Cooler/Heat Xchanger maintenance

[sean b]

First diesel powered boat. 2 QSM 11’s w/ the manifold leaks and over-propping etc. Working on the prop issue now and this site has been very helpful as far as that goes.

I’ve read a lot of info on this site regarding seawater system maintenance but I can’t find anything that gives specific guidelines on the time frame for the maintenance. What is recommended as far as how often to remove and clean coolers/heat XC??

I bought the boat 4 years ago and had the coolers/Heat XC removed and cleaned etc at that time at 800 hrs. A few months ago I had a Rydlyme flush done. We boat between MA and Fla and the boat stays in water year round. We have 1700 hrs on it now. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Sean.

Topic

[sean b]

Thanks Steve. I appreciate it.

[Steve Lewis]

maint intervals and other stuff

Sean,

I did some digging to find the articles that Tony wrote(see links below) that make the specific recommendations but as I recall, if you are in salt water then every 2-3 years is a good interval for preventive maint on all of the raw water components. So once you service all of your coolers and such the seaboard way, by having them fully removed and taken apart, cleaned and pressure tested and then the all important lube before assembly, you can get on a 2-3 year cycle.

The other concept that is very well explained from a “how to” and “resulting benefits” is installing a fresh water flush system. That way after every use you are able to flush the raw water side with fresh water so that when you let the boat sit until the next use, there is fresh water in there, not brackish or salt water. The fresh water flush is probably the best thing that you can do to minimize the effect of salt water from a corrosion perspective. Just search “Fresh Water Flush” on the forum and spend some time reading what people have done and what type of benefit they have derived. There are different approaches to the flush process but the end goal and result are the same. Get the salty water out of the system while it sits between uses. You will see the benefit in the life span of your engine zinc’s which is a good visual representation of the savings of the rest of your system that you can not see.

Here is some initial reading on aftercooler maint. The general message in this article is applicable to just about every cooler item on the Cummins engines.

Cummins Marine Aftercooler Maintenance

Look at the fifth paragraph of this article…….

Aftercooler thoughts, opinions, and answers to some queries…

And the fresh water flush search
https://www.sbmar.com/community/search/fresh+water+flush/?gdpos=power-search-request

Enjoy!

[sean b]

Any thoughts, Tony?

[sean b]

Tony – Thanks for the response. The boat is a 2005 Sea Ray. It was in Fla when I bought it in 2015. I don’t know how long it had been in Fla but I assume its been in salt water since new and that is why i had the HX/Coolers removed and cleaned shortly after I bought it. Well, that and the ex. manifold leak!!

I had Cummins at the boat this winter for a valve adjustment and some other minor issues. They didn’t seem to have any firm recommendations on how long to go between cleaning and replacing other items like thermostats/oil/fuel lines etc. They seemed to think the boat was all good.

[Tony Athens]

What year did the engines seawater side of the cooling system 1st “SEE” saltwater?

Tony

[Author]

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