Train wreck halts boat work

Here's an item for a book that should be written about bizarre boating events: After finally finding a rare (and costly) replacement exhaust mixing elbow, delivery is stalled by a train derailment in Illinois. I am almost afraid to ask what other new obstacles might arise to keep us hobbled at the dock.

Here's a picture of the beautiful new part which, until recently, was on the way from California to Ms. Bettencourt in Georgia via a UPS rail shipment.

News of the delay came from the UPS website which offered this rather matter-of-fact bulletin about my shipment's eastward progress: "Hodgkins, IL, train derailment."

I had this image of my bright blue casting sticking out of a snowbank by the railroad tracks a little south of Lake Michigan.

Anyway, I am relatively confident UPS and the railroad will sort it out and the part will get here eventually.

While we wait, there is work to be done.

The Kubota troubleshooters had loosened the exhaust manifold, which meant that the manifold gaskets needed to be replaced before things could start to go back together.

Removing the manifold revealed a nasty accumulation of rust, soot, grease and other stuff that begged for cleanup.

This is also a good time to take the big casting into the shop for degreasing, a scrub-down and a paint job.

The hardest part of getting this power plant back together will likely be wrestling the exhaust hose and the new elbow to the back of the exhaust manifold. The wire-reinforced hose is fairly rigid and there is a sharp upward turn from bilge level to the elbow at the back of the engine. The last time this job was done, it took three of us two days and many bloody knuckles.

This time, there's a different strategy. While the two-inch exhaust hose appears to be sound, it is in a stressful location and has been subjected to a lot of heat. So, the plan is to replace the four foot segment of hose that runs between the exhaust elbow and the muffler.

We will pass the new hose through its access port in the back of the engine box, and affix the new exhaust elbow to the hose. Then we'll bring the elbow and hose to the end of the exhaust manifold as a single assembly. This should give us better leverage to curve the new hose into place without kinking. If it works out, all that remains will be to trim the other end of the new hose to length to fit into the muffler.

That wooden plug you see in the end of the hose will be moved to the inboard end of the muffler when we withdraw the old hose. This is because the exhaust outlet at the transom is half-submerged on the water side. Bad things could happen without a stopper firmly in place.

The wayward exhaust elbow is now scheduled for delivery Tuesday. That means there is a possibility we could have everything back together and in working order before Christmas.