Firstly let me wish all my dearest readers a very happy New Year and hope they had a relaxing and enjoyable festive period. Mine has been suitable relaxed as I have been away from Zee for a while and despite the worry of the rotten hull giving way and me coming back to find 2 masts sticking up from the water where once there was a slightly rusty (if good looking) barge, I have been able to relax and enjoy time away.

That said, there have been problems rattling around my brain, the main of which has been the water leak from the engine injector plugs. This means that regardless of whether I can get a dry dock slot I probably can’t get there without the risk of flooding the engine room which, in general, is to be avoided.

Anyway, I have been in touch with the lovely people at the Kromhout Museum in Amsterdam to ask them questions about sizes and specs for the injector plugs on the engine (3 out of 4 of which are leaking to a greater or lesser extent). They went above and beyond and actually removed an injector plug from their 2H3 and sent me sizes and photos of the unit. This was very useful as it meant I could work out which of the nuts to undo in which order.

The Kromhout Museum's injector assembly. The main steel body screws into the inner cylinder wall. The copper pipe, packed with gasket/'O' ring material is then put onto the shaft with the washer then the large brass nut to compress it. The last nut goes through the injector line and 'voila', all done... It's a pretty simple and robust system for which I am grateful.

I descended into the engine room with assorted spanners and sockets and found that the nuts were metric and not some bizarre, now-defunct Imperial size. After gingerly removing the oil feed line and loosening the larger of the 2 nuts (which is the compression nut for the rubber gasket) the injector was free from its housing but refused to release its grip on the outer cylinder wall as it was caked in place with gunk. A few minutes with a thin flexible screwdriver and the it was free…

As you can see the rubber gasket has deformed and has suffered over the years. This was the only one which wasn't leaking so I dread to think what the others are like...

Compared to the one taken from the Kromhout Museum 2H3, this one is looking a little battle weary, but the main injector assembly is in good condition which is a relief. Gaskets and bits of copper pipe should be a relatively easy remedy.

It would appear that my fears of having to machine a new core plug were misplaced, which is surprising as it seemed everything else I touched at the end of last year seemed to turn to warm, soft dog poop in my hands. From the pieces I have it would appear that the rubber ‘O’ ring/gasket needs replacing as does the washer which is forced onto the top of said ‘O’ ring as this creates the seal over the outer water jacket with the injector actually screwing into the inner cylinder jacket. There is a piece of copper pipe which sits around the ‘O’ ring which keeps it contained and helps to keep the seal on the outer jacket. I think I will look for some form of gasket seal as well so that when I replace it I will have an adhesive seal on the rubber/metal junction as well.

From this it seems that the 2 plugs which are leaking the most have just got ‘O’rings which have finally given up the ghost over time. So for now it is onto google to find some 38mm OD copper pipe, someone with a lathe locally who can cut the pipe clean and flat and a bespoke gasket maker to discuss the best sort of rubber to make the ‘O’ rings from. I would guess a natural rubber would be fine given the age of the engine, but always good to know if there are newer, superior materials out there.

I managed to get the very front and very rear injectors out but the 2 in the middle are going to be more difficult (obviously - I’d hate a job to be straightforward). As you can see from the picture, in between the 2 cylinders is the oil reservoir which will need draining, the 2 feed pipes disconnecting and then the reservoir lifting off and out of the way in order to access the 2 injectors which face each other. I have a feeling there will be skimmed knuckles and much bad language in my near future…

In between the 2 cyllinders you can see the greeny/blue oil reservoir which needs draining, disconnecting from the 2 feed lines in yellow then lifting out before you can get access to the other injectors. If you go from the other side you have to remove the exhaust manifolds and disconnect them from the main exhaust system. I am hoping this is the easier way...

As for other stuff, the hull internal derusting has been halted due to some iffy bits of steel having been discovered and more will be done once I am not relying on the hull to keep the water out and I have a welder on site! I got the blanks for some of the portholes and skylights which I will weld in place over the coming days. I have lost the backing plate from my angle grinder and much like trying to find a politician with a backbone and fully functioning moral compass, it eludes me. I may have to bite the bullet and purchase another grinder (branded so I can get bl$$dy spares) so that I can push on with the welding.

Until the engine is back in one piece and we are mobile again there is not a huge amount of point in chasing the crane for the masts and dry dock too hard (although it would be good to get some potential dates in the diary).

Until next time where I will be tapping the keyboard with skinned knuckles and a widened vocabulary of offensive words, I bid you adieu and hope that 2017 is better than 2016. We hope to be on the barge by Christmas 2017 so as the Baron Von Richtoffen said in Blackadder Goes Forth’s ‘Private Plane’, “Zer’s no pressure….”