Today was a beach day for my guests and I thought I’d use the calm marina and air-conditioned comfort with shore-power to finally change the oil in both the generator as well as on the main engine. After they departed in the rental car for the closest sandy beach I got out my tools and started the procedure. The generator is a bit of work, one needs to remove the soundproofing first, then free up and open the oil drain tube in order to use the manual pump to suck out the old oil. Once that step is complete the oil filter has to be removed and that, unfortunately, is a messy job since it is located low on the engine and access is a bit tricky and it spills all the oil remaining in the engine. I used a plastic bowl to catch the old oil, but enough still splashed to make a mess that had to be cleaned up. The oil-filter removal tool that I’d purchased didn’t fit into the confined space but I managed to punch a hole in the filter side to get a bit of leverage for removal.
Filling the new oil into the engine and getting level just right was quickly done and I attacked the VW main engine oil change. Since the engine is still under warranty I had to use the single oil that VW approves and that is almost impossible to get here in the Caribbean, but I’d brought sufficient quantities from the USA for two oil changes and top-ups and was good to go. The engine has an oil-change system with an extraction hose and an electric pump; but the switch for the pump is located on the engine electric panel which is rather inaccessible until part of the galley shelving is removed and a side-panel removed. I had to wait for Wolfgang to return from the beach to finish the removal process since the hose and switch are on opposite sides of the engine and I didn’t want to inadvertently pump oil into the engine pan or bilges.
Once they’d returned from the beach Wolfgang helped me drain the oil from the engine, over 5l of the stuff and the oil filter change was very easy since the filter is on top of the engine and the filter gets removed by pulling upward – minimizing any spills. I opened up the oil fill on top of the engine right next to oil filter and easily accessible and used a funnel to pour the new oil into the engine. After the first 500ml the funnel overflowed and I immediately knew exactly what I’d done, much to my chagrin!
I was certain that I’d gotten the wrong fill and put engine oil into the water coolant system! I sat back, cleaned up the spilled oil and debated whether I should shout out, bang my fists against something or just pull out the bottle of single-malt despite the early hour. In the end I did none of the above but went topsides to explain to my guests that our plans of leaving the next morning had just been drastically altered then went back to the engine again. The coolant system on the VW engine is a closed one without a reservoir and the fill cap isn’t the typical pressure-relief one, plus it was next to the oil filter so my mistaking it was only pretty stupid rather than being absolutely idiotic, the oil-fill fill cap is in the middle of the engine top and recessed so as to be invisible from the angle of the access port. I got out the oil-extraction pump and carefully sucked off from the top of the fluid level, trying to get the oil floating on top sucked away. Soon I was sucking up red coolant and then I carefully poured water in again until the system was full and repeated the procedure several times. Then I went next door to ask the skipper of Susanne af Stockholm if there was any alternative to draining and flushing the system and he stated that there wasn’t. I went down to the yard with Wolfgang to get new coolant before the stores closed and the people at the shop also confirmed that a serious flush was in order but also gave me a couple of hundred milliliters of a flushing solution which they handled as if it were highly caustic (which it is) and cautioned that I’d have to dilute it and should be very careful when using it. Armed with the cleaning agent and 12l of coolant, we went back aboard and I cracked the boat manual for the engine open to discover that it made absolutely no mention at all about draining the coolant, just explaining how to fill it and check the fluid level. But I’d acquired a copy of the detailed shop manual for the engine and it showed a draining hose on the left-hand side of the engine.
I spent hours with flashlight, mirror, and hand-held camera looking for that d******d drain with no luck. Wolfgang and Barbara did the same to no avail and even Sophia assisted (although she kept on “discovering” it to be disappointed when I explained that she’d found some big red electric connections rather than a small black hollow hose. I ended up removing the fuel filter assembly and part of the electric panel to access the area and finally saw that the manual did not depict the actual engine layout and I had no idea at all on how to drain the coolant.
I had written e-mails to VW, Cummins, Jeanneau and to my dealer and installer in the USA asking if they had expertise and knowledge but my only reply was from Mark Sims who was looking into it. By this time it was late and I was tired and frustrated so we called it a night, went ashore for a late dinner and then returned for another night at the docks in Guadeloupe.
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