Pick a New Engine | What to Look For | Making a Blank | Removing the Old Engine | Disconnecting Systems | Mounts and Coupler | Lifting the Old Engine | Engine Beds | Shimming | Filling Holes | Flat Mounts | Landing the Engine | Exhaust System | Other Systems | Finishing Up
The Other Systems.
The water system is next, and can be as simple as connecting the raw water hose to the intake side of the sea water pump on the engine. Use double hose clamps, and only stainless steel clamps. Beware of hose clamps that claim to be stainless but have cheap steel threaded inserts. You may also have to hook up the lines to your engine-driven hot water heater, and any other engine-related hoses. Hopefully these are all labeled clearly and were prepped for install before you dropped in the engine.
The fuel system comes next. You will need the 2 basic hoses for the engine: a feed line sending fuel from the bottom of the tank to the engine, and a return line sending the fuel from the engine back to the top of the tank. Generally you will want a primary fuel filter (Racor or similar brand) to prefilter the water and impurities out of the fuel before it enters the engine. Diesel engines will also have a secondary filter mounted to the engine itself. Note these are all in the feed line – there is no need to filter in the return line. Larger boats will often have a day tank that runs the engine and is filled periodically by main tanks located elsewhere in the boat. You can’t filter your fuel too thoroughly if you are cruising, especially out of the country.
Fuel Filtration is covered in more detail here
The electrical system will be the last system to install. This can become very complicated unless the new engine is identical to your old engine. A complete description of all possible engine electrical systems is outside the scope of this article, but here are some things to think about. Make sure you have a large enough wire for the starter lead and the primary ground. Try not to short the starter with a tool unless you are ready for the engine to roar to life. Test the starter and alternator hookups, if your starter or alternator is heating up without anything being turned on, that’s very bad, turn you’re your battery switch and call a professional or go back to the manuals. It is not uncommon for an installation to end up with a miswired alternator due to differences between the old system and the new, and new developments in alternators. Hopefully you labeled everything very thoroughly when you took it apart, now is the real test. Expect at a minimum to hook up a water temp sensor, an oil pressure sensor, a tachometer, an alternator, a starter, and an ignition circuit. Remember that the entire engine body is a ground, meaning it is the same as the negative terminal of your battery bank.
If you skipped "The Exhaust System", click here to check it out
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