Still working on the Tung Hwa Senator refurb

Marco Flamingo said:

Just got some kind of blurb today showing me some Wirefy "Solder Seal" connectors. No need to crimp and you end up with a waterproof shrink solder connection. And a video showed that one can shrink/solder using just a Bic lighter. Dang. Gotta get me some.

So what do you think is underneath the fiberglass layer in the bottom of our bilges? Too much volume in the keel for filing with resin and fiberglass. Cement? Lead shot? My prior owner screwed into it 3/8" when mounting the bilge pump and that seems to be okay, but I'd still like to know what's in there.

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I really dont know for sure. I am assuming cement. And I assume its capped with the fiberglass in some way. If that is the case then of course that chamber would be captive as far as I can tell. And I have heard more than once where people figured out they had fluid in that area and that it would occasionally gurgle out a screw hole or crack and be quite foul. Just not somethng I want to deal with. So I try not to put holes in the keel floor.

It would be nice to know if it was lead or cement though.

I have some of those solder seal connectors. They do work but I reserve them for tiny wires for the most part since crimps are so difficult with very small wire. The regular old Wirefy shrink crimps and shrink tube are great though.

Marco Flamingo said:

Just got some kind of blurb today showing me some Wirefy "Solder Seal" connectors. No need to crimp and you end up with a waterproof shrink solder connection. And a video showed that one can shrink/solder using just a Bic lighter. Dang. Gotta get me some.

So what do you think is underneath the fiberglass layer in the bottom of our bilges? Too much volume in the keel for filing with resin and fiberglass. Cement? Lead shot? My prior owner screwed into it 3/8" when mounting the bilge pump and that seems to be okay, but I'd still like to know what's in there.

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A bic lighter is a poor instrument for those connectors. You’re better off with a heat gun or gas fired heat gun with a deflector on the end that directs the heat all the way around the joint. Even then, it will take some practice to make good connections. Not saying to steer clear, just temper your expectations. Not sure where they fall in the world of abyc either. They aren’t just solder because of the heat shrink, but might be a gray area.

Bmarler said:

A bic lighter is a poor instrument for those connectors. You’re better off with a heat gun or gas fired heat gun with a deflector on the end that directs the heat all the way around the joint. Even then, it will take some practice to make good connections. Not saying to steer clear, just temper your expectations. Not sure where they fall in the world of abyc either. They aren’t just solder because of the heat shrink, but might be a gray area.

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I purchased a bunch of those connectors as well. My concern is that if they "fuse" at such a low temperature, what happens if the resistance is high enough to heat up the wire? (which is shouldn't do if you used the correct sized wiring in the first place, but let's just suppose, shall we?) Will the material that melts, do just that in this case? Can't be good . . . . .

slowgoesit said:

I purchased a bunch of those connectors as well. My concern is that if they "fuse" at such a low temperature, what happens if the resistance is high enough to heat up the wire? (which is shouldn't do if you used the correct sized wiring in the first place, but let's just suppose, shall we?) Will the material that melts, do just that in this case? Can't be good . . . . .

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A concern I had as well. I would only consider using them in low amperage situations. There’s no way I’d use them on my 120 volt systems, or primary dc systems. Control wires would be ok.
I wonder about the re-melting of the solder. Would the heat shrink contain it and let it re-harden? The circuit should remain intact with the wire ends in a liquid solder bath.

Bmarler said:

A concern I had as well. I would only consider using them in low amperage situations. There’s no way I’d use them on my 120 volt systems, or primary dc systems. Control wires would be ok.
I wonder about the re-melting of the solder. Would the heat shrink contain it and let it re-harden? The circuit should remain intact with the wire ends in a liquid solder bath.

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This is how I use them as well. Something like signal wires or the like.

Wide view of the 1985 Tung Hwa forward bulkhead. Fuel system on the left and epoch 460ah X 2 batteries mounted to heavily fiber glassed and epoxy primed/painted boards. Batts have L brackets that are integral. My intent was to make the 97 lb batteries/mounts capable of taking a roll over. The Victron stuff is going on the right side. Had to remove tons of old equipment and rearrange stuff. The foil looking insulation is non conductive BTW. Not much room to work with on my little boat. Still have 5 or 6 components to mount and then cut, crimp and mount the 3/0 and 4/0 Ancor cable.

