Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
 
Old 12-02-2016, 08:40 AM   #1
Veteran Member
 
JackD's Avatar
 
City: York River, VA
Vessel Name: Big Fish
Vessel Model: Mainship Pilot 34
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 83
Yanmar 370HP - 1000 Hour Service

Greetings,

In December of 2015, I had 985 hours on my Yanmar 370HP and brought it to a very reputable (Yanmar authorized) marina (Haven Harbour) in MD. I've attached the completed work order below. Cost about $3300. I didn't see anything in there about the heat exchangers and was told they ran Rydlyme through the system. I wasn't thrilled with the answer, but who am I to challenge an authorized dealer?

Fast forward to December of 2016 (that is NOW, in case you are not paying attention)... I have moved to VA and have had a highly recommended local mechanic replace my mixing elbow (which the previous mechanic had pointed out was in need of replacing). So the new mechanic says that it doesn't look like the heat exchangers have been touched. I explained what was done last year. He tells me they should really be removed, cleaned, inspected, etc. His estimate for $3400 is below. Yikes. Thoughts??
Attached Thumbnails
haven harbour.jpg   Full Throttle.jpg  
__________________
Regards,
Jack & Julie Dooley
Big Fish ~ York River, VA
’02 Mainship Pilot 34
JackD is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-02-2016, 09:13 AM   #2
Guru
 
City: Carefree, Arizona
Vessel Name: sunchaser V
Vessel Model: DeFever 48 (sold)
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 10,186
Quote:
Originally Posted by JackD View Post
Greetings,
So the new mechanic says that it doesn't look like the heat exchangers have been touched. I explained what was done last year. He tells me they should really be removed, cleaned, inspected, etc. His estimate for $3400 is below. Yikes. Thoughts??
Sounds like you finally have a smart mechanic. Yanmar metallurgy on HXers is tricky thus leading to the better guys saying take them off. Now having said that, I'm sure several will chime in and say how happy they are with product XYZ that will rinse away your worries..

To make your life simpler in this regard, hook up a simple fresh water flush which will largely ameliorate the need to frequently clean the HXers. After coolers are a different story. They have to come off every few years and be cleaned, pressure tested and re-assembled by the book.
sunchaser is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-02-2016, 09:19 AM   #3
Guru
 
IRENE's Avatar
 
City: Sea of Cortez, Mexico
Vessel Name: Irene
Vessel Model: Nordhavn 40II
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 1,235
Jack,

I hope you will me allow me to jump on the thread with you, with a similar dilemma.

We have a Volvo Penta D4-260 with about 400 hours on it. The engine was placed in-service in 2006, and we purchased IRENE 2 years ago at the 80-hour mark. We are particular about maintenance, being a single-engine boat and operating all year in some remote areas. Fortunately we have found a service outfit we trust.

Our manual says to clean/inspect the charge air cooler and heat exchanger/oil cooler every 1200 hours or 5 years. Out trusted service outfit tells us they recommend to WAIT on that until there is an indication of a problem, as once the respective coolers are reassembled they will require servicing much more frequently.

Over on boatdiesel, and also on ybw, there are varying opinions, of course. My next move, in the next week or so, is to call 2 other reputable VP shops to learn their advice. For us, the coolers are the only maintenance item on the boat that remains unaddressed.

In the meantime, I recommend boatdiesel as a source of information. It's heavy on content and light on nonsense - well worth the annual price.

Best of Luck,

Jeff
IRENE is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-02-2016, 09:19 AM   #4
Veteran Member
 
JackD's Avatar
 
City: York River, VA
Vessel Name: Big Fish
Vessel Model: Mainship Pilot 34
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 83
I should also note that I didn't see any change in engine temp after having the "rinse" on the first go round. I realize that temp gauges may not be accurate, but I run right around 185 deg, which seems a bit hot.
__________________
Regards,
Jack & Julie Dooley
Big Fish ~ York River, VA
’02 Mainship Pilot 34
JackD is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-02-2016, 09:32 AM   #5
Veteran Member
 
JackD's Avatar
 
City: York River, VA
Vessel Name: Big Fish
Vessel Model: Mainship Pilot 34
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 83
Jeff - regarding the fresh water flush... I've got a Y valve in my bilge where I can either direct seawater into the strainer OR to a hose with a strainer that is very accessible. I'm told this is known as a "crash pump" so that if you are taking on water that you could use the engine to assist in pumping it out? I'd imagine I could very easily slip a 5 gallon bucket on that and run fresh water after each use. Sounds like a good idea, right?
__________________
Regards,
Jack & Julie Dooley
Big Fish ~ York River, VA
’02 Mainship Pilot 34
JackD is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-02-2016, 09:48 AM   #6
Valued Technical Contributor
 
DavidM's Avatar
 
City: Litchfield, Ct
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 6,785
I have done most of the work outlined above myself on my Yanmar, so from that basis here are some observations:

The first mechanic erred by not removing, disassembling, cleaning, greasing, reassembling and pressure testing the air cooler. Acid wash will remove scale, but it will not protect the air/water side sealing surfaces which deteriorate over time and cannot clean the air side.

