Replacing the engine - Part 2: Modifying the Engine Room

Now that the old Perkins engine was gone the Marvelous Men in Red started to modify the engine room to make the perfect home for the new Yanmar engine.  First they stripped out the old grease impregnated sound proofing and cleaned up the engine room. 

The new engine has the same power as the old, 75 hp, but is substantially smaller and is half the weight.  This means the framework for the engine mounts did not fit the Yanmar engine and needed to be modified.  It is essential that the engine coupling is aligned exactly with the propeller shaft.  For this alignment they used a metal jig that is a dummy frame for the engine.  This was set up on the old engine mounts to determine what modifications were needed.  

The metal jig hanging in the mechanics workshop

Then the Men in Red went away to make wooden frames to build up the engine mounting scaffold to the correct height.  The scaffolding was covered with several layers of fibreglass to make a very strong support.  Next the engine room was painted and new sound proofing installed.

New fibreglassed mounts

Looking better with a coat of paint

Installing the sound proofing

While all this was going on, the boat was full of Men in Red, tools, equipment and very smelly paints and solvents.  We needed to make ourselves scarce and were compelled to take some forced relaxation at the marina pool for several afternoons.

Not a bad spot to spend a few hours