So, where does the spent zinc material go?

[David R Flamer]

I recently replaced each of the zincs in QSB’s in both engines.   They really were not all that bad, but since they are not all that expensive I figure to just replace them when I pulled them. 

None of them were broken off, but had that “buttery” look that they get.

My question is what happens to the material that sluffs off the zinc pencils?  Does the material collect somewhere in the RW circuit?  Does it just dissolve, small enough to get through all of the passages and out the exhaust?    It  would be great to know what others know.

Topic

[David R Flamer]

Thanks for all of the feedback and pictures!

[John Arndt]

Might end up here

QSC 490 2007

Salt Water, So Cal

No Broken Zincs

Mil Spec

[Bryan]

Try this again

[David R Flamer]

That is good info.   Ultimately, there are a lot of small passages that wasted material would have to pass through.  I was just curious if anyone has ever found it collected anywhere in the RW circuit, and where.

Thanks for the feedback!

[David Marchand]

Zinc dissolves mostly

As Rob notes above, most of the zinc is converted to soluble compounds as it wastes- that is the proper term ;-), and is dissolved in sea water and flushes away. But sulfur compounds in the sea water will produce insoluble compounds and some impurities in the zinc will do the same. That is why you always should buy mil spec zincs that are very pure.

More info than you wanted, right?

David

[Rob Schepis]

It just dissolves

[Author]

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