Siskiwit is powered by a Westerbeke (Perkins) 4-107. Over the winter of 2013, I engaged Pierside Boat Yard in Charleston, a Westerbeke dealer, to tear down the engine and replace the wet sleeves and O rings after finding engine coolant (gycol) mixed with the lube oil. See below for photos of the job.
The 4-107 was designed so that the owner can perform regular maintenance chores without an undue investment of time and money. Being absolutely diligent on these tasks will stretch the number of years before a rebuild is necessary.
Typical maintenance tasks include:
- Changing the lubricating oil,
- Cleaning the air filter,
- Changing the fuel filters,
- Bleeding the fuel system,
- Draining the water separator,
- Polishing the fuel and tank periodically, and
- Having your mechanic torque the engine every 500 hours.
The engine manual is available as a PDF (5MB).