. Okay, so now we're getting somewhere. This actually sounds very fair since this is a major job.  Newport Marine is a great outfit and I'd love to have them do the work, but, I did't have 2 grand lying around.

My father-in-law, Steve, a retired nuclear pipe fitter was convinced that we could do this job so, I ordered the parts. MarineEngine.com had all the parts for $1149 total. I also had to borrow an engine hoist to pull the power head. Oh boy, this makes me a nervous, but what the hell. I can't afford to pay to have the job done so might as well go for it!

Here are some pictures with the lower engine covers removed:

Starboard side. The exhaust manifold or adapter or whatever is the large piece in the middle between the powerhead and the lower unit.. This is the undamaged side.

 Port side, you can see the damage, just about in the center of the photo there's an allen plug and the hole is around that. You can also see the melted (second) wiring harness. It's not completely melted through (Thank God). It seems that only the tape melted, however it's hard to tell because some of the wires are melted together with the tape.

Port side backed up to see the entire powerhead that was lifted off.  You might also notice that the exhaust manifold attaches the motor at it's upper part.  I thought we might also have to remove the lower unit. Ultimately, we had to secure it on it's top portion once the manifold was removed.

Port side. Close ups of the damage

 Valve cover on rear of motor had to be removed since it overlaps powerhead and exhaust manifold.

 Overlap shown here.

The Seloc manual has nothing about an exhaust manifold, which I find baffling since it's such an important and significant portion of the engine. So, I ordered an OMC service manual ($75 with shipping).  That was money well spent!  

6 April Update:

The Johnson Service Manual had it all. It showed specifically how to remove and replace all of the parts. There were lots of steps, but the detailed manual gave me more confidence to tackle the task.  One thing that I found funny about all this were the discrepancies in the nomenclature.  In the service manual the main part that I need is called "the engine holder". On the Marine Engines. com website where I purchased the parts the same part is called the "exhaust adapter".  Go figure.

10 April Update:

I started the motor one last time before the repair job. 

15 April Update:

Last week we broke it down. It was nice to have good people helping with this.  We removed the intake manifold, the fuel injectors, the valve cover, spark plugs, and all of the electrical and physical connections and then we lifted the powerhead and the pesky piece of you-know-what "engine holder" that caused the problems in the first place.  Here are the picture proofs.  The only snafu we had was a large bolt that went through the engine holder in the vicinity of the damage that threaded into the powerhead. This bolt came free of the power head but was stuck in the engine holder. It took Sam, Steve and I using a map-gas torch, a hammer, Kroll Oil, a punch, and a ratchet simultaneously for about 45 minutes to free up the bolt that also had to be replaced to the tune of $10, for a bolt!

and since I didn't have the parts yet...I took Sunday and went fishing...in a lake!

found some interesting reading on the subject.  Seems to be a pretty common problem. Also, I need to look carefully at my oil pan...

http://www.marineengine.com/boat-forum/showthread.php?376579-Engine-holder-problem-anyone-else/page2

April 21, 2013

I kind of did a freak out double take when I got the "engine holder"!  Got the new part and it looks identical except for a major difference that I wasn't expecting!! There's a hole with bearings that isn't in the old one!  

Here are the pictures:

This is the old one:

...and here's the new one. Notice the bearings on the left side? This means the crank case will be open to the environment!  I called Boats.net where I ordered the part and stayed on hold for 45 minutes. I thought I would have to call the credit card company.  I checked the part numbers and the replacement part numbers. I bugged Robert who is the mechanic at VIMS, and I bugged Scott at Newport Marine. Both of these fellas are awesome and I really appreciate their time.

Anyhow, I got home and Steve came over and we looked at it and pondered it and looked through the other pile of parts that I had ordered and then I started to think about one of them that looked like it had a sealed allen bolt that looked like it would fill the hole in the bearings. Then Steve was looking at it too. We both got very quiet and started fiddling with it. Next thing I knew, I said, "maybe I don't have to stop payment on the credit card, do I?"  Yep, there's another design change.  Not only is the steel plug absent, but also, the shifter linkage is configured totally different! On the previous model it was bolted to the bottom of the engine holder and it was all exterior. On the new model the splined shaft links with the female component that is screwed into the bearings that are bathed in the crankcase oil above.  I think this is actually an improvement after all!  

Also, here's the redesign where the steel plug used to be.  That steel plug has caused a lot of heartache for owners of the 90, 115, and 140 HP models from 2001 to 2005.  It's a damn shame for OMC, and the hundreds of people with this same drama that I've been having.

So, we put it all back together.  It was easier than I had imagined. I labeled all of the wires, which I recommend, but they were almost dummy-proof because each plug was unique.

Ran it on the hose and shifted through the gears. I gotta hand it to Steve for pushing this through to fruition!  We started at 9am and had it all together and running by 4.  Great day!  As Steve said, "not bad for a couple of dudes who don't know what they're doing!"
Video Proof:

and with the covers..

and finally, I took it for a spin yesterday. It runs better than ever!

If you have the same problem, and fix it yourself, I wish you all the success!!

