Any tips on removing Yanmar 3GMD from Freedom 32

Engines, Drive trains, Propellers, Steering, Ground Tackle and other mechanical system
User avatar
mtryon
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 7:56 am
Location: Southern California, USA

Any tips on removing Yanmar 3GMD from Freedom 32

Post by mtryon »

I am re-powering my Freedom 32. I've got my old Yanmar 3GM all disconnected but it's still sitting under the galley sinks on it's fiberglass engine beds (motor mounts unbolted from the beds). I thought I'd just post here and see if there are any tips, tricks, or suggestions from anyone with experience removing a diesel from a Freedom 32 (Hoyt). Thanks!
Freedom 32 - Hull #15 - "BAMBOLEO" - Southern California, USA
Morgan 41 CC "Classic" - 10 year live-aboard
Rawson 30 - "La Cabriole" - Circumnavigator -- but not by me... :(

User avatar
Rick Simonds
Posts: 144
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2008 8:49 pm
Location: Tallahassee, FL

Re: Any tips on removing Yanmar 3GMD from Freedom 32

Post by Rick Simonds »

You could remove the alternator, starter, heat exchanger, etc and make everything smaller and lighter. The head comes off the block with maybe 20 bolts. It probably weighs 80-ish lbs by itself and the remaining block would probably be under 200-ish lbs and almost a foot shorter top to bottom.

I didn't do this on my Freedom 32, I did it on a Cal 35, with the boat still in the water: We had one tine of the boat-lifting forklift sticking into the companionway an inch or two from the inside cabin top. We used come a longs to pull the engine up to the time. The forklift driver then slowly back out, taking the engine with him. We had two guys holding some large cushions next to the engine in case it tried to bang into the sides of the companionway. The driver was so good they turned out not to be needed. The forklift wasn't available when we put the engine back in. We lashed 3 pieces of pipe into an "H" shape. With the rebuilt engine hanging from the crossbar of the H and 4 guys, one on each corner of the H (think of slaves carrying an Egyptian Pharaoh,) we just pretty much picked it up and walked the engine back aboard. It was surprisingly easy.

Even without a forklift this job should be doable. Don't underestimate what can be done with plenty of protective cushioning and enough food and beer to entice 4 or 5 strong young men. As I get older I learn more and more what a handy tool having simple brute strength used to be.

What engine are you putting back in?
___________________________

Rick
Tallahassee

User avatar
mtryon
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 7:56 am
Location: Southern California, USA

Re: Any tips on removing Yanmar 3GMD from Freedom 32

Post by mtryon »

Hey Rick,

Great to hear from you and thanks for your tips and info. Well, I'm trying to keep from tearing the engine down too much as I've sold it as a running engine to a guy that wants to crane it out of my boat and right into the bed of his pickup truck at the boat yard. My first problem is to try and get it out of it's hole it sits in under the galley sink. There is pretty much nothing over the engine to lift it from it's galley abyss as the galley is in the way and I'm sure not going to disassemble the galley! Ha! Right now I'm thinking a chain lift supported by a large wooden beam across the opening of the main salon hatch (padding galore) and I can pull it from the front engine mounts, up, and forward, and perhaps onto a piece of carpeted 3/4" plywood and slide it into the dinette area (dinette table stowed in forward cabin). This will be tricky, but if I can at least get it to that location I can better assess the overall size and then see if I need to unbolt anything further from it. I know if I take off the trans and bell housing that is a huge reduction in the length. I don't think width or height will be a problem using the boatyard crane, but making it shorter in length would certainly help because It's got to get moved to the foot of the companionway stairs for the crane lift, and if it's too long it might be difficult or impossible to make the turn going around the galley to get to the foot of the stairs. This will be interesting to say the least.

As to my re-power? I am not putting an engine back in at all. Instead I am installing a 48 volt brushless PMAC motor. I'm going with the Electric Yacht Systems 10Kw package that uses a Sevcon controller and a 48 volt battery system.

