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| Tony's Tips |
ARTICLE DATE: 10/01/2006 |
| Marine Exhaust Systems |
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| In closing, please understand that with some good engineering and thought, a well designed exhaust system can make a big difference in the layout of the engine room and offer a superior design as to safety and functionality. The idea that rarely a month goes by without our shop seeing a disaster from water ruining an engine from a "factory" type exhaust system or from an OEM builder with his head between his legs still befuddles me. To this day I see drawings from architects who have no clue. The drawing below is from a boat being built that is just such - All that height in the engine room and the architect has the system riser backwards - Just ask yourself what would happen while cranking the engine when out of fuel. And just as bad is that he got paid to design it this way. Sad, very sad....... |
| Total 100% couch engineering, but the guy
does do nice drawings. |
Marine Exhaust systems are one of the
more important construction features on a vessel. Done wrong they are not only
a safety issue for the passengers and the vessel, they can also lead to premature
engine failure and / or indirectly cause poor maintenance to be performed on
a vessel because of lack of design thought in the engine room. So many times
when the exhaust design is an "afterthought," normal or routine maintenance
is close to impossible.
If you give this some thought in the future, maybe this will help you in your
next repower or new boat design - The energy that a typical 400 Hp diesel puts
into the propeller is matched close to 100% by the energy that goes out the
exhaust system. So if you think your power train needs to be well designed,
don't cut any corners on the exhaust design - It needs to be just as tough
and built with the same degree of design to handle that kind of energy.
Hopefully the pictures and design ideas incorporated here will help remove some of the mystery in exhaust design that seems to elude much of the industry. I fully understand that a buyer of a new boat does not have much input as to exhaust design when purchasing a new or used vessel, but we hope the guidelines here help not only the buyer to understand what to look for in a boat, but also will prove to be beneficial to the builders in the design and planning phase of marine engine rooms.
Tony |
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