Estuarine Slime and fun with iMovie

For one of our projects we grow natural occurring benthic (def. bottom) algal communities on screens on a flume at the VIMS. Summertime yields reach 30g/m2/day dry weight of algae.  Our pumps push pulses of water down the flume, with no grazers, that stimulate maximum algal growth. Over the course of the 30 second decent over the flume the water column  nitrogen is reduced and dissolved oxygen is enhanced, which improves water quality. In essence, the algae "scrubs" out nutrient pollution.  Then the algae is harvested for biofuel research. Our flume technology has the highest bang for our buck of water treatment than any other available technology and ours is very low tech.

Anyhow, I wanted to post this only to share the beauty of the brown slime that you see growing on the rocks around your local rivers and bays.  If you put some of this slime of the estuary under a microscope you may find up to 60 different species. If you put some from the fresh part of the river you can find more than 200 species of algae.

Here are some examples:

The have silica shells (tests) that come in many shapes and sizes. See, brown slime is beautiful.

Here is a chain forming diatom called Berkeleya rutilans.  It produces brown filaments that you can see with the naked eye. Here's a closer look:

Some of them arrange themselves in a star like pattern like this Asterenollopsis.

The long one in the center of this picture is Navicula and just to the left you can see a centroid diatom.

If you're old enough to remember the folding rulers then you'll recognize the Pseudo-nitzchia in this video. Pseudo-nitzchia cells cooperate to move through the watercolumn using this folding ruler technique.  Pseudo-nitzchia is also produce domic acid that is responsible for the human illness of amnesic shellfish poisoning. Other diatoms are featured in the video as well as a wily polychaete dancing in a bucket called Glycera, that fishermen use for bait and that has a nice bite!

This is also my first time that I've created a video using iMovie.  I have a long way to go but I'd like to put many more iMovie creations in this blog in the near future.  The song is Girl from Beck.

There are also amphipod grazers that eat this stuff and I thought I'd share a few pics of these guys.  I could write many pages about the marine amphipod grazers but I won't at this point.  I'll only say that they are very important to underwater seagrass because the eat the algae that grows on the grass and they provide food for many fishes and other critters that live in the grassbeds.  Suffice it to say, we wouldn't have our important seagrasses without amphipods.

Also, I should go through my pics and get live ones. These were stored in alcohol and so they've lost much of their color.

Microprotopus

Dulichiella

Photovoltaic Cellphone Charger

I've got this solar panel that was being discarded as part of a dock light.  It's encased in acrylic. I've removed the light and battery that had expired and now I have this little PV that puts out about 5.7V DC in full sunlight.

So I was thinking, could I use this to charge my phone or camera when I'm on the water?  Could I cause my lithium battery device to explode?  The camera battery is rated at 3.7V.  Would I have to charge another battery first that I'd then charge the phone with?

So I checked the Google and found this person has a nice little unit. I guess I can just cannibalize a phone charger and solder it to leads on this little PV, and then I'll have a field charger for my phone. If I got some plugs, I could interchange other cameras and phones.

I welcome any feedback on this, especially if you think it's a bad idea. Thanks in advance.

UPDATE: This device failed to charge a cellphone.  More recently I purchased a Levin cellphone charger off of the shelf.  It's panel also doesn't charge the battery but I can plug it into a 110V wall outlet and then get 2 or 3 charges on my iPhone 6.

My mercury levels are safe!

I participated in VIMS graduate student, Xiaoyu Xu's study where she measured the mercury levels in various populations of humans, one of which was yours truly. I eat a lot of local fish including croaker, striped bass, flounder, eel, catfish, mackerel, bluefish, etc. I also occasionally eat fish of the world, such as tuna, salmon and eel at sushi and other restaurants.

 My mercury level: 0.6 ppm.

Parameters provided with results:
"According to WHO, there is no health effect for adults with hair mercury concentration up to 50 ppm. For pregnant women, any fetal effect will be impossible with hair mercury concentration below 14 ppm. The typical hair mercury concentrations in the U.S. population are often less than 1 ppm."

So I guess I'm good! This a 36 pound striped bass that I caught in December. I harvest 100 % of the meat from my fish. My favorite is the meat around the skull and bones. After filleting, I remove the guts and gills and then I slow cook the head and carcass. One this size yields about 2.5 pounds of the most beautiful lump white meat for delicious fish salads and fish cakes.  It's the best!  Oh, and then I'm left with some really cool skulls and bones.  I refuse to throw another carcass away.

The Time for the Renewable Energy Economy is Now!

The burning of fossil fuels over the course of the industrial revolution has accelerated climate change, causing the ice caps to melt, sea levels to rise, super-droughts, and super-storms.  But, the scariest impact discovered so far, in my humble opinion, is the increasing acidity of the oceans.  The CO2 that we've spewed into the atmosphere turns into carbonic acid in seawater which threatens small shelled organisms called pteropods that are important to the oceanic food web, not to mention oysters and coral reefs! Can you imagine a world without coral reefs? or oysters?

By threatening our natural world, our food, and our coasts, climate change also threatens our national security, says the CIA.

