Search Results for 'fresh water flush'

[ablicpa]

Hi All, Twin engine 8.3L 6CTA 450hp diamonds, 38 Tiara open Both sea strainers have fresh water fitting on the top of the caps.  What fittings/parts do I need to make up a dual fresh water flush for a “Bulkhead” fitting so I do not need to open the engine compartment? Thanks, Andy

[Mark Glaubke]

After cooler core thoughts . My after coolers were done the seaboard way. Engines always fresh water flushed. This picture is from the top side of the after cooler core . Is this small area of salt on the fins a issue?

[Tony Athens]

Of  zero need  or value, and it will not do anything as to improving efficiency ..

You have COOLANT COOLED turbos.

 

Worry about things that really matter and can make a  measurable difference,  both short & long term.

–Fresh water flushing

–Oil pan heaters

–Proper & timely aftercooler servicing

–Proper engine loading

–Keeping your engine room dry &  “spic & span” top to bottom

 

 

 

[Turgid Sturgeon]

I’ve been on this site like 2 days so don’t know much about anything, but I think you’re going to hear folks suggest installing a fresh water flush system to clear out the entire raw water cooling system, including the aftercoolers, after you run.  If you care enough to pull the zinc every time, might as well flush the whole deal. There are some exciting options described on this site and boatdiesel for setting up the flush system. Good luck!

[Nicholas deltorto]

I am replacing my aftercooler for the second time in 7 years. I have done a fresh water maintenance flush through the sea strainers 2 times each season which is usually 100 hours per season.  Why would my aftercooler be crashing in such short time. Is there a better maintenance program or product I should be using?

[Harold]

I finally got around to putting it all back together. I bypassed the fuel cooler and remounted the aftercooler. I started a fresh water flush as I normally do with the sea cock open.  After ~10 minutes I shut it down and pulled the lower zinc and did my taste test. It definitely was salty water as I expected, not pure salt water but still a bit salty. Based on this experience I will now start closing the sea cock during the flush. We have great water pressure at the dock which I always check before hooking up to flush. I’ll start close cock flushing per the instructions in the video and be sure to open it BEFORE shutting down the engine. That should help me stay out of trouble and hopefully reduce the buildup in the core tubes. I’ll do another taste test after that and maybe again after every ten flushes or so to stay on top of it. 

Thanks to the SM team for the assistance and guidance!

[Turgid Sturgeon]

Hello Diesel Experts!

First time poster. Would greatly appreciate any insights, observations, or other feedback. Thank you so much for this resource and your time. Will try to keep this brief (ugh I see it’s not though). Under contract on a 2010 Tiara 3200 with original Cummins QSB 5.9 355HPs ~800hrs. I am in love, but not married yet, and def trying to get a hard peek behind the kimono first. I’m brand new to diesel motors and inboards but have tried to educate and equip myself with the vast knowledge on this site. I’m ~ 7/10 on DIY skill level, with experience maintaining Yam 4 stroke obs, houses, generators, etc.

Survey and sea trial were yesterday, I came and hired a good surveyor and an independent Cummins guy w the magic laptop. This cost a fortune but I would never forgive myself. Boat was commissioned this week after winter in yard. Dead cold motors fired up in 2 cranks each (whole other funny story re how I know they were def cold). <br />

Boat weight listed ~ 16k lbs (35 LOA, 13’ beam, 3’ dft),  Full fuel (256g) and water (38g) at my request plus 4 guys and tools on board. Propellers had some crud from last season but bottom clean. Weather was calm, 70’s air, 50 water. Couldn’t find a performance curve for a 355HP QSB 5.9, but THINK it’s same as 330hp – 2800 rpm rated and 2885 max (sure hope so…). Not sure if this was some special HP version for Tiaras bc I don’t see them anywhere else.

Motors made 2810 and 2820 WOT (98% “load”), avg of runs was 2800 both sides. I WISH I had filled out the custom table I made, printed, and brought for rpm/fuel burn/speed, w cross-refs to perf curves from Cummins and tiara, but I didn’t, and regret it.  @2810rpm boat made 28.6kts but idk fuel!  @2760 it was 18.1 g/hr each and idk how fast. @2600 rpm = 15.5 g/hr each = 27.3 kts. The mechanic was jamming on the vessel views and I just panicked and was so worried about rpms going above 2800 that I didn’t write anything down like a moron. But all the fuel burn readings i observed live were slightly higher than the Cummins curve for 5.9 330, which i’d studied before hand. Blowby at WOT w digital manometer (best meter name ever) never got above 6-7 on either. All seemed pleased by this.

Attaching a bunch of pictures of the engine room. What do you think fellas? Have receipts showing aftercoolers and HEs last serviced in late 2021 (top of list to service if we close), and injectors and tubes in stbd motor replaced in 2022 (weird). Current owner has had boat 2 years and done nothing except oil changes (and no receipts for those but oil is fresh now). Of course mechanic didn’t want to take elbows off to look at turbo exhaust or do any other bolt-removal stuff. I don’t think tiaras are know for doomed exhausts and I see raw water injection occurs downhill from riser. I thought both raw water pumps showed signs of leaking (or had been) based on rust below them, also rust around metal in lower aft of ER might be prior shaft seal leak (?). No leaks observed before/after sea trial (new seals).  Mounts, especially rubber bushings, look sketch, but seem to work fine during backdown test (per the experts). Sure I left a lot of info out but didn’t want to make this even longer.

