Winterizing a Volvo TAMD41 questions.

I am new to marine diesels. I have rebuilt a few Chrysler marine 318’s and 360’s etc and know my way around a diesel pretty good. Now I am into a 42’ Fu Hwa with twin volvo’s. I prefer to my own maintenance, that way I can be picky about how its being done. I have a few questions however. I am new to the whole racor filter thing. I have already treated the fuel with stabilizer, and want to change the filters. Is there some fuel line bleeding I need to do? And if so how do I prime the system or will it need priming?so many questions. I’ll have more in a later thread.

I have Lehmans and when I change the fuel filters I change the Racor element first. Shut off the fuel to the Racor, pop the top and pull out the old element and put the new element in. Turn on fuel slowly and my Racors will gravity fill. I let the fuel get to the top of the Racor and shut off the fuel again, put the top back on after changing the O rings. Then I change the secondaries on the engine. Then I have to pump the button on the fuel lift pump about 75 times with the bleeder screw open on the secondary filter. When air stops coming out of the bleeder screw, I tighten the screw and start the engine. Your Volvo may be a bit different for the secondaries but the Racor should be pretty much the same.

I am also wondering what the best oil is to use for the TAMD41’s? Full synthetic, semi, or just straight 30W Rotella? I use Motorcaft in my 2016 F250. Am curious if that would be sufficient for a Volvo diesel?

The title of the thread says winterizing the engines. I use a Sea Flush adapter that goes into your strainer. Just take the top off the strainer and insert the Sea Flush, bungee it down and put the hose in a 5 gallon bucket full of antifreeze and start the engine. It will suck the antifreeze into the engine. Works great.

I'd probably default to a 15W-40 diesel oil unless there's a good reason to do otherwise or you want to go synthetic for longer change intervals or better cold start performance.

PasadenaPhil said:

I am also wondering what the best oil is to use for the TAMD41’s? Full synthetic, semi, or just straight 30W Rotella? I use Motorcaft in my 2016 F250. Am curious if that would be sufficient for a Volvo diesel?

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I use Rotella 15-40.
The only reason to use a synthetic oil is to extend the service interval. Once a year is well within the hour interval, and extending to once every 2 or even 3 yrs doesn't seem right, so I am sicking with Dino oil and annual changes.
Rotella is a brand name, but each other brand has its equivalent. Get what your favourite store sells as that equivalent.

I use Rotella 15W40 also.

Thanks everyone who responded. Yes I jumped right into oil questions on my winterizing thread. Sorry. I always do that as well when I pink my motors. I figure I’m running the motors why not change all the fluids and filters too. Sea flush sounds great, I’ll give it a go. My strainers are different sized though for the generator and ac units . The engine strainers are quite larger than the ac and generator. Also is that the same stuff as barnacle buster? And will it clean the oil cooler as well as the heat exchanger? Probably everywhere sea water goes I would assume?

I have 2 different size Groco strainers. Trac Ecological sells adapters that temporarily replace the top so that you can hook a hose to them and suck antifreeze into the strainer. I put a hose bib on the side of a 5 gallon bucket and hook a hose to the strainer and let the antifreeze gravity feed into the strainer.

Thanks for the tip on the Gorco caps I just went on line shopping and ordered all three sizes, and if one doesn’t fit back in the mail it goes. I also ordered 3 gallons of barnacle buster concentrate. One for each motor and one for the generator and ac units. A buddy of mine used buster a few years back and swore by it. Said it pushed a lot of gunk out the pipes and he noticed it has extended the life of his Chrysler 360’s exchangers and exhaust systems

I used BB last year on my main engines and the A/Cs. I put it in and let it sit for the recommended time, I did not recirculate it. One engine dropped 5 degrees and the other dropped 10 degrees.

winterizing a Volvo TAMD 41

Ok admittedly I have twin Volvo TAMD 61 A's not necessarily the same engines BUT I know the whole raw water system is composed of a copper alloy. I would be VERY concerned with using any aggressive type of cleaner like BB. I use a diluted white vinegar solution with great results. I moor in fresh water but operate in salt for about 2-3 months. When examining my intercoolers and heat exchangers I've not noticed any significant build up of anything that would be of concern. Three to four hours of a soak with a 50% vinegar to water solution has kept them clean. DO NOT use anything more acidic in these systems for any extended time or else expect raw water cooling problems.

