The engine in Olivone was the original MD22 (25 years old) and had 1500 hours on it. When we bought the boat, we calculated with an engine swap over time but that had to be executed sooner than we thought. The first problem occurred leaving the lock into the Kiel channel. We had turned the engine off waiting for the lock to open, when i started the engine and started to leave the lock the temperature started to go up to 100 Celsius so we left the lock as fast as we could and was heading to a pontoon, where we turned the engine off. I went down to the engine room and checked the cooling fluid, which was empty. Checking all the hoses for leaks and suddenly I’ve got a loose hose in my hand. Turned out that they did put a plastic fitting into the engine and that had gotten old and weak and have just snapped with the thread still sitting in the engine. turned out that they had glued the fitting to seal it from the factory. Took three hours to get the threads out of the engine, and luckily, I’ve had a new bronze fitting in my tool box. Filled up the engine with cooling fluid and we were on our way again. Next problem happened 3 weeks later at the same place (!?), in the lock to leave the Kiel channel on the way home. Had turned the engine off waiting for the lock, started it and the charging light lid up. Left the lock and went into nearest marina and started to search for the fault, found nothing obvious. Went to the marina and ordered a new alternator, got it the next day and swapped it out, same problem. Got back to the marina and looked for an electro-mechanic, he was on vacation and would be back a couple of days later. While we where waiting for the mechanic we started to seriously think about throwing good money at old crap and after some discussion with the marina manager we decided to swap the engine instead of trying to fix the old one. Got a good offer for 13 000 Eur installed and ready.
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This site is about the dream to leave the dock and how you are getting to actually to that.
