Engine Room Sound Insulation General Forum Forums

Erick,

I re-did the E/R on Perelandra this spring, and installed a foam insulation that has two layers of foam with a heavy rubber layer between, and a mylar facing on one side.  It is made by Soundown of Salem, MA. 

I still have a couple of areas left to do, including the underside of the cockpit sole, but I ran out of time.  What I did manage to get done does seem to have helped.   One tip I got was to put a radio (noisemaker) in the space and close it after installing the stuff, and then use weatherstripping to fill any noise "leaks". I'll try that after I finish the rest of the installation.

On a somewhat unrelated note, You can see the fresh paint on the engine and engine space.  I pulled the engine in the fall to clean the space up, and so I could pull the shaft and replace the cutless bearing without having to drop the rudder.  I managed to pull the engine by myself, using a chain falls and the staysail boom from the main gooseneck.  It really worked pretty well, as I was able to swing the engine over the side and lower it to my pick-up truck.  I used the main halyard and the topping lift together at the end of the boom, and checked the tension of the stays and whether there was any distortion at the gooseneck, as I went along.  I just reversed the process to get the engine back aboard.  It was a fun excercise in rigging, and save a few hundred bucks renting a crane truck.

Rigging for lift of engine

Re-installing engine (with a hand from my father)

I feel like I should have some small print here... "I don't endorse or recommend this method for engine removal"  or "Don't try this at home" but it worked fine for me.

I'm back in the water now, with all systems in good shape (knock on wood).  Went for the first sail of the year yesterday, Father's day, with my wife and kids, and had a great day.

Doug Mentuck

1975 DE 38 Perelandra

Erick,

I used 2" insulation on the bulkheads, and 1" on the back of the stair sections.  I've done so far the forward bulkheads, the stairs and the starboard bulkhead.  I'm still going to do the port side as well as the overhead, and if I have enough, I'll do the after bulkhead as well.

One trick for this stuff is to use fasteners with fender washers (very thin washers) every 12" or so.  If you use screws that are the same length as the insulation thickness, you can just get them to "bite" a couple of turns without going through the plywood bulkheads.  A mylar tape with fiber reinforcement is used to seal the edgesof the insulation panels, and spray adhesive on both surfaces is used to mount them. 

Doug