Cheers!
Martin
Freedom 32 - Hull #15 - "BAMBOLEO" - Southern California, USA
Morgan 41 CC "Classic" - 10 year live-aboard
Rawson 30 - "La Cabriole" - Circumnavigator -- but not by me... :(

daletournier
Posts: 181
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:25 pm

Re: Any tips on removing Yanmar 3GMD from Freedom 32

Post by daletournier »

Hi, I'm assuming you know that the electric motor thing has already been done to a F32 .... how did they get their engine out . lve looked at mine often and wondered at how difficult it would be . Whats your reason to go electric? Battery bank size ? range? etc . Good luck with the whole thing ... l like the idea but not Sure about its suitability for long range cruising... be very interested in how it goes.
cheer Dale
Freeform .

User avatar
mtryon
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 7:56 am
Location: Southern California, USA

Re: Any tips on removing Yanmar 3GMD from Freedom 32

Post by mtryon »

Hi Dale,

Hope your cruising is going well on the other side of the pond. Well, what's my reason to go electric? There are many;
The engine is over 30 years old and I don't want to put any more money into it.
Also, in my old age I'm no longer fond of; oil changes, oil filters, water filters, diesel noise, diesel fumes, fuel costs, and the associated maintenance expenses of all that stuff. In addition, and I speak totally for myself here; I'm not fond of supporting those wonderful oil companies anymore. Same with my car. Yes, it does use fossil fuel, but it's an old first generation Honda Insight, and I get about 72 miles per gallon when I drive it down to the the marina. That makes me chuckle inside as the lifted humongous 4X4 monster trucks driven by kids who's Burger King paychecks go directly into their gas tanks roar past me. And not that I haven't been on the "other side". My last car before the Insight was a Lotus Exige "S", so I can definitely say; "been there...done that", but now it's time to throttle back in life and I'm really enjoying it.

So I'm not going long-distance cruising, and therefore I am willing to live with my 24 miles of range at 3.5 knots with the electric propulsion system. And for short emergency power bursts the torque of the electric is way more than the old Yanmar---and it's instantaneous.

In a nutshell, my style of cruising will be to motor out of the harbor, sail out to the Channel Islands (off Southern California) anchor out for a few days, or weeks, then sail back, and motor to the slip. That's about it. When I'm hanging out at the islands my two 300 watt 36 volt solar panels (in series) which are taking the place of my cloth Bimini will be filling my electric fuel tank so to speak. The Bimini panels are separate from my house systems which I already run off another solar panel over the davits. Though I do plan to get a DC to DC convertor---someday----just so I can be able to tap into and convert the 48 volt system down to 12 volst if I want to---or need to.

There yah go!
Cheers!
Martin
Freedom 32 - Hull #15 - "BAMBOLEO" - Southern California, USA
Morgan 41 CC "Classic" - 10 year live-aboard
Rawson 30 - "La Cabriole" - Circumnavigator -- but not by me... :(

daletournier
Posts: 181
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:25 pm

Re: Any tips on removing Yanmar 3GMD from Freedom 32

Post by daletournier »

Hi Martin , sounds great for your application . 600W solar thats awesome l have 260W and would struggle to fit more on . Love the whole electric idea . What batteries are you using?
cheers Dale
Freeform .

User avatar
mtryon
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 7:56 am
Location: Southern California, USA

Re: Any tips on removing Yanmar 3GMD from Freedom 32

Post by mtryon »

Hey Dale,

Well, I'm still not sure what batteries I'm going to use. All the rest of the gear is easy to figure out but there are so many batteries out there. I'm leaning towards 6 volt 245 AH wet cells because there are really cheap, and I believe I can fit all 8 of them in the area the diesel fuel tank occupied under the dinette seat that is just aft of the mast. Nice and central location for all that weight. If I can't fit them all in there then I can put a couple of them along side the electric motor under the galley where the engine used to be and that is still good for weight distribution. Now....if I were rich, I wouldn't worry and I'd just get 400 AH of LiFePO4 cells and put them all under that dinette seat...and shave 2/3's of the lead acid batteries weight. But, alas...those LiFePO4's are still a bit dear for my application, and I think they would just be expensive overkill for the amount of motoring I'm going to be doing. The nice thing about electric though; when the prices come down (and they will) swapping out batteries is a very easy upgrade.
Freedom 32 - Hull #15 - "BAMBOLEO" - Southern California, USA
Morgan 41 CC "Classic" - 10 year live-aboard
Rawson 30 - "La Cabriole" - Circumnavigator -- but not by me... :(