Also the use of synthetic oil in the main and genset engine is a total waste of money.

I can't fault the second mechanic's plan. He proposes removing all of the heat exchangers to clean them and that is the first class way to do it. I happen to believe that acid flushing every 3-5 years will do almost as good, but only if a complete service is first done on the air cooler, particularly pressure testing.

I believe that removing injectors for testing on a good running engne at 1,000 hours is overkill, but I understand that is what Yanmar recommends.

IRENE: Waiting to notice a problem with the air cooler is like waiting for your engine to breakfast on sea water. It could be a very expensive wait. The comment that once you open the air cooler, it will require more frequent servicing is total BS. If you service them right, slather them with waterproof grease before reassembling, then they will last much longer than new from the factory with no grease.

sunchaser: A fresh water flush will help limit metal corrosion and zinc wastage in between runnings. It might also help prevent some dark loving critters from living and dying on the tubes between runnings. But I don't think it does much for scale formation. Scale forms when engine heat precipitates calcium, magnesium and other compounds in sea water on the heat exchanger tubes and that will happen whether you flush or not.

David
DavidM is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-02-2016, 10:10 AM   #7
Valued Technical Contributor
 
DavidM's Avatar
 
City: Litchfield, Ct
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 6,785
Quote:
Originally Posted by JackD View Post
Jeff - regarding the fresh water flush... I've got a Y valve in my bilge where I can either direct seawater into the strainer OR to a hose with a strainer that is very accessible. I'm told this is known as a "crash pump" so that if you are taking on water that you could use the engine to assist in pumping it out? I'd imagine I could very easily slip a 5 gallon bucket on that and run fresh water after each use. Sounds like a good idea, right?
Jack:

I also have those fittings on the sea water system on my Pilot 34. But the hose to the bilge is very inaccessible for use as a fresh water flush. The picture below shows what I did and it is very easy to use.

David
Attached Thumbnails
Bella fresh water flush.jpg  
DavidM is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-02-2016, 06:43 PM   #8
Guru
 
IRENE's Avatar
 
City: Sea of Cortez, Mexico
Vessel Name: Irene
Vessel Model: Nordhavn 40II
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 1,235
Quote:
Originally Posted by JackD View Post
Jeff - regarding the fresh water flush... I've got a Y valve in my bilge where I can either direct seawater into the strainer OR to a hose with a strainer that is very accessible. I'm told this is known as a "crash pump" so that if you are taking on water that you could use the engine to assist in pumping it out? I'd imagine I could very easily slip a 5 gallon bucket on that and run fresh water after each use. Sounds like a good idea, right?
Jack,

Yes! I would recommend it. We store IRENE on the trailer and she gets a fresh water flush after each use. You could even drop a bit of Salt Away in your "flush bucket". Unfortunately we don't have a similar setup for when she is in the water, which is a couple of weeks for vacation, and many weekends.

Jeff
IRENE is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-02-2016, 06:45 PM   #9
Guru
 
IRENE's Avatar
 
City: Sea of Cortez, Mexico
Vessel Name: Irene
Vessel Model: Nordhavn 40II
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 1,235
Thanks David!
IRENE is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2017, 09:58 PM   #10
Senior Member
 
Symphony's Avatar
 
City: New Haven, Ct
Vessel Name: - - - -
Vessel Model: ex - Vicem 58
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 151
David, did you fabricate the strainer lid with the extra opening for the Apollo valve? or are such things available generally?
Symphony is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-13-2017, 06:49 AM   #11
Valued Technical Contributor
 
DavidM's Avatar
 
City: Litchfield, Ct
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 6,785
It was easy to do. I removed the lid, clamped it in a vise and drilled and tapped a hole for the street elbow you see in the pic. I considered silver soldering the joint but just tightening up the fitting seemed good enough.

David
DavidM is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 10-13-2017, 08:00 AM   #12
Senior Member
 
Symphony's Avatar
 
City: New Haven, Ct
Vessel Name: - - - -
Vessel Model: ex - Vicem 58
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 151
OK, David, thanks. I see you have a hose quick release on the end, but maybe I would just clamp a hose on the end and have a hose there ready to suck from a bucket or from the bilge
Symphony is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-13-2017, 09:10 AM   #13
Guru
 
City: LI or Fla
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 1,148
20 year and never removed the coolers, we do run a de-scaler (Ryn or Barnicle Buster) every three years, we do it right before replacing the zinc's.

Also good to run turbo wash through every year or two.
Marlinmike is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-13-2017, 09:16 AM   #14
Guru
 
City: Northport
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,046
Is anyone running boost and EGT gages so that they can detect the needs and results of any of these tasks? Intercooler cleaning, heat X-changer cleaning , turbo wash...
smitty477 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Trawler Port Captains
Port Captains are TF volunteers who can serve as local guides or assist with local arrangements and information. Search below to locate Port Captains near your destination. To learn more about this program read here: TF Port Captain Program





All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:24 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0
Copyright 2006 - 2012