Been a while since I posted an update. Not because I haven't been continuously working on the boat but because videos get in the way of working on the boat..lol. But I am all done with the Lithium, Victron and rewiring. I was able to video most of the process. I probably removed 30lbs of unused wiring and found some massive surprises along the way. For instance, in preparation of the inverter/charger install and ELCI I tested to AC leakage through shore power. The max allowed I think is 30 mA. When I measured mine I had 4 AMPS!! So that had to be corrected. Found many wires goin to...nowhere! But I now know the wiring of the boat very well. and the Lifepo4/Victron is up and running.
This video is a boring but necessary video documenting some of the unglamorous parts. Selecting spaces and mounting equipment. But I figured it might be useful to a very limited number of people for a DIY install.

Its been some time since any progress has been shown. Not because I am not making progress but because life gets in the way and videos are a PITA..lol. Several hurricanes and a long vacation and other things delayed. But we are back on track.

After Hurricane Helene and the subsequent power outages I was forced to use my old Westerbeke 4.4kw WMD diesel generator to charge the batteries. It was a good time to test this gen out since it only had light use previously. Battery charging is quite a power hog and it really loads the gen. I found that when the gen was loaded 2/3 or more it really started to smoke. And I actually wanted to load it more but was a bit worried about the old unit. So I kept loads to less than 3000 watts, which just adds to run time. It smoked bad enough that my dock mates would look at the boat like "are you sure your not on fire" but didnt want to say anything..lol.

Once dock power came on I decided to take 2 spare, old injectors and rebuild them to aid in troubleshooting the smoke issue. The nature of the smoke was that it was blackish, smelt of diesel and would give off a light sheen barely visible on the water. That along with the fact that it started slow, knocked lightly in an irregular manner nd the entire gen had irregular vibration on its mounts led me to suspect injectors first. Possible exhaust mixing elbow second.

With a little research I figured out the Westerbeke W13 4.4KW WMD is based off the Mitsubishi K2C engine found around the world. Westerbeke wanted $400 for each injector. With some research I found that you could get just the injector nozzles at the cost of 6 for $40. The nozzle is the critical part. The rest of the parts are much less critical. I rebuilt the spare injectors using new nozzles and flow tested them with good results. Put these rebuilt injectors in the gen and it fired right up and immediately ran better. But it still had about 1/3 of the smoke remaining. Better but not desired. After and oil flush and oil change with a bit of additive I fired it up and figured out I could run the air conditioner plus the hot water heater for a good load. After 20 minutes the smoke was greatly reduced. After 2 hours the smoke was nearly gone and was at an acceptable level. And the engine ran GREAT!. Herts on the gen was very stable to within .1 to .2 loaded. RPM used to hunt up and down up to .5 or .6 hertz prior.

I took the original injectors home to flow test and one of them was very very bad and would continuously dribble fuel. I suspect the oil was likely diluted and the cylinders/valves etc had carbon build up. I suspect the more I run it loaded the better it will get. Anyways I thought I would share this one because it turns out...rebuilding Bosch injectors is super cheap and super easy.

Cool write up, and enjoyed the video as well! You're doing great work. I need to do this on our new to us Mainship 34 now.

slowgoesit said:

Cool write up, and enjoyed the video as well! You're doing great work. I need to do this on our new to us Mainship 34 now.

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I figured out running with the AC and the hot water heater on I can run loaded as long as I need to. After just another hour of run time the smoke has all but disappeared. The other day I went down and added the DC to DC charger for the lithium. I have the option to use the Generator alternator or the engine. So I discharged the batteries a bit, ran the gen and recharged. Was getting 100 amps from the multiplus, 30 from the IP22 charger and 30 from the Victron DC2DC (derated from 50 amp to 30 amp to go easy on the gen 55 amp alternator) plus some ships systems. This put a HUGE load on the gen of about 3500 watts out of the 4400 available. Brought the hertz down the 59.8 or so. Very loaded for that little sucker. There was just a small amount of smoke that would probably be normal. So I am very satisfied with it.