Aftercooler Life Expectancy

[Grayson Swain]

Hey guys and gals. New to the forum and to Cummins as well. Recently purchased a 32 Albin SF with a Cummins 6bta 370hp. I am planning to do most of my own maintenance however I did have a mechanic give the engine a once over survey. He had suggested possibly replacing the aftercooler due to the age of the engine and because they typically only last 7-10 years. Is that accurate? If I have it cleaned, inspected, and pressure tested would I still need to worry about failure? I plan on flushing the seawater side with barnacle buster once a year and full service on the aftercooler every two years.

Topic

[Chris Dags]

Rustoleum “canvas” seems to be the exact color of Cummins white

[Rob Schepis]

Engine Paint

We just discussed this: https://www.sbmar.com/community/topic/cta-engine-paint/

[James Freeman]

Painters Touch

Thanks Tony I will definitely give it a try

[Tony Athens]

Painters Touch has no issues up to about 250-270F.. It’s good stuff

[James Freeman]

I wish to add my thanks to Tony and others who have posted such great material.

Just serviced my Aftercooler and upgraded the gear oil cooler on our QSB 5.9 with 9 years and 1600 hours. I am a religious fresh water flusher and combined with the boat being used much more the last 4 years in retirement, I have to say the cores are always clean including the heat exchanger. BUT my takeaway as I was reading the various posts was keeping that O-ring barrier serviced under the cap ends on the Aftercooler is very important.

The last service was completed by a shop who does many of these items for mechanics in Seattle area and it was not as recommended by Seaboard. I say this as there wasn’t any lubrications on bolts holding caps on nor was there any liberal greasing of the O-ring area and the cushion strips were still on the core. The result was a tough time getting the core removed and a snapped bolt head which thankfully I was able to remove -with help. I could tell, I believe, that the o-rings were going to fail to seal in the near future. Bad on me for letting it be 3 1/2 years since I had sent them out last. But doing it myself gave me a much better understanding of details and a realization that it isn’t that big a deal to have out and serviced every couple of years.

Fortunately the case and core were relatively clean. They were easy to clean, touch up with a bit of sanding and re-assemble. Pressure testing eventually confirmed proper function – A note here is I had some oozing from top cap on first try. A shop was testing unit assembled. There was a bit of pitting on that edge which I Then had very very gently machined down to mirror smooth surface almost- I was very afraid to remove much material. After re-assembly and pressure test all is fine. Because of the first failure I did have a shop test the core independently in a bucket of water with air pressure applied.

Again thanks for all of the good information – now I just have to figure out which Cummins White I have- thinks it’s older “Blanco” but might try Rustoleum Painters touch though it’s only good to 200 degree surfaces.

[Allan Sanders]

Thanks Tony I will order two #7 kits and get them serviced !

[Tony Athens]

Allan,

Only one answer it you want a chance of getting 3-5 years or more from them……………..Make servicing them them per our protocol a 100% priority, meaning “HURRY”!………………All you have to do is look on my my site site–
Notice I have them “for sale”.. Think about it–They have not been around long enough except for one reason to need replacement this young in life–

They were not put together right when new (DRY) , and they are not being serviced properly……….Bill Fuller’s post earlier says it all……….

Your call ..

Tony

[Allan Sanders]

What time frame on after coolers if she has been in fresh water her whole life.
Just bought a fresh water boat with QSB 6.7
The records don’t show any thing done on coolers.
You can tell the heads have not been off the paint is not cracked at joints.
looks like zincs been changed are checked the paint is off them.
2013 441SB Meridian 277 hours

[Bill Fuller]

I will add my 2 cents on this subject which are not much different than Tony’s. Although I have Yanmars, salt water control goes across the board as to brand.

My boat was repowered by Tony in 2000, so coming up on 18 years in salt water. The engines have about 5,700 hours. All salt water touching components are original (heat exchanger, after cooler, gear cooler, oil cooler , etc.). I believe my boat may have one of the first, if not the first fresh water flush system Tony installed. Actually it was one of the items that I had already decided to do before taking the boat to Oxnard. I flush the motors religiously after every trip. When the boat enters the slip, we never, ever leave before the engines are flushed. In fact, flushing is the first thing that gets done regardless of time of day or night. I never shut the motors off until they have been flushed, period! I firmly believe that if you wait to flush until the next day you have lost a lot of the affect of flushing. It needs to be done immediately! Without fail!

I follow a “modified” Tony procedure for servicing my salt water components. And unless you are absolutely sure of what you are doing, I don’t recommend this procedure.

I remove everything from the boat every 5 years for servicing. My after coolers, oil coolers, HX, gear coolers, etc. are all completely clean after 5 years. I could probably go 10! That is the value of fresh water flushing. But it MUST be done without fail! Every time!

I don’t see why after coolers and other and other “hang on” components exposed to salt water can not have a nearly infinite life if taken care of. That also means keeping up with the zincs, etc.

My opinions.

Bill

[Tony Athens]

This proves it 100% with any doubt.. Engine hours are meaningless.. It’s 100% Marine Age and proper servicing/ assembly from DAY 1……………… And IF you are going to sit at the dock, fresh water flushing pays dividends & well beyond..

Thanks for this…….Maybe someone is seeing listening…..

Tony

[Fireisland1]

@ 281 hours

I took off this Aftercooler at 281 hours. The boat had 20 hours of use in the last 2 years. There were no records of service to the cooler other then zincs. So I did a “tony” on it. As you can see low hours were worse the good use and service. The top was clean . The air side just about New. But the bottom where the water sat , not so good. Temp never went over 175. Coolers must be visually inspected.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Corey Schmidt

[Tony Athens]

I thought about this a tad and since 1990 or so when the serviceable saty water after cooled aftercoolers were 1st released on the last of the CPL970’s just before the CPL1613’s were released.. I can tell you without hesitation — Every engine that I sold back in those days and that we cared for since new till have ORIGINAL aftercoolers…………………. So 100% for sure, well 20 yrs is very doable, plus I have plenty of them currently from the late 90’s to early 2000’s pushing 25000 to over 30000 hours that are still in service…. ……It all comes do to how you decide to take care of them………. My way, or some other way that a Cummins tech or “know it all” mechanic may tell you..

Tony

[Grayson Swain]

Also, thanks for the input. I just couldn’t understand why after a certain time I should just replace my aftercooler. Going to get it and the HE off and have them professionally cleaned and pressure tested next month.

[Grayson Swain]

Exhaust is ran down the starboard side. Don’t have any good pics of engine at the moment. I work on tugboats and I’m gone until just before Christmas.

[Rob Schepis]

Welcome aboard. Maybe if you averaged all of the aftercoolers out there 7-10 yrs could be an average but that is neither here nor there as to how YOUR aftercooler needs to be dealt with. For example, my 6BTA aftercoolers just completed their 16th season – original cores, original housings. They have always been serviced the Seaboard Way and she has always been slipped in brackish waters. I had them on the bench last year, not “like new” but serviceable, pressure tested and back in business.

How does it look externally? Anything obvious on the exterior would suggest the core and internal sealing surfaces are not going to be good but there is only one way to tell….So pull the aftercooler, get it on the bench and get the core out of the housing and post some real good pictures of all.

I know the Albin boats fairly well. A close-coupled V-drive. Did they run the exhaust hose down the starboard side right up against the aftercooler or did they go down the port side and then cross over aft of the engine (probably having to toss the belt guard)? Post some engine room and exhaust pics too.

[Author]

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