There are only two galvonic anodes on my engines and these are located in the transmission coolers. The whole raw water cooling system is composed of a well designed thick copper tubing. It's designed that way and I've found that it's best to not to challenge the design thinking of the Volvo engineers.

My engines have over 3000 hrs on them and ( "knock on wood" ) have never shown issues associated with raw water flow restrictions.

RB Cooper

I have a home made 5 gallon "gerry" can with a 4 foot hose on the spout. Fill it with antifreeze, shut the through hull valve and leave the top off the strainer. Start the engine and let the antifreeze run into the strainer, it will gobble five gallons in about 3 minutes or less so I have 2 or 3 extra gallons opened and ready to pour into the strainer. My able bodied assistant will be at the back of the boat with a clean glass of antifreeze and an empty glass. She will catch the exhaust water and when the color matches the undiluted antifreeze she hollers to me and I shut the engine down.

Done in less than 5 minutes!!

I use -50 degree RV antifreeze. (pink). And as a further precaution, after the exhaust water runs pink, I restart the engine and run 2 gallons of 50/50 glycol through it. At about $10.00 a gallon it's cheap insurance.

I use Rotilla straight 30 weight, but that is another thread if you want to get into it. Brian Smith says "straight 30 weight" and that's what I use.

Comodave has the right procedure and sequence for the Rancors and Secondarys except mine are higher than the fuel pick ups and will not self fill. Many people have a priming pump for this situation, I don't . I just fill them to the top with a portable fill tank with a small hose and thumb screw valve.

I have also installed hoses onto the drains at the bottoms of the Raycors. Since they are fairly high I can totally drain them through these hoses and don't spill a drop.

rbcooper said:

Ok admittedly I have twin Volvo TAMD 61 A's not necessarily the same engines BUT I know the whole raw water system is composed of a copper alloy. I would be VERY concerned with using any aggressive type of cleaner like BB. I use a diluted white vinegar solution with great results. I moor in fresh water but operate in salt for about 2-3 months. When examining my intercoolers and heat exchangers I've not noticed any significant build up of anything that would be of concern. Three to four hours of a soak with a 50% vinegar to water solution has kept them clean. DO NOT use anything more acidic in these systems for any extended time or else expect raw water cooling problems.

There are only two galvonic anodes on my engines and these are located in the transmission coolers. The whole raw water cooling system is composed of a well designed thick copper tubing. It's designed that way and I've found that it's best to not to challenge the design thinking of the Volvo engineers.

My engines have over 3000 hrs on them and ( "knock on wood" ) have never shown issues associated with raw water flow restrictions.

RB Cooper

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Barnacle Buster specifically states it is safe for heat exchanger metals. Only zinc as in zinc anodes need to be removed before using it.


Ken

Barnacle Buster as a raw water cleanser

All,

Ok Some have posted that BB is not as aggressive a solution as I originally stated. In examining the actual contents it appears that the principal active ingredient is Phosphoric acid. Probably not as much of a concern as opposed to hydraulic acid compositions. I still would advise that anyone using these compounds ask the manufacturer about what there recommendations might be. Leaving any acid based cleaner in the raw water cooling system for significant amounts of time might compromise the system. BTW some engine manufacturers recommend using citric acid for the same function. Citric acid may be a much milder and cheaper solution as will acetic acid. The former from lemons and the latter from vinegar.

As with all of these types of treatments one can't argue with success

RB Cooper

BB recommendations are to either recirculate it through the system or let it sit for, I think, about 6 to 8 hours. In order to recirculate it you have to pull the impeller which is a pain on my starboard engine. So I just did the let it sit method. Worked fine for me.

The other way to recirc is to hook up downstream of the seawater pump. Depending on your plumbing layout, that may be fairly easy to do.

I have a hard pipe downstream of the pump and it isn’t easy to get off.

Thanks for all the info. I’ll be sure to post results.

with the 41's, there will be a manual primer on the lift pump. Pre fill the filters, then open the bleeder on top of the filter housing. pump until fuel flows freely then tighten the bleeder. then crack three of the 6 injector lines at the injectors. crank the engine over til fuel starts to squirt out of injectors. tighten and should start no problem.