Well that was a struggle!
After 6-7 months of work with Befur outside the house, up in the fells we finally finished and launched her, on Thursday!!
Roger C at the helm, Louise at the mooring lines, Malcolm head-down making the engine run, Olwyn (neighbour) watching on, and Befur floating again!!!
I’m falling behind! No progress update since January – sorry.
We have been working hard to get her ready for re-entering the water… This winter’s workslist has turned into quite a major refit.
The list below shows the work we are undertaking, and all is completed except installing the engine and the work on mast and rigging.
New bulkhead, plate condenser and circulating pump.
As a last post on the subject of correcting the valve timing on the Leak Compound in Befur (prior to “sea trials” later in the year), here we will look at the results from the static (blowing) valve timing tests, and compare to the results prior to rebuild. But first a video of it running on air with the new timing…
I just updated this post to improve the pictures and ordering to allow simpler comparisons between old and new timing data.
This time we are looking at how to fix the problems with the Leak’s valve gear design. This is now part of our Leak Hints and Tips section on the known errors or problems with Leak design……
As we get to the end of January 2022, the tuning/rebuild/shopping of Befur’s engine continues, once this is complete we can get on with the list of hull and fittings-related work. But it seems we should at least explain what work the last few months have contained…
HP valve Bobbin ready for measurment
The next stage in the refurbishment and sorting of the valve timing issues is to pay some attention to the HP Valve problems.
A last quick post for the day, then it’s back to the cold workshop….
The pump drive on Befur has been an on-going source of angst and failure… So we redesigned and rebuilt it!
This appears to be much better, and pending final cleaning, plating etc. here is a video of it in action on the bench!
The Digital Engine Indicator
As my first job was working as an Instrument Technician for Shell Research in the Applied Physics department, I became interested in the measurement of physical systems… thus I was interested in Engine Indicators as a tool for evaluating engine performance, and measuring valve events and gas-flow in steam and very large marine diesels.
An Engine Indicator – Wikipedia Commons Image
Given my later life in computing I concluded that a digital version of one of these instruments could be made to evaluate the performance of Befur’s engine.
I penned an article for The SBA’s Funnel magazine, but the publication of this has been delayed, so I am publishing it here for those interested.
It’s still a prototype, and in need of further development, but it has provided some interesting data – which at least prompted further analysis and investigations into what happens inside Befur’e engine…
As you may have seen from earlier posts, and here we are embarking on a major winter “shopping” of Befur, to address a number of problems.
Measuring the valve timing on the bench
One of these tasks is to analyse and reset the valve timing of the engine to improve efficiency and performance. Continue reading
Well, we have been working on the list we made in the last post, and have some positive news, and some better understanding of the problems…
I spent a couple of days with the engine on the bench and a dial indicator attempting to find and measure the wear or absence of same…. We have a page or two of measurements…
Befur home for winter work
Well, Befur is back in the fells for some winter work.
The pull-out and trip home was uneventful, thanks to Simon and Dean’s help, and the garage finally finding and fixing the leak in the Land Rover’s turbo pipes! Much less smoke and much more go!
We have a tentative list of work we want to do, and the game plan is to try to get back into the water before Heggerscale freezes (the lake is a milder climate to over winter in)! However, as I write this post, and document the work, it seems questionable if we will finish the work in 2022!!!
The work falls into several groups, some just inspection/maintenance and some fixing/improving: Continue reading
SY Befur 