Use a flexible small hose to reach in from the plug to get to flush water in the area around other cylinders. You should be able to get most of it out. I have also seen quite a few race engines fail from building engines on blocks with too little metal left above the centre main bearing.įlush as much as you can back through the block drain and the removed plug. I have collected a lot of spare blocks and thrown away just as many as the cylinder wall thickness at the bottom of the water jacket was just too little. Sludge build up in the bottom of the block and the resultant corrosion is the main reason why blocks come to the end of their life.
Or perhaps I'm worrying too much? Attachments andrewk New-tral Posts: 11 Joined: Or perhaps there's some additive that people have tried and found effective that is used once reassembled. I guess I could flush from the thermostat housing with the lower hose blocked off. I wouldn't mind some sage words from others. Now some of this has been disturbed, if I just reassemble it I fear that it may clog up the radiator and/or damage the water pump.
I've removed an egg-cup full with a small spoon but there's no way of getting much more of it out that way. The coolant is clear green, the operating temperature is fine, the radiator is clean, there's a two year-old Burton cassette pump working well, but the amount of crap in this water jacket is amazing.
I really wasn't prepared for the sheer volume of gritty sludge in behind there. With the approach of a southern hemisphere winter I decided to get into it yesterday. If this service is deferred, then damage due to corrosion occurs.I've had a seeping frost plug (welch plug for some of you) for a while, the rear one of the two on the exhaust side. Corrosion occurs whether the engine is running or sitting. That is why the service has recommended time intervals. Disassembly, reservoir cleaning, and reassembly with new seals and lubricated fasteners are also assured during this routine maintenance. The manufacturers understand that the marine environment is harsh, so they require these bundles be removed periodically. Ultrasonically cleaned and pressure tested bundles ensure that both seawater and coolant water portions are attended to. O-rings are used to prevent the antifreeze and sea water from mixing in the reservoir.Įngine manufacturers, including MAN Marine Engines and Yanmar Marine Engines provide maintenance time interval guidelines so that service is performed before a problem (such as overheating) arises. The other reason is that the tube bundle type of heat exchanger systems has an inner (copper/nickel) tube bundle assembly and an outer reservoir. "Why can’t I just run barnacle buster through my cooling system?" Barnacle Buster has corrosive properties, which can cause damage to gaskets, seals and sensors in the water jacket side! Thus, it’s only suitable for the seawater side. Over time the deposits clog up the water passages that carry the seawater and don’t allow for a proper heat exchange process. When the engine sits for extended periods, the water deposits fall out of suspension and stick to the metal pieces in the heat exchanger.
The sea water contains microbes, sea grass, clams and barnacles. When an engine runs, these extra minerals are moved through the sea water side of the system. On top of this, water of unknown quality is often added to the coolant, diluting it and adding debris.
The antifreeze has additives to absorb and suspend these particles, but over time they overwhelm the antifreeze as the additives are depleted. The antifreeze wears out and the energy release, which occurs millions of times during the running cycle in an engine, acts to remove tiny particulates of iron and aluminum from the engines’ water- jacketed parts. Let us explain, the cooling system gets deposits on both the water jacket and the seawater side of a closed cooling system. A closed system has antifreeze or rust inhibitors on the water jacket side of the engine, while the salt water is used in place of a radiator.