Props!

 July 2021:  Props

When we were running the boat home from South Carolina, there was a load imbalance between the two engines. The port engine was doing more work - running at higher boost, and consuming a bit more fuel.  The previous owner didn't have a problem with that, but things like this just drive me crazy.  Over time, the port fuel tank would run down faster than the starboard tank, and this discrepancy was exacerbated if the generator was running, since it also happens to draw from the port tank on this boat.

Once I had the props scanned by my local Propscan shop, the reasons became obvious.  Fist, the starboard prop had one blade a bit of of whack.  Second, the starboard prop overall was carrying about 1/2" less pitch than the port side.  The props on this boat are specified as 28" x 42.5", indicating a 28" diameter and a 42.5" pitch.  Scan results showed that the port prop was close to 43" in pitch (average value), while the starboard prop was closer to 42".

I had the shop adjust both props to a class S tolerance, and nudge the starboard prop up to 43" in pitch.




Aren't they beautiful?  I'll post my fuel burn and speed results in a later post, once I have all the other maintenance items completed, but I can state that load and fuel consumption, side to side, are now within just a couple percent of one another.

On to the shaft seals.......

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