Geoff

Good evening gentlemen. 
Hope all your fishing is going well 👍
So, a little bit about me seeing as I've skipped the intro...
Still very new to lure fishing for bass. Fished most of my life but never any serious salt water efforts until a year ago. I love the sense of freedom sea fishing brings and the watercraft involved with an enormous body of water such as the sea. 
Report from today...
Booked a couple of days off so I could take full advantage of the time of year and today was the first good crack at it. 
I had a couple of hours of shit tide to use up this morning so popped to Southsea to chuck a seeker about for a laugh. Found a couple of manky gars and then headed over to a new mark that me @Tadpole have been having a pop at. Started covering ground over features with my patch 125 and a kahki gravity stick with the paddle tail. The first fish of around the high 40s came on the stick with just a slow straight retrieve and nothing added to it but the rattle. The second fish exactly the same only this one was WAY better! A nice big heavy lump that kited around me about 8ft away just to show me everything before the hook popped and came flying past my head....FUCK!!! I dont need to describe the devastation do I.
Long story short, all was redeemed with 8 fish throughout the day and every one on the gravity stick. All high 40s apart from a couple that were better including a 60cm PB.
@Tadpoleturned up last minuite and done his usual thing of catching the biggen and then casting his patch a million miles into the distance over and over again for fun 😉
All in all in all, probably the best days fishing I've ever had 👍
Cheers for reading 
 
 
 

So you fancy having a crack at valve clearances? It makes no odds as to whether its a 4 stroke outboard or diesel inboard, principals are the same...... It is always better to have clearances set at the top of their clearance
First of all there are 3 general types of tappet arrangement;
Hydraulic These are great as no scheduled maintenance. Should the lifter fail then its a replacement job. This style relies on oil pressure to operate, so if you start getting rattly tappets, turn it off, you are short of oil.... Personally, I've never had one fail, but I have had issues when they've all been replaced. Ended up towing vehicle about in gear to get enough oil pressure to expand them!!!
Bucket and shim These come in two styles, shim under bucket and shim over bucket. Over buckets are easier to do, as normally there is a valve tool to create enough gap between cam and bucket to remove shim. On some engines these have been known to spit shims out at extreme performance conditions. The under buckets have no such issues, but generally these are a cam out job! So this will mean new belt kit for the modern engines.
The trick is to measure all the gaps before removing shims, then hopefully the sizes are still readble, otherwise its micrometer time, or the very least, a good set of verniers. Normally shims come in 0.05mm increments.
Once measured you can then workout what size shim you need to replace with. If you cant find a shimming chart then basic maths is required.....
Locknut and Screw Ultimately the easiest type to deal with. Some screws have a square drive on the end and there are adjuster tools to make the job easier.....
 
Soooo, now we know about the different types, what is it we are trying to achieve? The basic idea is that as the engine warms up, parts expand, including the valves. So to get a nice seal when the valve is closed we need a gap between the valve and cam or rocker. If too tight, then when the engine warms, you will hear it drop a cylinder or more out... This is why it's important for engine to be stone cold
So next we need to know when to adjust each valve in turn. This is where some understanding of how the engine works comes in. You need the cylinder on firing stroke at TDC. So if you put the engine on its TDC marks, then either cylinder 1 or 4 will be on firing stroke. For an overhead cam engine, the cylinder with the cam lobes pointing away from the valve is on firing stroke. So once that cylinder is adjusted, turn the motor through 360 degrees and the other cylinder will be on firing stroke. If you turn the crank through 180 degrees, the cylinders 2/3 will come in to play, repeat process, turn through 360 again for the 2nd cylinder of that pairing.
For engines with rockers and pushrods, as you aproach TDC, watch the valves, you will have one cyinder where the exhaust is closing and the inlet is opening, this cylinder is "on the rocks" (rocking between valve open/valve closed), so the other cylinder is on firing stroke.
 
If you know the firing order, life gets a bit simpler to understand what the engine is doing. Cylinders 1 and 4 go up and down together and are 180 degrees to 2 and 3, so firing will either be 1,3,4,2 or 1,2,4,3. For all 4 cylinders to go through a firing stroke, the crank will turn through 720 degrees. With a 4 stroke, a piston goes up on compression stroke, down on power stroke, up on exhaust stroke  then down on induction stroke.... Easily remembr as Suck, squeeze, bang, blow..... Lust like a 2 bit hooker!!
You will also need to know the spec for clearances, and if a shim engine, a shim chart is useful....
Tools required Am going to assume you have access to the valves already, so you will need:
A socket/ratchet/spanner to fit the crank pulley to turn the crank
Feeler gauges
Spanner and driver/pliers or adjuster tool for locknut and screws
verniers or micrometer for bucket and shim engines
Chalk for marking pullies (makes it easier to see)
Head Torch
Obviously the list is not exhaustive as different engines an have skightly different requirements

PB for me, I was too excited to take it in 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Id caught it slack water at eve of day, didn’t know it was on until I saw this mouth. It then decided to try and head back in. Was rather relieved to see it in the net 

Uptight ? Me? Nah I’m happy for the big guy, he’s been wanting this for at least 18 months. 

