At the joint lay the dull residue of long-term fouling. The deposits had not appeared overnight, and no responsible mechanic would claim to remove eighteen months of carbon accumulation in ninety seconds. But the team could see that a movable flow-control component, not the entire exhaust system, had become stuck near a position that restricted the system's startup breathing. That was a fault they could demonstrate, document, and temporarily correct under supervision without dismantling the engine.
"You were right about the exhaust," Elena said.
"Not finished yet," Russell replied. "If the controller remembers the thermal trip, it may still refuse to let us start."
Okafor authorized a limited adjustment to return the external component to its correct resting position and recorded the need for complete cleaning and inspection afterward. Russell's gloves darkened with old soot as he assisted. He worked slowly enough to preserve the delicate contact surfaces, remembering a small motor Earl once made him clean three separate times because a hurried scrape had damaged more than the original deposit.
From the public screen, the spectators watched a close-up of residue collecting on a clean inspection cloth. Webb explained that the material was evidence of neglect, not proof of how it had developed. It could involve fuel quality, operating conditions, incomplete servicing, or several causes at once. The answer would require records and laboratory analysis. For now, the important fact was that the physical flow mechanism had not been returning as intended.
By the time Russell moved away, the clock showed three minutes and eleven seconds. The crowd began making the kind of noise crowds make when they sense something happening but cannot yet tell whether to celebrate. A few spectators shouted encouragement. A student from Virginia Tech leaned toward the barrier and pointed to the coolant data on her tablet, suddenly recognizing an observation Russell had made before his turn began.
The cooling system was the final question. The engine had been protected by a high-temperature fault even when some displayed temperatures appeared normal, a pattern that could occur when air interfered with circulation or sensors measured different parts of the same loop. The Virginia Tech team had checked the documented service point earlier, but Russell had noticed that the Sovereign's particular installation used a rerouted upper line with a higher pocket behind the port manifold. Earl had taught him to look at where a boat builder had actually placed the pipes, not only where a manufacturer had drawn them in a generalized diagram.
Elena opened the vessel-specific routing diagram. Her finger stopped on a small high-point service fitting, partly obscured by another assembly. "We checked the standard port," she said slowly. "We didn't check this one."
Okafor confirmed that the relevant auxiliary circuit was in a safe condition for its specified service check. Russell waited for the authorization, aware that coolant under pressure or at operating temperature could injure anyone who treated it casually. When the fitting was checked under the supervised procedure, trapped air was confirmed in a place that explained the disagreement between the protection signal and the lower readings elsewhere in the loop. The technician performed the approved venting and monitoring process while Russell watched the readout for the response he expected.