Silicon strips on qsb aftercooler

[worldcatlemon]

Are the silicon strips necessary for proper aftercooler function??

Topic

[worldcatlemon]

Great. Thanks.

[Fireisland1]

Pressure

I test at 30psi. / 1 hr.

[worldcatlemon]

Fireisland1, that’s great to know. Would you know how much pressure to pressure test the aftercooler after I service it ?

I want to test it and the heat exchanger.

Thanks

[Fireisland1]

Strips

On the first service of the QSB cooler I had to set up on a shop press. I needed hydraulic force and a block of wood to remove the core. After cleaning and removing the strips , lots of Alco it was reassembled. 3years later . Second service. I took off the caps and slid it out by hand. Big difference.
It was in such great shape could have easily gone another year or two.

[Rob Schepis]

worldcatlemon wrote:

Thanks for the great insight.

What is your opinion on backflushing through the aftercooler with a product like Barnacle Buster once a year?

When the product literature has hold harmless wording such as “some aluminum oxides should be closely monitored” or “aluminum designed for marine use is normally compatible” why would you want to take the chance as to any possible weep passed the aftercooler o-ring could only make a potentially bad situation worse…..

[worldcatlemon]

Thanks for the great insight.

What is your opinion on backflushing through the aftercooler with a product like Barnacle Buster once a year?

[Tony Athens]

If you supply as little as 2 GPM to the seawater pump inlet, that is all that is required to keep it WET, not get hot and flush your engine–You just have to run it longer at idle speeds to get the entire system flushed..

Tony

[worldcatlemon]

Yes I have. I plan to plumb it into the system so I can flush it after every trip and make it easier to winterize with RV antifreeze before winter sets in.

I’ve seen people plumb it into the body of the seawater pump but I think a bigger supply inlet would be better, maybe on the sea strainer side so I can run enough volume to keep the impeller from running “dry” for lack of a better word.

[Corey Schmidt]

Well that’s great! Conscience service and maintenance will pay dividends down the road and dramatically extend the life of your engines… have you thought about implementing a freshwater flush system on your boat?

[worldcatlemon]

Yeah I’m anal about servicing and maintenance. I just bought my engines and am going through them end to end so I can install one in my current boat and have one ready for my next boat project that is sitting on the trailer.

Thanks for the insight!!

[Corey Schmidt]

The strips were meant to reduce air bypassing the core by sealing the surfaces (by paper engineers, not field engineers)… but the truth is that they don’t really work or provide anything additional to the original design which was sans strips… also as soon as you service the system, getting the core in and out becomes a pipe dream with the strips in… basically impossible.

The fact of the matter is if you keep up on maintenance and you do not let too much junk (i.e. OIL) build up on the turbo side, then there’s plenty of surface area on the core to get the “cooling” job done on the charge air before it get into your engine. If you have excess amounts of oil on the core then you should be chasing that as a separate issue…

Save some hair on your head and toss the strips and just focus on doing proper and routine maintenance on the aftercooler with LOTS OF GREASE on and against the sealing surfaces!

[worldcatlemon]

Lol…seems to me it reduces air movement around the core and limits it to the turbo side which is usually the oily side??

At least that’s my observation.

[Corey Schmidt]

We feel that the silicone strips are not valuable to aftercooler function and we always throw them in the trash where they belong. For the ones who must have them, we do sell them…

[Author]

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