Cleaning and Paint Prep

[Grant Tankoos]

Hi –

I have twin 6BTA’s in a legacy 34… have the decks up, coolers, and heat exchangers off for service…. Im thinking of painting the motors while i have access to them but interested in suggested cleaning methods and products you may have experience with…

I am also thinking of replacing all hoses while these units are off and considering replacing all fuel lines as well… Motors are 2001’s with about 700hrs and it doest appear these have ever been done… There is some surface rust on the fuel line connectors – any thoughts on replacing these lines?

Also on my list of service is New Water pumps and belts… Any other suggestions?

Would appreciate any insight – below are some pics, apologize for the quality of them.

Grant

Topic

[Grant Tankoos]

Thanks

Thanks Tony – and team for the help and advice.

[Tony Athens]

Grant,

These are the aluminum finned aftercooler cores that used the Fat Orange silicone o-ring–Total junk design.. –They are done.. Your housings are also past the point of salvaging..

Wish I had a better answer, but you need 2 x complete new aftercoolers..

Tony

[Fireisland1]

Starboard side

Looks like some one beat that up pretty good. I don’t see how the o ring is going to seal that.

[Grant Tankoos]

Starboard side

Pics of the starboard cooler and core.

[Grant Tankoos]

coolers apart

Thanks Tony for the thoughts and insight – amateurs like I are lucky to have you and this great resource. These motors have been in “brackish” water for the last 6 years – boat was under the Tapanzee bridge on the hudson river, NY. Marine age is certainly present!

I am in the process of servicing the after coolers per this site – have some photos of the pitting and wonder if there are too far gone. The starboard looks as thought a salt deposit “grew” and bent the core along with degrading the housing where the o-ring sits. There were no silicone strips on my version and with a bit of persuading, they came out alright… ( photos below of after cooler housing and ores). there was plenty of impeller part in the bottoms of these coolers.

you guys mind giving some insight on the coolers / cores shown below? second upload is starboard side. photos have makings of side?

Seawater side is in the process of being done thought – heat exchangers look pretty good. Oil coolers are off as well.

Exhaust elbows and inspecting the turbos are certainly of concern as well –

All your items above are on my list- the CCV discovery is new, but, learning about that.

Thanks!

[firehoser75]

Suggestions

Grant,
I would suggest that you deal with your exhaust elbows, as if they fail and “Murphy” comes out to play, it could cost you mega dollars for new turbos or even engine rebuilds should sea water be entering the engine. Photo of new elbow attached (upside down for some reason). There is some external corrosion visible on the aftercoolers near both caps. This could be a sign of problems, so if they were mine, as Tony stated, they need to be serviced as per his guidelines. After that, follow his suggestions.
Further, I would suggest that you add raw water flow alarms to notify you if something blocks flow or something goes wrong with your raw water cooling, as well as exhaust hose overheat alarms. These alarms are not that expensive, but could save you from big problems in the future. From the photos, it does not appear that your fuel lines are that bad, but maybe I am just missing it. If you operate the boat in salt water, I also suggest setting up a system where you can regularly “fresh water flush” the engines.
On my “new to me” boat (same engine as yours but 2002), I recently did all of the items that Tony talked about except the CCV (and that is on the list for this spring). My exhaust elbow was corroded through and I caught it just in time (before any damage to the turbo) because the exhaust hose alarm that I had installed notified me of the issue. Lucky! Due to investigating the reason for the overheat (exhaust hose only, all other readings were good) I serviced the entire cooling system including new antifreeze.
Good luck with your projects, and I hope that your maintenance won’t be too expensive.
Regards,
Tom Easterbrook

1 user thanked author for this post.

Grant Tankoos

[Stephen Oliver]

haha looks like Tony beat me to it!

[Stephen Oliver]

I’ll be guessing the first thing mentioned will be the factory wet elbows.. have a look at Tonys info on exhaust design and failures… cant help you on the painting but will be interested in the answers as mine look far worse…

https://www.sbmar.com/category/articles/exhaust-systems/

1 user thanked author for this post.

Grant Tankoos

[Tony Athens]

Grant,

You have 6BTA 5.9 M3’s………Great engine but like any of them, they are all subject to “Marine Age”–You are 15+ years into it.. Salt or fresh water boat? Looks pretty good for all those years———Curious?

1) service your aftercoolers per this web site

2) go thru the entire side of your seawater system including the seawater pumps, heat exchangers, & gear cooler

3) Look up “doomed to failure” on Google or on this site, as you are right there.

4) Look up “what a turbo should look like”.. Do yourself a big favor and do exactly like it shows in the article as to and inspection.

5) You have a very early and poorly designed Walker CCV that caused more issue that it solves………………….. Do some reading.. A few articles on this web site about CCV’s

It all here and it’s all free.. Just you time is all it takes..

Tony

[Author]

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