User avatar
mtryon
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 7:56 am
Location: Southern California, USA

Re: Any tips on removing Yanmar 3GMD from Freedom 32

Post by mtryon »

Dale,

The only way I can fit two 300 watt panels of solar is to put them in place of my cloth bimini. I was going to mount them over the cloth bimini but then saw an online article where a guy had replaced his cloth bimini entirely with the solar panels. Doing this I will get slightly more shade too! Here's a link to his blog on his solar panel mountings. He has gone through several "revisions" of his system and here is part one >> http://biankablog.blogspot.com/2011/08/ ... -plan.html I'll have to figure out a way to gasket the middle seam where the panels meet so rain won't leak down the middle. Also, I plan on putting some snaps/toggles around the outsides of the panels for some roll up/down side curtains for shade. I think it will work out OK.

BTW, the two 300 watt are not in parallel. They are in series so my voltage doubles, but the current stays the same. I'm running the panels in series to get the higher voltage I need to charge the 48 volt PMAC motor's batteries.
Freedom 32 - Hull #15 - "BAMBOLEO" - Southern California, USA
Morgan 41 CC "Classic" - 10 year live-aboard
Rawson 30 - "La Cabriole" - Circumnavigator -- but not by me... :(

User avatar
mtryon
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 7:56 am
Location: Southern California, USA

Got the Engine OUT just fine.

Post by mtryon »

Rick and Dale,

Thanks again for your suggestions and here is what I ended up doing...

Just an FYI that I was able to get the engine out of my Freedom 32 just fine with very few issues. :D In the end it was not as daunting of a task as I first imagined, and if I could do this solo I think most anyone could. If you want photos of the various steps PM me and I'll email them. In a nutshell here's what I did:

After laying some soft carpet in the dining area cabin sole, soft side down, I then removed the following from the engine: Exhaust hose, fuel and return lines, battery cables, engine panel cable, shift, throttle and stop cables, and shaft coupling) All else remained on the engine throughout the removal. Then...

I made a short lifting beam out of three 36 inch sections of fir 2x4s that I screwed together with drywall screws. This gave me a 4x6 hunk of wood. I laid this across the opening hatch above the dinette in the main salon and used bar clamps to clamp it across the hatch frame. I lashed about six turns or so of 1/2" yacht braid line around the beam and hooked a Harbor Freight 1 & 1/2 ton chain lift to this beam. Then I installed a load leveler onto the two lifting rings on top of the Yanmar 3GMD and hooked the chain lift onto the load leveler. I took up the load and then removed all the engine mount bolts. (removing the motor mount's bottom nuts on the under side of the beds is a bloody knuckle job at best and the most difficult part of my entire job). After those nuts and bolts were out I used the chain lift to slightly move the engine forward and up the engine bed until the rear motor mounts were clear of the rear mounting holes, and then I put the rear motor mount bolts back in place leaving them to stick up a couple of inches out of their holes. I did this just in case I somehow let the engine slip backwards. I did not want the momentum of the engine sliding back down the beds and banging into the shaft coupling. In essence that would have been hit right on the shaft coupling....like I was trying to hammer the shaft out of the boat!

Next I slowly I lifted the front of the engine and as it came up it also moved forward. (load leveler set forward). The front crankshaft pulley then came in contact with the rear edge of dinette cabin sole. Using a crowbar I pried the engine up a little on each side and was then able to slide a 3 foot piece of 2x4 under each front motor mount. I used a rubber mallet to hammer these skids as far aft as I could alternating sides, my goal being to also get these skids under the rear mount too. I could see now that the crank pulley would then clear the cabin sole as I slid the engine forward. Once the front motor mounts had cleared the cabin sole I could see the oil pan was not going to clear the carpeted cabin sole. Keeping the chain lift tight I then adjusted the load leveler more towards the rear and the rear of the engine lifted up nicely without the engine moving forward. Then I was home free because, with the large rubber mallet I was able to hammer the 2x4 "skids" aft and under the rear motor mounts. Now the engine's front and rear motor mounts were entirely on two "skis" if you will. There was nothing left to do but drag it forward and out onto the carpet protected sole. BTW, the oil pan BARELY cleared the cabin sole and in fact left a very tiny mark in the varnish on the sole as it came up and out. The carpet kind of bunched up there and didn't protect it. In hindsight I could have shimmed the engine just a bit higher with shims under the motor mounts, but I considered this small 'ding' an OK price to pay---as I was home free after all that. Then all I had to do was release tension on the chain lift, move the lifting beam farther forward in the overhead hatch. This allowed me to lift the engine more in the center of the cabin so I could drill the holes for the lag bolts that mounted the permanent blocks and carpeted skids for sliding the engine aft, and later out of the boat and into the truck at the boat yard.