Should I try to get seller to have ACs & HEs removed and serviced to make sure they’re serviceable before closing? It’s only been 2-3 years (in salt, no flush). Is that reasonable to ask? There are some other punch list things but the motors are my no. 1 and 2 concern.

Thank you!

Turge’

[rod robbins]

I received the T from sbmar and it has a 3/4 inch straight thread. I have a bronz pipe thread adapter.The bronze fitting seems to bottom out and i am unsure it will maintain the seal. Should i give it a try or should i try to find a straight thread bronze fitting with an o ring?

[Tony Athens]

SPECIFICALLY ?? —-Not quite true at all    If you are going to quote me, let’s read it all ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   https://www.sbmar.com/articles/the-benefits-of-fresh-water-flushing-your-marine-diesel-engine/ IF the water flow from the dock is greater than the needs of the engine at an idle (which it usually is if a good valve / water flow / pressure is at the dock and you have a good hose and 5/8 or bigger plumbing all the way to the T in your system) the engine will only have fresh water in it after a couple of minutes of idling. Shut off the engine first and the fresh water will just go out the bottom of the boat because the seacock is STILL open. Since fresh water is lighter than seawater, even after months with the seacock left open, you´ll find fresh water still in the system… So, you still want to close your seacock? Maybe you just can’t handle not knowing the exact mixture of fresh and saltwater going into the engine. Maybe the dock hose doesn’t supply tons of water and you really want to know you’ve flushed it out thoroughly. Whatever the reason, you want to close it and flush with 100% fresh water only.

[Richard Dodson]

In Tony’s tips he specifically mentions no need to close the seacock.  I leave mine open and after flushing I’m removing the flush cap, it’s obvious that the strainer is filled with fresh water. I use the outlet in the ER with the boat hooked up to shore water. 

[Gerasimos]

I could be wrong but I thought that if you leave the seacock open you end up sucking in raw water even with your hose supplying fresh, so its not a true fresh water flush its probably still mostly salt water. 

[Bill Desmarais]

100% freshwater hose blasting away through the T adaptor with engine seacock “closed in the video” and engine running. About halfway through the season I flushed with seacock “open”. It was a bugger reaching down and closing the 2″ seacock and then re-opening.

I also think the zincs look normal.

Prop shaft & rudder zincs (Godfrey brand, not cheap Camps) about 70% consumed, no complaints.

The proof of the results will be seen when I service the after cooler after three full season of usage. 

Stay tuned. 

[Tony Athens]

Looks about normal to me..

How good is your flush? 100% fresh water   left in the system?

[Bill Desmarais]

Hello forum members,

I figured I’d share the pictures of the three zincs removed from the QSB 5.9 480 after a five month summer season up here in Kittery Maine.

I was diligent in freshwater flushing the engine after each use. Total hours on the season was +- 150 hrs. burning 4 gal/hr on the season.

From L to Right:

Bottom of after cooler…..Top of aftercooler….Heat exchanger.

Note the degradation in the bottom aftercooler zinc…this one and the heat exchanger zinc sits in the “raw water soup” more so than the top of the aftercooler zinc.

Regards, BillD

[Gerasimos]

So its been 2 years since I replaced an aftercooler core and serviced them. Yesterday I took the afteroolers out for another service. Came out much easier than 2 years ago, but still did not slide out easily like the youtube videos show. Did Fresh water flushes relatively consistently. Well, turns out that I saw chunks of what looks like impeller rubber at the bottom of the housing when removing it on the Port Engine which could explain the overheat.

The pictures look worse than expected considering I did the service 2 years ago, any thoughts?

 

[Harold]

The flush time is always around ten minutes per side. That may be the issue, not long enough? I never close the sea strainer cock during the flush. I didn’t think I needed to. The pressure at the dock is respectable and for sure is fresh water. I have not been back to the boat yet to investigate it further, I will be there next week. I plan to remove the flush cap to get a good look at the flush valve to be sure it’s functioning correctly. One suspicion I have is the hose running from the cockpit hatch to the flush valve. It’s an ordinary garden hose which may be  collapsing during the flush. I plan to replace it with reinforced hose and keep an eye on it. I’ll let you know what I find. 

[Tony Athens]

I 100% agree with Rob–Something is not adding up and I suspect it’s related the the “service” in 2019 ( actually the lack of) or you are not really flushing it with 100% fresh water..

 

Continue to block sand–

 

As to the core– Needs to be pressure tested by itself after a through cleaning with 10% HCL/water acid on the tube side, and solvent cleaning on the fin side.

 

 

[Rob Schepis]

Your approach sounds reasonable.  But you do need to figure out why the seawater side looks so bad if you were freshwater flushing since the last service.  Check that your flush setup and how you are using it is doing what it is intended to do.  

[Rob Schepis]

Are you saying the aftercooler had a full bench service and greasing in 2019 and has been fresh water flushed ever since?  Something is not adding up.  Did you verify the discharge is not salty when you installed your flush setup?

The core looks like it got a little beat up. It needs a thorough inspection, cleaning and then a pressure test before assembly.

You can take just about a credit card thickness off the housing ends.  Will that get you where you need to be?

[Bobby Harvey]

Rob, I just put the fresh water flush caps on. I don’t think that’s the problem. Sadly, the previous owners never serviced anything on this boat. Seriously. I mean nothing! I have both Aftercoolers and Fuel Oil Coolers off right now having them serviced. I’m pretty sure at this point it’s a plugged F/O Cooler causing the p[roblem. Heat Exchangers will be next. After this it will be a new boat. I will post the outcome when I solve it.

Thank you for your help. I appreciate all you guys on this forum.