Mark,
while it sounds like a complete overhaul is required to fire one diesel up it actually isn't, most of this is nothing more the Preventitive Maintenance that hasn't been done in a few years.. All of the injectors are rebuilds from F/M and the LO Transfer Pump were rebuilt 5 years ago and the Priming pumps were gone through and rebuilt and re-installed. The fuel lines will also need to be pulled and purged because of them having a little FO in them. For the air lines and FO lines they are relatively easy, pop them off at the block and then roll the engine over and blow ALL of the crap out of the lines, this will take care of whatever condesation that has formed inside the lines.
IF our seawater chest is fully blanked off (it was supposed to have been done in the '97 drydock) then we will have to go to an alternative method to bring in cooling water for the engine. The only thing that it takes is a want and a desire and dedication to make it happen, in the early days of Torsk Volunteer Association (TVA) we had dedicated enginemen and contacts with F/M who came up and worked on her from time to time and did a LOT of the work that I have mentioned in the previous posts about getting the engines running again, back then there was a number of people who had the dedication desire and the want to make it happen but as time went by people faded away and the desire is still there but not the people with the "proper" training.
BTW TVA has loaded a LOT of batteries onboard for various DC loads one of which can be the DC voltage required for the F/M and they are getting them installed and ready to run.
Now for those who have never been to
www.hnsa.org please go and review the tech manuals online and review the restoration procedures that they have set up, we are here to PRESERVE our museums and restore them to a time line of her service history. While some of you don't have to worry about NAVSEA coming down and inspecting your boat from top to bottom to make sure that she is still safe and watertight (for those still in the water) and that you have not restored her to go back to sea on her own or able to fire her weapons systems again without their permission. the HNSA website like I mentioned earlier is run by Rich Plekney and he as taken the time to scan the WWII configuration manuals from the USS Pampanito and he has also acquired other tech manuals and scanned them and put them online, this is FREE to all who want to use them.
Chris, you have one of the best teachers onboard IF you can get him to help you learn his job. Tim has cancer and we don't know how long he has and IF I was closer to there I would have been bugging the living hell out of him to teach me how to be an enginemen, while it has been a LONG time since I ran a F/M right now I couldn't without the book and knowing the tollerances on some of the parts you need someone there to help you as you learn the job right. I could teach you out of the book how to rebuild a 38 1/8D but I don't know any of the little tricks to make the jobs easier and with a lot less blood on the deck. My advice to you if you haven't done it already go and download the submarine manuals on HNSA and pay particular attention to the Air, Hydraulics and of course the Diesel blocks. I have full copies of Torsk's hydraulics that were hand over hand and then put on paper, I may have her Air systems also on hard copy, those also were done hand over hand before ALL of her air banks were brought back online.
You my friend have a daunting task ahead of you IF you want to take on the task, OR you can restore all of the gauge panels on the boat and paint all of the bulkheads and other equipment on the boat OR you can take the experienced Engineman that works with you on a semi regular basis and try to learn his job and when Tim and Joe Roach (joe btw has gone to Sonar Div) are gone we won't have any dedicated Enginemen onboard, there is one more but he wasn't there at the last Work Weekend, "Stash" was MIA for the first time since TVA started and I haven't heard anything about how he is doing in the last year or so, he btw was one of the two or three that rebuilt most of the pumps and other parts for the #1 engine.
Take it for what it is worth, you can do whatever you would like to do on Torsk and I can think of a hundred jobs in the Torpedo Rooms that need to be done and I WILL show you how to be a TM (granted you and I will be learning a WWII tube system together) but I will show you how they work and what needs to be done to restore the rooms OR like I mentioned earlier you can breathe new life back into an engine that has set idle since '71 (a couple of months before I was born). If you haven't noticed we no longer have the WWII vets coming down and working and giving tours and telling us their sea stories of when Torsk and others were the kings of the sea and we don't have a whole lot of 637 sailors or previous nuke sailors coming down to help us either. It's your call Chris on what you want to do and you have shown that you want to work your ass off and try to restore those engines so they can once more come to life, take the initiative and make it happen. IF you don't want to do that then Frank and I will show you how to be a TM or you can ask Dave or Mike how to be an electrician OR get with Chief Bill and learn how to do his job. Once Chief Bill goes we will have no one to work on the IC stacks or someone that knows how to keep them and the other god help me for saying this "antiquated" electronics onboard. As for the keys to the locker in the FER ask Larry "torksdoc" for the key, he may have it on his key ring or he knows who has it and can try to get it for you.
Mark to answer your question about the #5 diesel it was REMOVED during a shipyard period in the late '50s or early '60s, so we have no "dink" onboard to power her up without bringing a F/M back online.
