A Determination Deferred

I realize this is a bit crazy, but you live and learn.

I bought the A30 nearly six years ago (for a good price) and trusted the seller to represent the details accurately.  I knew that the newer Westerbeke diesel had 241 hours on it.  I checked the oil, coolant, and ensured that it had been winterized properly.  The prop shaft bore a tag indicating that the yard had winterized the engine and put her away, so I wasn't too concerned.

Well, all these years later, after returning to working on her, I decided it was past time to know that I had an operational engine before I invested any more time or money into the project.  (Crazy, I know - not that I decided it was time, but that it took so long).

I'd pulled the engine in the fall and had it sitting on a homemade cart in the garage, so I wheeled it toward the garage door and began getting it ready to run.  That meant first cleaning off all of the nasty fiberglass dust that had accumulated during my interior demolition phase.  After an hour with a toothbrush and the Shop-Vac, it was nicely"detailed" and ready for more important checks, which included inspecting and replacing the raw water impeller (with two cracked vanes), inspecting and installing the primary fuel filter (some idiot had removed the filter element, entirely trusting a fuel/water separator type filter that was plumbed between the tank and the engine), rigging up the coolant recovery tank, and double checking fluid levels in the engine and transmission.

I plumbed the fuel lines into a fresh tank of diesel and the water intake into a bucket of water, wired up the battery and engine control panel, then proceeded to crank the engine with the engine shut-off lever depressed in an attempt to circulate oil through the engine before the thing (hopefully) started, which was the advice I got from a Westerbeke tech.  I repeated the cranking a few times until I thought (hoped) there was sufficient oil circulated to minimize the likelihood of damaging the engine on startup.

It was time to give it a go for real.  Here's what happened:

I ran the engine up to temp, then shut it down and changed the oil.  I started it back up and let it run until it was back up to temp.  Everything seemed to check out ok.  My only concern is that the oil pressure didn't seem to rise as much as I thought it would/should when I eventually raised the RPM.  The manual states that 15-40 psi is the normal range for the engine, but I only saw about 30 psi at RPM.  Perhaps I have nothing to worry about, but I ordered a mechanical oil pressure gauge that will allow me to find out if the panel gauge reading is accurate or not.

At any rate, I'm relieved that it looks like it's safe to move on with the project.