With a world population of 7 billion and growing, that is dependent on fossil fuels, we have the unprecedented opportunity to make a change for the better.  The option to make the switch to wind, water and solar (WWS) is now achievable and even inevitable.  The upfront costs may appear high for this energy revolution, but the cost of in-action is higher.
So how did I come to this conclusion?
Last fall, on NPR’s Science Friday, Ira Flatow interviewed Mark Z. Jacobson from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, at Stanford University about the feasibility of deriving half of our world energy from wind. The other half would be from solar and water. From subsequent reading of Jacobson’s work and others, I am convinced that we have the ability, the resources, and the moral imperative to begin our quest in earnest to switch our power generation from the burning of fossil fuels completely to these renewables. Experts, Mark A. Delucchi and Jacobson report in the journal of Energy Policy in 2011 (here-1 and here-2) that “the barriers to the complete conversion to WWS power worldwide are primarily social and political, not technological or even economic.”  
They calculated that we have more than enough wind and sun to provide power for all of our needs, including transportation.  They estimate that we have more than enough concrete, steel, copper and other raw materials to construct the required number of turbines. They also determined that we have plenty of silica and other materials to construct the photovoltaic (PV) panels required. 
Limitations
They did cite a few caveats to the plan. One is that we could be limited in the amount of silver available for electrical connections.  We may also have a challenge mining enough platinum for hydrogen fuel cells and lithium for lithium ion batteries but, they concluded, these are problems can be overcome with innovation of materials, mining and recycling.
The hardware needed
To be WWS energy reliant by 2030 Jacobson and Delucchi reported in their Energy Policy journal article that the overall equipment needed for the U.S. will be 590,000 wind turbines, 110,000 wave devices, 830 geothermal plants, 140 hydroelectric plants (we’re already 70% there), 7600 tidal turbines, 6200 solar PV plants, 7600 CSP plants, and here’s the whopper, 265 million roof PV systems.  This would be enough power for everything, including our transportation needs. Electric cars are about 5 times more efficient than gasoline. There's potentially a lot of business opportunity here.
Jacobson - the renewables myth buster
The benefits would far outweigh the costs, especially in time.  We would have clean energy that would be more reliable and dependable than oil and gas.   The notion that oil and gas are more reliable is a myth that is explained along with many other myths such as that wind turbines kill more birds than coal mining.  
Me personally
Using the solar calculator I discovered that I would need to spend about $30k to power up my home with solar here in Virginia and that’s after the $15k tax break that I would get on the year of installation.  So the price is high to get your house outfitted with solar panels but there is a break-even time point that varies from 15 to 20 years.  After that you’d be saving money on power indefinitely.  And if properly configured, technically and economically, one could even make money selling power back to the grid.  $30k is a lot of dough but it’s no more than a luxury automobile many people don’t mind paying for.  How about a luxury power system? It's also something that could probably be rolled into a home equity. Hopefully one of these days, I'll get there. I still have a lot of research in this area.  In fact, as I am up here on my soap box, I concede that I AM part of the problem. I'm hooked to the grid (coal) and I operate internal combustion engines daily.
My Dream Car
Speaking of the transportation sector, have you seen the Tesla, Model S? It will set you back $60 to $100000, but it’s a sweet American made ride that gets about 300 miles on one charge, has a super low center of gravity (providing superb handling), double the trunk space and it goes from 0-60 in 5.6 seconds! It's my dream car. For about a third of that price you can pick up a Chevy Volt or a Nissan, Leaf, although they’re not quite as nice as the Model S.  

Bring on the Jobs!
There is the potential to create many good jobs for our nation and stimulate the economy with WWS development. According to a study by Robert Pollin at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, for every million dollars spent in oil and gas we create about 4 jobs whereas for each million spent on wind and solar we create about 16.7 jobs.   

The new WWS energy economy is coming, the question is; how soon do we want to benefit from it?  According to Wikipedia, the U.S. is already producing about 3.3% of our electrical energy with wind, with Texas leading the charge followed by California.  

But we have much work to do to improve access to WWS. In the U.S. we pay a much higher price for rooftop PV solar installation than they pay in Germany ($6.21 vs. $3.42) thanks to taxes, paperwork, general bureaucracy and marketing.

In my home state of Virginia recently, large sections offshore have recently been opened to wind development, but it will be several years before we see the wind farms.

With our resources, we need to get going. I’d like to see local companies installing PV systems on homes. I’d like to see more industry re-allocated to turbine manufacture, installation and maintenance. Wouldn't this be a great roll for our local ship builders?

Let's git-r-done!
The question is not, can we afford to make this switch to renewables? It’s more like; can we afford not to make the switch? Since global climate change is a security threat to our nation, why not divert some of our huge military budget to fix it?   I don’t even care if the vastly wealthy military industry complex and the oil companies make the huge profits from WWS investments.   I’d just like to see the process begin.

We have the ability. We have the resources. We have the moral imperative.  We owe it to our children and grandchildren and to the planet. Let's grow our renewable energy economy today.