Maintenance - Colon, Port Cristobal, Panama

When you have some down time to kill, there is nothing better for you or your boat than performing some maintenance on both. I've been out riding my bicycle for some leg and breathing exercise and I've also been doing some needed work to keep my boat in proper shape.

One of the most important maintenance operations you should perform regularly is changing the oil and filters on you boat's engine and the power generator.

This was always a necessary evil I dreaded on my last boat. It was messy and you had to screw yourself into different contorted positions to be able to get to the outlet bolt on the oil pan or suck the oil out from the dipstick, dripping old, dirty oil all over in the process. I hated it, and sometimes I would make up an excuse to put it off until the next hundred hours.

That is not good maintenance procedure and could even be harmful to the healthy life span of a diesel engine.

What a difference a good idea makes and now, the almost pleasurable experience of changing the oil for the first time using the built-in "Oil Exchanger" on the new Hunter 49.

You first have to mark the oil pump for the sucking-out side and then the pumping-in side of the pump. That's easy, you just turn on the pump and run it while covering the tube end with your thumb. You feel if it 'sucks' or 'pumps'. I marked it "E" for empty and "F" for full, pretty self-explanatory even when you're tired out in a heavy sea.

Then you have to follow the hoses and see which hose goes to the oil pan of the engine and mark it with 'Eng" and the other hose must then go to the generator. I checked that the hose actually went into the generator housing and marked it "Gen".

Then you read in the manuals how much oil capacity each engine holds and prepare an empty canister or old used oil jug for the proper amount. The main engine holds about 5 quarts or a gallon and a quarter, the generator holds only 3 quarts. I found 3 empty containers in the trash and went about sucking the old engine oil out with the new exchanger.

It was so easy, just attach the 90 degree bend plastic tubing to the "E" hose and put the other end into the empty container, turn the switch on the oil pump to "E" and watch all the old, dirty oil magically fill the container. Now the same with the generator and both are emptied in about 3 - 5 minutes.

Cap the containers and put them out for proper disposal. Now, get the new gallon containers of the recommended weight of oil and put the same 90 degree bend plastic tubing in the new oil container and turn the oil pump switch to "F" and watch the new oil container empty magically into the oil pan and engine of each. Check the dip sticks for the proper fill line and you're done with the oil change.

Nothing left to do but spin the old oil filter off each engine and spin on a new one, but remember to put a little new oil on the gasket and then spin only hand tight. I ran each engine for a couple of minutes then shut them down and checked the oil mark on the dipstick again. Both needed just a little more new oil, so open the oil filler cap on top of each engine and add the needed amount.

Finished until next time. I won't dread that anymore. It was even kind of fun!