Any updates? Would like to see the monster throwing some rooster.

Long time no update. I have had too much too hard repair project in work that I didn't have energy to work on Fountain. All free time is used on water or some happenings.

We made sea (lake) trial few weeks ago but boat had some problems. Hydraulics work now somehow when oil was cold, little warm up and pump didn't have enough flow. Transmission have internal leaks that are normal in automatic transmissions valvebodies. Low engine rpm either raw water pump or accessory drive stops when flow go down, this was an aware problem because before hydraulic motors was in series and now in parallel. I bought bigger pump and today try assembly it but no success yet, nut is too tall and bottom to drive shaft, need to shorten tomorrow.


Pump is in very tight place but can change without major disassembly.



New pump is little taller but luckily fit in place.
Another problem in test drive was engine oil pressure loss when oil warm to 75C, it should be 10-12bar in Transmash at high rpm but it drops to 4bar. I think piston oil coolers open too soon or some modified valve in Volvo D13 filter housing are not working right. I will put ball valves between hoses so next test drive I can shut piston cooling and filter housing return line to test where all flow goes. Idle pressure is still 1.5bar so I don't think engine have big internal leak, then there will be zero pressure at idle, could be some control valve problem.

Transmission, splitbox, drives and steering work pretty good. Boat handle pretty good at low speeds, we can't try it on plane because lack of oil pressure.







In Saaristo Poker run finnish swan get her little chicks to see 42' and 47' Fountains. They really didn't care straight pipes, people and noise.

Anything new to report?

hydraulic problems are solved now with bigger pump. oil pressure problem is still there but too hot in Finland now to do anything than boating with my old boat. Oil is broke down to very low viscosity some reason that I don't understand. I have to change oil and filters first.

Did the engine oil break down? How many minutes has the engine run with that oil?

thats a big bummer on the oil pressure,,we know you'll solve that problem..cool project.

Are you sure that the motor oil is not diluted with diesel fuel?

Engine have run about two or three hours without load testing and idle driving in boat. I have not change oil after engine build, there is excess pistonand lifter coating stuff in oil too. Small amount of coolant got in oil pan when I take it apart and I forgot whole thing before first start. I have took it out from dry sump tank drain valve many times and there are no more coolant in oil but it could be broke oil. Oil I use is Mobil M430 ship engine straight sae40, it's recommend to fast diesel engines.
here is the oil sample, listen audio it sound like water when shaked, not like sae40, oil is cold, like 30c because in Finland outdoor temp is 30C

Sorry buddy. I'm sure you will get it figured out. This incredible build will have a happy ending!!

Seems like it is time for an oil change in any case.

Then you will also have a baseline.