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This winter, I worked to repair the air start manifold on my 1939 Gardner 6L3 Marine Diesel Engine. Over the course of my summer cruise, I experienced repeated failures of several of the gaskets on the air start system, as well as repeated seizing up of the intake valves due to scratched valves that lead to the leaking of exhaust gases, causing the valves to seize up. I was able to pull the valves and clean them, as well as replace gaskets with oiled cardboard, but both solutions kept failing. In this video, I go over how I was able to finally fix the problems properly by replacing the gaskets with proper gasket material, and then lapping the valves into their valve seats.

Steps for the start sequence:
1. Turn on gauges and voltage regulator
2. Turn on diesel fuel cutoff to the engine
3. Set the governor switch
4. Set the throttle to a start idle
5. Set the transmission to neutral
6. Turn on the shaft oilers, check the drip rate
7. Turn on the air system (large valve at the air battery tank)
8. Decompress each of the six cylinders
9. Line up the engine flywheel to top dead center on one of the aft 3 cylinders (called "barring" the engine, indicated by tick marks on the flywheel)
10. Compress the aft three "start" cylinders
11. Open the air start manifold valve, which pressurizes the air start system
12. Open the engine start valve lever, which allows air to pass into the start manifold and aft three cylinders to build momentum in the flywheel
13. Compress each of the forward three cylinders (in sequence with the rotation of the flywheel)
14. Shut off air manifold valve
15. Turn on engine alarms (low oil pressure)
16. Open the air start manifold pressure release valve

Please subscribe/provide feedback on the video in the comments. I'm interested in showing more boat projects, Argonaut's history, and different aspects of the boat and welcome any input that you have.

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