We enjoyed seeing friends Daniela & Kai from Germany who visited San Diego this weekend while on a trip to the west coast of the US. They came out to the boatyard to see Mahdee’s progress. They kindly heaped praises upon us and Mahdee. We’ll look forward to their visits once Mahdee is back in the water and sailing.

So, it seems that the oil pump on Stargazer had the wrong gasket used when the previous owner had someone do some work on the pump at some point. When the paper gasket tore and part of it blocked the pump galley which the oil pressure regulator operates from…well, for some reason, the pressure stopped being properly regulated! The proper gasket is no longer available. Perhaps this is why the wrong one was used?

Below, David took a pic of me cutting a new gasket with holes for ALL the oil galleys! The gasket material is easy to cut since it is vegetable fiber (basically, paper). Finding the right thickness material was hard since one of the two gaskets I cut had to be a svelte 0.006″ thickness in order for the pump to work properly. I called around, everyone had 1/64″ at the thinnest, finally, a fellow said he’d call a customer who buys the 0.006″ stuff in quantity from him–this customer should have some of the material I needed. I met the customer later that day and he gave me a 18″ x 12″ piece of the gasket material. He wouldn’t take money since he said he didn’t have a way of billing this material as it was used in a product they make. That was nice for me! I would have had to order it online otherwise since I couldn’t find it (for sale) locally here.

Installing the two gaskets was easy, smear some Indian Head gasket shellac compound on it, bolt the pump in place and let the shellac dry. Come back the next day and start the engine. YES! proper oil pressure again.