Leaking like a sieve...

Why would you say "leaking like a sieve"? Leaking implies a malfunction or failure to perform properly- a sieve is designed to let matter pass through it, not stop it. So to say something is leaking like a sieve would indicate that a sieve by its very nature is broken. Would you buy a sieve that was broken? or one that didn't 'leak'? Perhaps we need a new idiom.

I said all of that to say this. Our engine was leaking like a sieve.

The last 3 times we took the boat out, the antepenultimate, penultimate, and ultimate time, it was a pint low on oil when I did the prelaunch sequence engine checks. It seemed odd. Normally Satan is a cup or so low every 10 hours or so. I checked all the usual suspects, oil filter lines, oil cooler connections, retightened the timing cover bolts... strange. It was the end of the season and we were going to be putting Satan to bed for the winter so I wasn't too worried. It would get us across the river to our present home.. and then it could sit and think about what it had done.

Well, really I sat and thought about what it had done. Westerbekes (enter mindless banter about how westerbeke 4-107's are really perkins 107 blocks with shiny red accessories and wetliners) are not known for being unleaky with regards to oil. I thought about it some, thought maybe the oil sump gasket was bad, maybe the new valve cover gasket I put in was bad, or ... maybe the rear main seal. Then I stopped thinking about it.

Months pass, time to get Satan ready for school. I was doing some research on inspecting/refitting the cold starting aid. Last year we had a bear of a time getting Satan running in the early April and at the time didn't know whether or not it was fitted with or had a working cold starting aid. A cold starting aid is an electric element in the air intake that when energized heats up, allows a minuscule amount of diesel fuel through and burns it- essentially letting hot diesel oil/flames into the air mix to give the cylinders something yummy to chew on as they fire up.

So I was poking around Satan, looking to see if the air intake manifold was fitted witha cold starting aid, or... a fitting to allow raw ether injection as many Perkins do. Well, it has a cold starting aid, it was connected and ... oh. the air intake cap's hose connection to the valve cover was not connected to the valve cover... Well, that explains why there was oil, oil everywhere! It must have been after I replaced the valve cover gasket- I must have not secured the hose and it worked itself loose. Sheesh! Well, now I know! That explains all the oil in the bilge, and all over the engine block.

I'm excited that there is a cold starting aid.

Why is there a hose there anyway? does it feed oil into the system from the air intake side for lubrication? It seems its set up to allow splashed/aerated lube oil that runs over the valves to waft its way into air intake and then into the combustion chambers.