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The simple answer is “No”.Ā The seacock remains open so any excess fresh water will exit through the seacock.
One unexpected result of the fresh water flushing, at least on my boat, is that the strainers remain clean for a very long time as a result of fresh water back flowing through them.
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David,
Really quite simple. In the pictures you can see the freshwater line going into the fitting on the strainer and is a direct shot to the raw water intake line.
The freshwater hose is run to any place convenient to put a garden hose fitting. As you can see, mine goes to a through hull fitting on the gunnel.Ā Very easy to get to.
There are no valves in the system! Th cap on the hose fitting prevents air from being sucked in at speed.Ā The sea cock for the raw water is left open during flushing.Ā This eliminates the possibility of accidentally leaving a valve closed.
Flushing should be done immediately upon returning from a trip before the engines cool down. My procedure is to pull into the slip, tie up and immediately attach the hose to begin flushing on one motor while the other is left idling. Then shut down that one and flush the other.
There are several ways to attach the freshwater hose to the raw water system. One is to tap the lid of the strainer and put a fitting into the lid. Or purchase a lit with a fitting already in place.Ā Another method is to cut the raw water line and place a āTā in the line.Ā The āT: will be a hose barb or some other means to attach a hose. I happen to prefer this method.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask.
Bill
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Hi Tony,
Here are a few pictures as requested. I must say I am not very proud of the way it looks. But they do have 20 years of marine age.
One thing I will mention is that I have not been able to do my normal winter/spring cleaning and maintenance.
I have had two rather major surgeries since the middle of December which has slowed me up a bit.
Each off-season I pressure wash, de-rust, and touch-up all paint. as well as all my normal routine stuff, which I will list for those interested.
1. Change coolant
2. remove seawater pumps, inspect and replace impellers
3. Change fuel filters. I only have to change them once a year, regardless of hours. Clean tank, clean
purchase place. 10 micron on primary, 2 micron on engine.
4. Change alternator belts.
5. Change transmission fluid.
6. For me oil change is not once a year, done as needed.
7. This year the valves will be adjusted.
8. pressure wash, clean and paint as needed. As you can see from the photos, these are needed.
Again not too proud of the packing gland, shaft, coupler area, in my boat this is a very wet area, and again once a year it all gets wire brushed and painted.
Some background on my boat:
1975 Bertram 28, purchased in early 1991 with 260 HP Mercruiser, 350 Chevies, which I ran almost 10 years, about 3,500 hours. On January 8, 2000, I ran the boat to Oxnard and it was put in Tony’s shop. The repower was complete and back to San Diego on July 15, 2000. And the rest is history as they say.
Currently the motors have 6,645 hours which translates to about 12,000-16,000 gallons of fuel per motor.
The first 10+ years when I was working, I put about 250-350 hours per year, Since that time closer to 500-600+ hours per year. What you see in the photos are the original everything. No repairs or replacement of anything other that the routine stuff mentioned. Fresh water flush does wonders.
I would be happy to answer any questions.
Bill1 user thanked author for this post.
I have 4LHA-STEs which have the same coolant issues as your 6LYAs.
The key is, and I think this is in the Yanmar spec someplace, is that the coolant have no silicates or phosphates.
I have used Preston Dex-Cool Extended Life coolant for 20 years with no problems. Any brand of Dex-Cool Extended Life should be OK as long as you can find some place on the label that says “silicate and phosphate free”. These are all orange in color.
If you cannot find the “silicate and phosphate free” on the label I would not use it.
I have attached a picture of an older label and a newer label of the Preston Extended Life Dex-Cool coolant.
By the way, I change mine every year. But I also put 500-700 hours per year on the motors.1 user thanked author for this post.
