nauticlew
Member
After a day cruising to an anchorage the engine room gets hot and give off heat all night, comfortable in October but not in July. Any ideas on how to cool the engine room in the summer months?
engine room cooling
- Thread starter nauticlew
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
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You need an exhaust fan, typically a squirrel cage blower that you mount in the engine room and run hose from the discharge to a vent port on the side of the boat. They come in 12V DC or 120V AC.
Run it for about an hour after you shut the engine down to exhaust the hot air from the engine compartment.
David
Run it for about an hour after you shut the engine down to exhaust the hot air from the engine compartment.
David
Ski in NC
Technical Guru
It's not July yet!!!
Hard for blowers to get rid of heat from thousands of pounds of hot iron. My 2000lb engine is still warm the next morning.
If you run your gennie, it makes even more heat.
Engine room should be insulated from the cabin, at least somewhat. Where are you sensing the heat.
Hard for blowers to get rid of heat from thousands of pounds of hot iron. My 2000lb engine is still warm the next morning.
If you run your gennie, it makes even more heat.
Engine room should be insulated from the cabin, at least somewhat. Where are you sensing the heat.
RT Firefly
Enigma
Greetings,
Mr. n. Welcome aboard. I, unfortunately have the same ER overheat problem. I've seen 140°F at times. As mentioned, great in February, not so good in July. The ER is well insulated as I can't detect any heat in the saloon deck nor outside the ER door but stifling is putting it mildly. The use of the blower really doesn't help much as I have to exhaust a volume in the neighborhood of 800+ cubic feet. Somewhat seriously considering AC...
Mr. n. Welcome aboard. I, unfortunately have the same ER overheat problem. I've seen 140°F at times. As mentioned, great in February, not so good in July. The ER is well insulated as I can't detect any heat in the saloon deck nor outside the ER door but stifling is putting it mildly. The use of the blower really doesn't help much as I have to exhaust a volume in the neighborhood of 800+ cubic feet. Somewhat seriously considering AC...
stubones99
Guru
a one ton engine? is it a MAN v16?
that will make it sit heavy in the stern...
that will make it sit heavy in the stern...
We have a pair of 6 cylinder Luggers that weigh in at a ton plus each. Our genny is also 1000 pounds. After everything is heat soaked even 1100 cfm axial fans pushing and pulling together won't drop the er temp below 100 overnight in the summer. That's why you also need insulation.
Via iPhone.
Via iPhone.
stubones99
Guru
ok, not one ton engine...
cooler is better, always.
cooler is better, always.
Gulfstar 36
Senior Member
Insulate! I can run all day and sit at anchor and not feel any extra heat from my two Perkins in the saloon.
Drake
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gazzabo
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make sure you have at least 1 sq in for every HP air intake. Try to keep ER temp down to 10-12 deg above ambient temp.I run a 120 hp 6BD1 .
stubones99
Guru
The higher the engine intake air is, the less efficient it runs. You are effectively lowering the engine compression when you feed hot air to an engine. I guess you can run a turbo with an intercooler to fix that... If you must have a hot ER, have your engine intake air pulled from ambient temp fresh air coming from outside the ER.
FF
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Underway there is no problem powering or listening to huge cooling fans , sucking the heat out.
Anchored the use more insulation idea sounds better , as at least its quiet.
If it really bothers you ,a pair of DC pumps to circ engine coolant thru a heat exchanger to the sea might not have to operate too long.
Anchored the use more insulation idea sounds better , as at least its quiet.
If it really bothers you ,a pair of DC pumps to circ engine coolant thru a heat exchanger to the sea might not have to operate too long.
sunchaser
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RTF - have you considered a chiller using seawater rather than going all the way to AC?
A decade ago as we struggled with where to boat out our retirement years, the PNW won out. No bad winter temperatures and cool water. As we currently work our way north with Port Hardy and further north still dipping into the upper forties F at night, ER heat is much appreciated.
There is life beyond FL. Plus as my skin doctor says, stay out of the sun.
A decade ago as we struggled with where to boat out our retirement years, the PNW won out. No bad winter temperatures and cool water. As we currently work our way north with Port Hardy and further north still dipping into the upper forties F at night, ER heat is much appreciated.
There is life beyond FL. Plus as my skin doctor says, stay out of the sun.
RT Firefly
Enigma
Greetings,
Mr. s. AC in the ER is more of a pipe dream at this point as there are many more pressing items to deal with. It's a boat after all. Still, it does get some hot in there. 2 engines, generator, 4 AC units already. LOTS of heat sources. I've found leaving the ports open on opposite sides does help quite a bit particularly if there's a breeze on the beam.
