genset flush advice with picture.

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Simi 60

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Jul 1, 2016
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Location
Australia
Vessel Make
Milkraft 60 converted timber prawn trawler
Brilliantly sunny day so the perfect one to give the genset raw water cooling circuit a flush.
I have rummaged through the myriad of fittings on board and have some that fit the numbered orifices,
1) being where the zinc was and just adjacent to where the raw water pump sends water into the circuit and 2) the exhaust elbow out.

The plan was have a bucket of rydlyme equivelant , a small bilge pump in the bucket pumping into 1) and a pipe in 2) collecting the wonderful acidy goodness as it did its thing.

Rinse and repeat while consuming several frothy beverages.

Before I hook it all up and open a beverage can someone knowledgeable just confirm that I have it right please?

Thanks.
 

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I prefer when possible to back flush in from the outlet to out at the inlet.

It's hard to tell in the picture but does the square manifold in the picture that the exhaust elbow is attached to houses the heat exchanger as well?

How are you going to keep the flush fluid from going back to the pump?
 
I haven't stopped it going back to the pump but have closed the gate valve for raw water in , theory being water in the line will stop or at least lessen seepage back to pump.
The big hose in the elbow is exhaust, that run back into the heat exchanger, top hose out runs back to where I am pumping in..
The loop to the left I am not sure what that does. No manual for this build and diecon engineering who did build it are defunct now.

I got thirsty so started pumping and fluid is rushing in and out and looks none to clean so something must be happening
 
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A bit further on and the fluid definetely seems to be pumping through at a better rate of flow.
Time for another frothy beverage as moral support and encouragement to my hard working acitic friend :)
 
Well, you are either done by now or on your xteenth frothy beverage -;). Your plan sounds good. Flush in the normal flow direction to make sure all passages are full. Otherwise air pockets will form. You can reverse flow for the 2nd or 3rd flush to push debris back out.

David
 
Why not pull the HXer off, replace those aged hoses, rod out and reinstall. Did it on my Westerbeke this summer. Replace coolant too while you're at it. Not a big deal.
 
Why not pull the HXer off, replace those aged hoses, rod out and reinstall. Did it on my Westerbeke this summer. Replace coolant too while you're at it. Not a big deal.

It is a big deal if you live on the hook and your nearest source of parts at the moment is 3 hours steaming plus a dinghy and then a car ride away.

I had the acid, hose and adapters onboard to do a flush so that was the route I took.

Ended up with a fair bit of grunge in the bottom of the bucket after I drained the acid so clearly flow should be better, but still not as healthy a spurt out the exhaust as I'd expect when running and laser thermometer shows heat exchanger end at around 95 degree.C so I suspect the pump needs a new impellor, it'll get one, not this week.
Genset is not high on the priority list with so much solar on board.
 
Question? Is this Genset a closed or open cooling system?
 
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