Well, I finally got the freshwater pump installed on the W-27 last Thursday. I ordered it from CLR Marine after checking with Tormented-son (Torreson), who had raised their prices $35 since I initially checked on it's availibility less than three weeks ago. Unfortunately, the W-27 has a rather limited availability of parts, so we're pretty much over a barrel when it comes to competitive pricing....

Of course it was an easy task removing the old one, but as with all boat parts (it seems) auxiliary items, such as the gasket aren't standard, and must be ordered seperately. So I fabricated a gasket, and put some sealing puckey on it, slapped the whole contraption on the front of the engine and attempted to shove the short piece of 3/4" hose over the barb for the thermostat. No luck. I finally removed the evil thing, and worked for about 45 minutes, shoving and cursing the thing. It had been hose clamped on the other pump, and so had taken a narrow restriction, preventing it from sliding over the barb. I spit on it, put a thin layer of formagasket, hoping that would lube it enough to slide over the barb, to no avail. Finally I used a magnetic screwdriver end, flared just so slightly to enlarge the hole and get the thing over the end. But now the stupid puckey is drying up, and I have to scrape it off of the pump side, apply some new. Around 2300 I finally had the thing back together.

In the process of taking off and installing the new part, I had lost about two quarts of coolant, so I tried to get the radiator cap off with my tired old arthritic hands. I got it to spin about halfway, and thought I was pushing down on it, but no luck.

OK so I decided to run the engine anyway, check for leaks. The Westerbeke fired right up, purred like a kitten, seawater discharge good, transmission good,  but as soon as it reached operating temperature (180 deg F) it just kept going pegging out. I shut it down, and fiddled with the radiator cap again, but still no luck. I took a few photos around the boat, cleaned everything up and went back to the house.

Saturday I finally got the chance to get back, and within 15 seconds, I had the reservoir cap removed. Now I have to run down some diesel specific collant and fill 'er back up, see if eveything is OK again.

Of course now that I have everything just about good again, the wind is out of the north at about 30 knots and the seas are 8-10 feet. Isn't that the way it always is?