63p heat exchanger cleaning

dabsolute470

dabsolute470

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 Jan 2010
Messages
639
Location
wickford essex, boat fambridge
www.coverdalegroup.co.uk
Hiya all

our engines have been running at 200f and thinking of some maintenance...

is it hard to clean the cool air and heat exchanger or what sort of cost would it be ?

do you remove the core or take the whole lot off the side of engine.

tried to find a youtube clip without luck

thanks

steve
 
I Rydlyme mine very couple of years.

if yours have never been done it might be worthwhile dismantling them and soaking them in a bath of Rydlyme.

Flakes of scale, bits of impeller and anodes drop off and not only build up and block up the front of the tube stack but also block the water feeds for the stern seals. After cleaning it's worth proving the water supply to the shaft seals should be about 5 litres per minute.

I had my water pick up which was low from before the cooler stack moved to the top of the tube as mine had blocked.
 
Hi Bandit

thanks for the information, i did the rydlyme on the fresh side last year but the salt side has never been cleaned.

i took the long hose off and there was a few barnicals and calcium in the pipe, that why i want to find out how to remove the coolers

any idea how much it would cost or is it a easy doable diy job

cheers

steve
 
it is a very DIY-able job if you have reasonable access and a good 3/8" drive socket set, plus an allen key adapter for the cooler end caps. If you can get hold of a 63P owners manual it tells you how to do it. From memory it took me about three hours to take one side to bits (some tight/awkward bolts to undo) and about 2 hours to put it back together again after soaking the cooling matrix overnight in calgon to get the lime scale off, then careful rodding through every tube. If you do it yourself don't forget there is a bolt behind the engine cooler and the inlet manifold that is hard to see.
 
Use Rydlyme very gentle, no need to rod through.

if you Rydlyme with coolers in place it's the seawater side (salt side) that you clean through with Rydlyme .

The bend between turbo and the injection bend on mine failed three years ago and at 12 years old I was amazed at how bad the corrosion on the injection bend was so I changed both of those and the plain bend between turbo and injection bend.
 
re coolers off engine
the engine heat exchanger comes off the engine, you need to take it off to get the core out. don't forget to drain the antifreeze out the drain tap low down in the other side of the engine - fit a length of garden hose to the drain tap and empty into a container. Unbolt the little bracket behind the alternator with the oil pressure switches etc on it move down out of the way, then you can get your socket and extension behind the heat exchanger to remove the hidden bolt.
The charge air cooler case is part of the inlet manifold and stays on the engine, the core slides out - don't loose the ball bearing that locate it under the brass plug.
the gearbox oil cooler is messy. I removed the gearbox oil hoses first and taped the ends up to avoid getting any water in the gearbox oil. then undo both ends and the core slides out - bit messy as you get water and a bit of gearbox oil coming out at the same time so take plenty of small containers with you to catch the mess.
the exhaust elbow is clamped onto the turbo - just undo the bolt and it will come free. getting the elbow out of the rubber exhaust can be a struggle make sure the clamps are completely free and slid further down the exhaust pipe.

Once you have it all apart cleaning the cores is easy. Give the charge air cooler a seriously good degreasing too to get the spaces between the tubes as clean as poss.
 
You need a 12 v pump, Rydlyme in a plastic box, takeout the impeller pump the Rydlyme through the engine disconnect the return feed to then injection bend and either return to the plastic box or pump through the other engine and then return to box.

when it is spent refresh the Rydlyme with new.
 
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