He’ll of a scrap in a fast tide 🤣🤣🤣🤣
It came home, got sold for a fiver 

Not caught one for a couple of seasons now, and yes I’d had a hat on most of the day. 
 

Should have added she was returned alive and well,  small amount of recovery before a big flap of the wings and she was on her way. 

Luckily got an invite on a friends boat Saturday,  with the massive tides we opted to have a tester at inner Nab.  There were some reports of Unicorns (cod) in the solent but we stuck to the plan expecting the solent to be weedy and a struggle with the size of tide. 
 
Quite lumpy when we got to the mark and if the tides were smaller would have run to the solent but hey ho nothing ventured nothing gained. 
 
Not much to report really a constant stream of straps, dogs and whiting with a double figure undulate showing on a live whiting being the best fish of the day. 
 
Counted over 20 boats out there with a few moving about so guessing the cod did not read the plan. Did hear of a couple appearing in the solent so maybe we made the wrong decision but thats easy to say with hindsight. 
Didn't bother with pictures mainly because I didn't want to drop the phone in the drink but more importantly we didn't get anything we deemed worthy of a picture, the Ray was released alongside so not bloated and weighed. 
Calmed nicely just after lunch with a bit of sun coming through but the bites dried up so we sacked it and headed in around 3pm 

More than likely as I used to go there all the time helping him with the build of his cat

Surely you must almost be there by now then ?

Here is my guide 🙂 
 
TOOLS EXPLAINED
DRILL PRESS : A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.
WIRE WHEEL : Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, 'Oh sh*t'
DROP SAW : A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.
PLIERS : Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.
BELT SANDER : An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.
HACKSAW : One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle... It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
MOLE GRIPS : Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
OXYACETYLENE TORCH : Used almost entirely for lighting on fire various flammable objects in your shop. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.. 
 TABLE SAW : A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.
HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK : Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.
BAND SAW : A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.
TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST : A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.
PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER : Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.
STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER : A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.
CROWBAR : A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.
HOSE CUTTER : A tool used to make hoses too short.
HAMMER : Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.
STANLEY KNIFE : Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.
ADJUSTABLE WRENCH: aka "Another hammer", aka "the Swedish Nut Lathe", aka "Crescent Wrench".  Commonly used as a one size fits all wrench, usually results in rounding off nut heads before the use of pliers.  Will randomly adjust size between bolts, resulting in busted buckles, curse words, and multiple threats to any inanimate objects within the immediate vicinity.
 Son of a bitch TOOL : Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling 'Son of a b*tch' at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.

i am nameing the boat Old outlaw,
 
still waiteing for one coil to arive so i can start woork on the outboard shhould be any day i donot belive how exsited i am

I can't criticise... I was using the Command Prompt for stitching MP3's together last week... it's the most reliable way to do it that doesn't involve uploading your files to some random site.

Thanks for the replies, the boat is in SW Scotland now, the winter fishing up there isn't great.  Also, my insurance  covers 6 months on the mooring and 6 months ashore. 
No, I won't be trailing the boat, other than from storage to mooring. Towing a boat that size with my car is OK on normal roads but I wouldn't like to do too many launch and recoveries without a 4x4

Most likely. It is a lovely boat so can't wait to get it fixed up and out on the sea.

I have one somewhere Andy, but I would like another 3 please (my boat name remember)☺️. Thanks. Geoff.

To true right Pete. On one of the forums I use I had a line at the bottom of each post stating " common sense is not so common". Geoff.
I still do not understand the little rectangles!!! Geoff.☺️

Wow that's a fair trek.
We have done Alderney and Guernsey on lads long weekends away.  I think the last trip to Alderney cost us 450 litres in diesel but that was for 4 days.  1 day wreck hoping over, 2 days on the banks then wreck hoping home again.  I reckon we use around 2 litres per mile on an average trip.  My last boat was a Karnic 2460 single engine we used about 100 litres less for the same type of trip

Before you reply Andy, please don't say that God never made one!!! Geoff. WINK.

They still are lovely boats in my opinion, but that is of course a bit biased as I bought an old one which i still have and is moored on the river Nene at Peterbrough. this boat has been retro fitted with a Volvo 165HP diesel (not by me), however the petrol version was far more fun, but very juicy. We went from Northney to Brighton and then to Fecamp (and back of course), no fuel use logged, but I reckon something of the order of 1.5mpg. Geoff.☺️

They were lovely boats Geoff, I can remember drooling over those in my younger years.  Agree with the fuel log comment but its a habit (read as obsession) I can't seem to shift

Hi Martin, it is great to hear that your family have a lot of pleasure with your boat as well. Back in the days when I used to zoom about in my then new 200HP petrol Fairline Carrera, I found it better NOT to keep a fuel log!!! Geoff.

Amazing difference, I think she looks larger and so much nicer in white. Geoff.❤️

A  very nice smart looking boat. Thanks for posting. Geoff.❤️

You can’t see the other 8 in the rocket rack on the roof either.... 😬😬😬😬
So you’re in good company 😉