Taxi Driver Online

Hi everbody,

I have a 2.7 Nissan Diesel from a black cab (I think a fairway, but could be a TX1 as the boat is about 5 years old) in a canal boat.

The engine is currently air cooled by the radiator - not a very good idea in a cramped engine room. There's a skin tank (big steel tank welded to the side of the hull) waiting to do a lovely cooling job, but it needs new hosing, as theradiator hose on the nissan is somewhat larger than the hoses from the tank. Does anybody happen to know the internal/external diameter of the nissan 2.7 radiator hose? I measured it to roughly 45mm external, but don't want to take the hose off to measure internally before I've got the replacements - catch 22!

I'd also like to replace the alternator and wondered if the brake servo on the back powered anything other than the brakes? I notice some tubing going down the automatic gearbox, and wondered what it was for.

The propellor is driven from the automatic gearbox. I think it is setup to go fowards when the gearbox is in reverse. The setup is, in terms of how it drives the boat'

Engine-> Transmission -> Gear Select 'Parking | Forwards | Very little backwards | strong backwards

Which I interpretted as: Parking | Reverse | Neutral | Drive

on the real gear selector.

If it were to disable the automatic gear change by removing the servo, that would be no bad thing (only really interested in directly driving the propellor) but I don't want to cause it damange by taking away pressure it needs!

Thanks for looking,

Patrick Vale

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Nissan 2.7D in a narrowboat with the autobox driving the propellor!

The servo is connected to the auto box and as far as I'm aware the box won't work without it.You are warned not to drive a taxi with the fan belt broken (and thus with the air pump not working) as it will lose all its oil quite quickly.
You will have to look for a thrust bearing on the prop shaft,if there isn't one the bearings in the gearbox and the box itself just aren't going to last.
Auto boxes also need a cooler,and you going to have to check if the exhaust will need to be cooled too,if it has any flexible piping it will need cooling.
I can't see the current installation passing any safety inspection and you might want to check the insurance requirements on the waters you use it on.
I'd be tempted to get a marine engineer to advise you.

That would be sound advice.

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Grandad,

Thanks for the responses. It does have an auto box cooler (mini radiator with 12v fan) which is adequate, but I would like to plumb that into the skin tank too.

It has just passed its BSS as everything is lagged, fortunately.

The advice from my marine surveyor was 'new engine'.

Could you clarify what a 'Thrust Bearing' is? There is a stern gland and flexible joint between tranmission and propellor.

The other thing I wondered was how to change or top up the fluid in the auto box? I've looked for sump nuts but to date not seen one.

Patrick

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Nissan 2.7D in a narrowboat with the autobox driving the propellor!

There should be a large bearing that takes the thrust from the prop.When going ahead the prop tries to get into the boat,going astern it tries to run away from it.The forces involved are high even on a small boat.
The normal bearings in a gearbox auto or manual) are designed to support the shaft whilst it turns they will not handle any thrust.(forces acting along the mainshaft axis).
The tank you have is for what is called raw water cooling,to cool the gear box you will be better off using a heat exchanger.
I honestly think you'd be better off looking for a proper,marinised unit.

http://www.narrowboatbuilding.com/narrowboat-engine.htm

Then flog the Nissan engine to GBC

Hello everybody,

Just a quick update on my 'self-marinised' Nissan TD27 that lives in my houseboat.

I must say, since I first met it, the more work I've done on it, the more I love it! What a stonking engine. This is definitely from a Fairway (engine number starts FX4..) and probably done 500K+ miles. With a new fan belt, second oil change, it's running like a charm. So smooth.

Since I posted last year, I have the engine indirectly cooled by the skin (keel) tank, and it's very much happier. The cab heater takes water through to a calorifier (for lots of hot water) and I'm going to install an inline thermostat to stop it holding the engine back from warming up quickly.

Glow plugs delivered and due to go in, then the tappets to adjust.

It's done a few chugs up and down the canal and while its quite noisy (hospital silencer for next Xmas!) it's not missed a beat.

I was wondering about flushing the engine.. I generally take the 'change the oil and filter really often' approach, especially when taking on an 'unknown' unit, but I came across Morris engine flushing oil, and wondered whether I should use it. At the moment, I'm buying cheap (eg asda special) oil to 'flush' the system with, but I like the idea of cleaning it up loads. I looked in the oil filler, and the rods etc looked really clean. Perhaps it doesn't need it, and I might take off 'essential' crud thats sealing something?

What do you guys think?

Thanks for looking,

Patrick

PS: I've attached a recent picture of the engine - mid re-wiring!
http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/12258993/1/td27?h=9fbc72

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Nissan 2.7D in a narrowboat with the autobox driving the propellor!

Is there a water feed into the exhaust or does it run dry (and hot) ? .

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Selling Imperial tools for old cars.

Hi,

there is no water in or around the exhaust system, the engine cooling runs through the skin tank.

Patrick

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Nissan 2.7D in a narrowboat with the autobox driving the propellor!

With a proper wet exhaust (one that has water flowing through it along with the exhaust gases) you can use rubber silencers and pipe work.

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Selling Imperial tools for old cars.

isnt marinised when it been soaked overnight in vinegar?

Hi,

A wet exhaust would be nice, but I would need to wait until the boat's out for blacking again (a few years) to drill the required raw water inlet.

Unless I can connect the skin tank system to the exhaust, but I'm not sure if it would provide sufficient cooling (45 litre system). I will have to look into that.

I would like to remove the engine entirely, strip down (the engine), new bearings etc and re-paint, but this will, as with so many boat-related plans, have to wait for the next gold-dust-like out of the water stretch.

I'm looking at the prospect of replacing the exhaust with flexible stainless steel tubing, running low in the engine bay, going to a hospital silencer, which would make the engine bay easier to navigate.

Thanks for looking and the replies!

Patrick

PS: I think you have to marinade it in vinegar and then soy-sauce because it's a Japanese unit, but probably rice vinegar would be a suitable compromise.

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Nissan 2.7D in a narrowboat with the autobox driving the propellor!

I never rated the flexy exhaust pipe,it always seemed to end up leaking and thats really bad news in a boat.
A water cooled exhaust is a better and safer bet as they don't even get warm.
Boat engines have a easier life than a car or lorry and bearings etc last much longer,just keep the oil clean and it will probably see you out.
I once saw an old cruiser that had been fitted with a lorry engine,gearbox and clutch.It was really weird having a boat go past and hear it changing gear!.

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Selling Imperial tools for old cars.