Generator installation details

The prior post showed the generator had been lifted into place.  We now had to do all the hook ups and then test run it.  The steps involved in this were:

• Set final location for the unit that allowed crawl access around the far side for access and then through bolt it to the landing pad made in the prior post.

• The boat came with a serviceable water lift muffler which needed some corrosion control so we had to de-rust and paint it.

• In addition, it came with strange 2-1/8" connections that we couldn't mate up to the generator so we had to reconfigure the input and output ports to support 2" hose on both ends.  We pulled the original fittings out and the installed 2" stainless hose barb.  Of course getting the original fittings off was not going to happen without the use of a torch running mapp gas but once we took the "hot wrench" to it, the parts unscrewed easily enough.

• Beef up the fiberglass output port and create a landing pad in the bilge for the muffler.  The landing pad is difficult to see in the picture below but it basically converted the internal deadrise into a flat area for mounting the muffler to.

• Install the seacock and raw water strainer for engine.  The unit below is overkill in every way.  First, it's a 1.5" Perko unit that has been screwed down into a backing block which in turn has been 5200 and then glassed into the hull.  Replacing a bad  seacock in the future would be very easy because of the way this was done.  Second, we originally thought to run multiple items off a single seacock.  Yeah, we know now that its a bad idea and when we tested it the genny was sucking air though the other items connected so now the genny gets its own 1.5" seacock even though it could probably get by with a 1".  Oh well, live and learn.

• Connect battery cables.  We ended up hooking the generator into the stbd main engine battery switch.

• Change the oil.  This was actually a bigger job than it sounds because it included the installation of an oil x-changer like the one below.  This is the X-change-R 946D 3 port oil exchange pump.  We installed the unit in the bilge and wired it to DC, and then connected it to the generator and to both main engines.  The generator had a built in rotary valve on the oil dump port that we connected to but the Crusader main engines just had a plug in the bottom of the oil pans which we had to replace with a stopcock with a hose barb.  Once all the connections were made we selected each of the engines one by one and were able to suck out all of the oil from all 3 engines in about 2-3 minutes.  Very slick, no mess. Highly recommended.

In the picture below I highlighted the path of the oil change hose.  You can see the oil change shutoff valve to the lower left below the dipstick.  The hose was installed with gentle bends and no kinks.

• Refresh the antifreeze.  The overflow bottle on the genny appeared to just have tap water in it so we sucked all of that out with a shop vac and then also pulled the radiator cap and sucked as much as possible from the main tank and then filled both back up with new fluid.
• Connect 1/4" fuel line all the way back to the stbd fuel tank and add new pickup tube to the gas tank.  Not much to say about this except that we used USCG approved marine grade fuel line for this.  You can see the silver fuel line in the picture above routed next to the oil change hose.
• Change the impeller.  The impeller really didn't have any hours of use on it but it was sitting for a couple years and also went through a couple of cold Virginia winters.  When we started it, we immediately checked for suction on the input hose and found none.  So we immediately pulled the impeller housing apart and saw the impeller in pieces.  We pulled the impeller core and then all the pieces.  By careful observation of the debris we pulled out we could tell that we got all 6 of the destroyed impeller vanes out.  After twisting a new impeller into place, the genny was sucking up water as it should.
• Install the sound shield

• Test run it to full operating temperature.