Sailing Maintenance - Heat exchanger servicing

[@belovingndfree]

why use a pump and not let the impeller do the pumping? what about the risk of seawater flowing back to the cylinders?

[@Unwrittentimeline]

Great question. I should have talked about this in the video. The barnacle buster isn't the best for the rubber impeller. You could probably get away with it but it's not recommended. There isn't much worry about water locking the engine with this method. The barnacle buster and fresh water rinse never circulates through the exhaust. The cylinders will get locked as water flows through the exhaust. Without the pressure of a running engine it won't be pushed out causing it to backfill the cylinders. That's why you don't want to crank your engine with the seacock open for extended periods of time if your engine won't start.

[@pleclerc1]

@@Unwrittentimeline Great explanation, you should work boat shows for us...lol. Quick correction, you could leave a rubber impeller in BB for months and nothing would happen to it. The reason for removing the impeller is that the product will not flow through the impeller, the impeller completely blocks the flow, and you want to make sure that it's intact. If it's broken up, you can try to back flow the parts out but it's best to take it a apart and make sure you found all of the missing parts of the impeller. Great video, thanks for using Barnacle Buster.

[@Unwrittentimeline]

@@pleclerc1 thank you for the response. I'm glad to hear that about the BB and rubber. It's always good when I learn something from my own video. I'm always at the Annapolis show on the Antares. I'll try to stop by the BB booth next time. Thanks for watching

[@TheFosterJourney]

Great explanation!

[@colettedagny-4972]

Groovy Daddy O

[@larryguitar5902]

dumb question on hook up. step 1 close sea cock and then attach one end to sea water intake. the attach other hose to the exhaust hose where it discharges water overboard. That way the barnacle buster cleans the entire coolant system? Am I correct?

[@Unwrittentimeline]

Yes that's correct. Thanks for watching.

[@redwood1957]

A question if i may. Befor you started this job did you have any symptoms, hi temp,low cooling discharge? Thank you nice video i like the simple light through the heat exchanger.

[@Unwrittentimeline]

We didn't have any symptoms. It was just for preventative maintenance.

[@HarryLevinson]

Is the Plastic shut off for the Seawater intake hose permanently plumbed in?

[@forrestallison1879]

I'd like to know if I need to remove all the coolant from my engine before I open the heat exchanger

[@Unwrittentimeline]

No you don't need to drain Coolant. If you remove just the end caps no Coolant will come out. However under the endcaps are O rings front and back. If you remove those o rings surrounding the heat exchanger Coolant will come out. So if you pulp the whole core out yes. If you leave it together and clean it as I did then no. Thanks for watching.

[@ken2633]

The sea water never gets into engine right? Only fresh water/coolant gets into engine. So just pump barnacle buster to sea water inlet of heat exchanger (tubes side) and connect the HX outlet (tubes side) back to the BB pail. BB just circulate from pail to HX and back to pail. Correct?

[@Unwrittentimeline]

Yes that's exactly right. The seawater cools the engine coolant through the heat exchanger. The two fluids never comingle but heat is transfered from the coolant to seawater.

[@darrentan1675]

I don’t see the need of using barnacle buster for cleaning intercooler since it’s accessible. I cleaned my own engine intercooler , heat exchanger plates by removing them since it’s accessible . Gonna use barnacle buster for piping that are unreachable for instance like seawater strainers to aircon compressor .

[@Unwrittentimeline]

Barnacle buster can be used through any seawater system. Im not a rep and i get no kickbacks from suggesting its use. If you hook up the cleaning solution as I have in the video you not only clean the heat exchanger but every pipe from the sea water strainer to the mixing elbow. Maybe only cleaning the heat exchanger is sufficient. Maybe you want to do as much as you can.

[@helmutrkopke]

Hi - great video, thank you for posting. Quick question though. When you took the front off the HX, did you also need to drain the shell (fresh water/glycol) side of the HX or were you able to get the front off without moving the freshwater hoses to the engine block?

[@Unwrittentimeline]

Great question. There is an O ring for that side however it does usually come a little loose so you may loose some coolant. However you don't need to drain that side of the system to service the heat exchanger usually. Thanks for watching.

[@mikehoward70]

Great video, and timely for me as I intend to open and inspect my yanmar heat exchanger this weekend. Can you list the part numbers of the three gaskets please. I am finding it very difficult to identify the correct parts

[@Unwrittentimeline]

Mike, thanks for watching. I hope the video helps. The O ring gasket is PN#24311-000700. There are two different types of gaskets that can be used depending on your heat exchanger. You would have to have serial numbers to identify without opening it up. Those two gaskets are "crossbar" PN#128297-44490 or PN#128297-44030. If you have the "triangle" gasket it is PN#128695-44070. I hope this helps, and good luck with your service.

[@Mysailingvacation]

My issue with this is even with experience I didn't see you really explain as someone else mentioned removing the outlet from the exchanger and returning it to the bucket somebody May end up not realizing pumping this vile stuff through the exchanger only to be pumping it into their exhaust in a non running engine which might end up making it into the exhaust ports and cylinders which would be very nasty. You must remember people that are watching this have never done what you are doing some have done much less and if you're not specific there will be issues.. also in some cases you are better off back flushing to get any bits and pieces out like you said from the tubes putting it in through the exchanger outlet and returning it to the bucket from the inlet

[@Unwrittentimeline]

I actually explicitly say to take the exit however and put it in the solution at 2:00. Thanks for bringing it up in case someone else missed it as well.

[@DavidRea2710]

You say you run the barnacle buster for an hour. I assume you mean you run the engine with the buster going in and out for an hour? It's this word 'run' that maybe confusing me. Other videos I've seen just let the barnacle buster sit in the system overnight... Your method may be quicker, but wouldn't the engine overheat if you ran it while doing this?

[@Unwrittentimeline]

Sorry for the confusion. When I say run I mean let the bilge pump run. I have a bilge pump in a 5 gallon bucket with the barnacle buster. Then the outlet hose that would normally carry the raw water to the exhaust elbow is lead to the same bucket. This creates a closed loop that the barnacle buster is in. The engine impeller is removed and the bilge pump cycles all the solution. You should not be running the engine during this process. Hope this helps.

[@DavidRea2710]

@@Unwrittentimeline HI, sorry I misunderstood. Yes, that's clear to me now.

[@MS-pw8yu]

"Science, science, science, fuel pump." is what I heard. I will just have to take your word that these things actually work. I find it interesting they don't just plumb a portion of the coolant system piping to an area on the hull, under or behind the boat, to freely exchange heat with the surrounding sea water. It could resemble a wort chiller like used in brewing beer. Wait...did I just come up with a hundred dollar idea!?! The date stamp on this comment is my claim to intellectual property!!! Speaking of beer, do you have any mead aboard? No sea vessel is complete without a bottle of mead to share with yer' mateys!

[@Unwrittentimeline]

Michael Spalsbury they actually do have something like you describe in a "keep cooler". It's a set of tubes that run under water doing the same thing the heat exchanger does. They are not widely used because it's a little more work and to make them effective you have to have them on the underside of the boat directly in the water which causes cleaning problems and makes the bottom not smooth which makes the boat a little slower. An actual radiator and fan set up could also be done but that takes up room that most people want for living or storage on a small boat.

[@bonehengemusic989]

@@Unwrittentimeline Keel cooler.

[@vatolocooperations6111]

Vato has an tattoo of a Stregheria symbol, cool.