The next part was fairly easy, but time consuming. I had to drag the engine aft (on it's piece of soft carpet and wood skids), and move it to the foot of the companionway stairs. I did this in two moves. The first was done by dragging it aft, again using the chain lift and a single piece of 2x4 placed across the door opening of the aft head. I was worried about putting pressure on that door opening so I built up pressure with the chain lift very slowly. But...nothing creaked or groaned at all as I applied pressure and the engine slooowly dragged aft. NOTE! On my boat the opening between the galley and the nav station passage is exactly 18 inches wide. My engine skids ended up being 17 and 7/8 inches! Can you say LUCKY? Ha! It barely fit. So measure this first before you just throw your skids on there like I did. (I did measure the engine width and knew it would fit but got lazy and didn't pay attention to my improvised motor mounts skids and carpet sticking out slightly).

Now the engine was alongside the nav station---front facing aft. Then I was able to manually slide and turn the engine with several lifts of the front and rear corners using my tired old back muscles. I was worried that the engine might not make that turn with the trans and shaft coupling still attached, but there ended up being room to spare. Since it was on carpet I was (barely) able to do this. (A couple of Naproxen tablets required later in the evening to ease the back pain). However, I did not have the strength by myself to slide the engine the next few feet to the foot of the companionway stairs. So...chain lift to the rescue. I put the same beam lift over the galley hatch and just inched it forward (to port) and after a dozen or so cranks the Yanmar 3GMD sat perfectly at the foot of the companionway stars ready for the boatyard crane.

Some notes; There was no need to unbolt any of the engines parts. At no time was the engine lifted more that about 2 inches off the cabin sole as I put wood under the motor mounts and then lifted it higher again to put the motor mount wood blocks under each mount. For the boatyard crane lift I had made another special piece of wood to go across the companionway hatch so the crane cable could chafe on that instead of my teak hatch trim, but this ended up being unnecessary as the boatyard had a nice soft pliable lifting strap that would not have chafed anything, but I used that wood anyway, just in case. At the yard the crane strap was attached to my load leveler and as the engine was lifted, me and a yard crew held the engine forward slightly off the wood trim until it came up a couple of feet. Then we turned the engine facing aft and the crane moved it aft enough to clear the hatch and it came up and out without ever touching a thing! I could feel the anxiety drain from my body almost immediately. What a relief!!

So that's how I got my Yanmar 3GMD out of the boat. I know there are some that would perhaps have used the boat's boom for the final lift off the boat, but me personally? I didn't feel good about putting the stress on the rig and just didn't feel it to be as safe as the yard doing that part of the job.

I hope I was clear with all this and if not shoot me some questions. Also, anyone interested in photos please feel free to PM me.

Thanks!

Marty
Freedom 32 - Hull #15 - "BAMBOLEO" - Southern California, USA
Morgan 41 CC "Classic" - 10 year live-aboard
Rawson 30 - "La Cabriole" - Circumnavigator -- but not by me... :(

User avatar
Rick Simonds
Posts: 144
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2008 8:49 pm
Location: Tallahassee, FL

Re: Any tips on removing Yanmar 3GMD from Freedom 32

Post by Rick Simonds »

This a a great set of instructions for what is probably a "someday" job for me.

As I was looking around the boat last weekend I thought about this and was eyeballing the cabin sole space between the sink and the nav station. That is definitely the bottleneck and it looked too narrow to me, I'm glad to hear of the whopping spare 1/8"!

Thanks for the follow-up!
___________________________

Rick
Tallahassee

Post Reply