Mr. s. AC in the ER is more of a pipe dream at this point as there are many more pressing items to deal with. It's a boat after all. Still, it does get some hot in there. 2 engines, generator, 4 AC units already. LOTS of heat sources. I've found leaving the ports open on opposite sides does help quite a bit particularly if there's a breeze on the beam.
Ski in NC
Technical Guru
Not correct. Drawing in warm ER air will reduce maximum power output at full, but below full power efficiency will not change enought to measure.
Drawing from outside can bring in salt spray into air intake unless done carefully.
Marlinmike
Guru
We run dual blowers, typically turned on early in the approach and the 5 mph zone, then for another 30+ minutes or so during shut down/clean up, don't think it drops the engine room temp down much, but I feel better about it ;-)
I actually like to keep the engine room temps up in order to facilitate moisture removal. The difference in air's moisture capacity between 100 and 130 degrees f is huge. Great for drying laundry and actually healthier for the machinery too. Note our batteries are elsewhere. Also after a good heat soak every thing in the er comes to an equilibrium temp and your going to need ridiculous amounts of cooling air with high delta t to make anything cooler.
Via iPhone.
Via iPhone.
Tom, it's nice to see where you're headed. Enjoy your retired life in the great PNW.
FF
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"Enjoy your retired life in the great PNW."
In time you wont miss sunshine and may learn to enjoy cloudy rainy months!
In time you wont miss sunshine and may learn to enjoy cloudy rainy months!
Let's look at this from a system standpoint. The engine(s) create the heat - so running them less or possibly at lower loads might help. Getting other sources of heat (water heater?) out of the ER might help.
Increasing the cooling capacity might help. Higher capacity pumps? More freely flowing intakes? Rodding the heat exchangers? Boat in cooler water?
Then turn to cooling and insulating the ER as others have mentioned. Turn on blower(s) when ER temp goes over ambient temp. Pull air from cooler area (adjacent bilge?). Increase air exchanges.
If engine cooling is ample, consider insulating the engine directly with a blanket. Insulate particular sources of radiant heat (exhaust, turbos, hot water lines, etc.)
Look for a way to pull heat with engine shut down. Perhaps circulate cooling water with electric pump on a bypass.
Lots of these ideas would rely on knowing the absolute - and relative - temperatures of air and water inside and outside boat, so the project should probably start with some instrumentation and recording in a variety of conditions.
Increasing the cooling capacity might help. Higher capacity pumps? More freely flowing intakes? Rodding the heat exchangers? Boat in cooler water?
Then turn to cooling and insulating the ER as others have mentioned. Turn on blower(s) when ER temp goes over ambient temp. Pull air from cooler area (adjacent bilge?). Increase air exchanges.
If engine cooling is ample, consider insulating the engine directly with a blanket. Insulate particular sources of radiant heat (exhaust, turbos, hot water lines, etc.)
Look for a way to pull heat with engine shut down. Perhaps circulate cooling water with electric pump on a bypass.
Lots of these ideas would rely on knowing the absolute - and relative - temperatures of air and water inside and outside boat, so the project should probably start with some instrumentation and recording in a variety of conditions.
kulas44
Guru
Well, the engine is gonna be around 180, no matter how hard you do or dont run it. The engine/gear are huge heat sinks, no way around it. More cooling for them wont make a difference. Insulating the ER will help, IF, you can move the hot air out. If not it just migrates thru to the cooler living area, funny thing about heat, it goes toward the cool 
Big fans, inny and outy, help tremendously. I use 8, 10 inch automotive type radiator fans in my sporty. It has 8v92 DDs, 5000 lb heat sinks. 4 fans are pulling air in, 4 are blowing air out. My aircons dont have to work as hard now.
Big fans, inny and outy, help tremendously. I use 8, 10 inch automotive type radiator fans in my sporty. It has 8v92 DDs, 5000 lb heat sinks. 4 fans are pulling air in, 4 are blowing air out. My aircons dont have to work as hard now.
markpierce
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I don't notice the engine heat unless opening the hatches and especially when entering the engine compartment. Quickest way to loose the heat for me is to open the pilothouse doors and the engine-access hatches in the pilothouse floor. Saloon and bedroom are below the level of the pilothouse so the heat escapes. Have an engine-compartment exhaust fan, but that's a very slow way to remove the heat. The engine compartment has good sound insulation and that provides heat insulation too.
