D4 260 Exhaust Elbows

[pete78]

Hi All,

I'd appreciate a bit of advice if I can. I've got 2 x VP d4 260's connected to drives. I've noted a bit of crystalised salt coming from the bellows / exhaust elbow join, and have been advised to have them stripped / cleaned and possibly replaced. I tend to get a bit of water in the bilges from every 2 or so hours running.

as I understand it the boat needs to be out of the water for the bellows to be removed / resealed and the elbows inspected and potentially replaced if needed. Of course sods law dictated the boat was out of the water 6 weeks ago!

my questions are;

• do you think this needs to be done urgently / or are there any wider risks from this?
• anybody with d4's lived with a slight leak from these elbows for a while? if so how long, any horror stories?

the boat is performing faultlessly, and is used regularly; I'm wondering if it is ok to wait to have them looked at and what others have done.

thanks!

 

[simonfraser]

'I tend to get a bit of water in the bilges from every 2 or so hours running'

if that is salty water i'd be concerned, how much salt water are you prepared to have corroding your engine from the outside ?

and yes the elbows can split crack etc.

 

[oldgit]

" I've noted a bit of crystalised salt coming from the bellows / exhaust elbow join"
Exhaust Elbow ? are we talking about the cast iron Exhaust Riser *inside the boat" ?
If so ,seem to recall on earlier engines with outdrives, removal/replacement and/or checking internal passsges are clear , is a job that can be done with the boat afloat.
This may not be the case with your boat.
Also recall that a a trace of salty residue around riser/ and exhaust hose joint was not that unusual and might be merely a case of nipping up the hose clamp rather than anything terminal happening with the riser.
This riser,only held together with luck and rust until removed .
Do not waste energy clearing out internal corrosion........dirt cheap to replace from Ebay.

A weep from the steering fork seals can be responsible for water getting into the bilge, difficult to spot as hidden away on transom, a quick go with the grease gun ,if nipple fitted, is a simple stress free cure.
If no nipple ? something to be sorted next time boat is lifted.

Even worser

 

[SC35]

Probably best off replacing bellows if it's as you say.
You might also need to replace the exhaust pipe, which can be a bit painful if access is tight.
But removing the bellows / elbow should illuminate next steps.

Worst case is that you end up with hundreds of litres of salty water sloshing around in the bilges, but this is very unlikely unless something actually breaks.

 

[pete78]

thanks all - your advice and guidance is really appreciated.

@oldgit - thanks, appreciate the tip on the grease nipple. My elbows, externally at least, look nowhere near as bad as that. I appreciate there may be all kinds of sins going on inside or where cant be seen, but they are 100 times better than those. when I asked my servicing engineer about 'nipping them up' he responded with stories of catastrophic failure which seemed a bit dramatic, but who am I to say.

@SC35 - thanks - reassuring that this is very unlikely to to happen.

Overall I'm veering toward asking another engineer to have a look, and then dependant on his opinion, look to schedule elbows / bellows when I have a summer lift if he think he is required.

attached is the best picture I've got of where the offending salt trail was - if I've remembered correctly, not sure it helps though on the urgency or not!

 

[Scubadoo]

Surely it is just a case of tightening the jubilee clips (not going at it heavy handed), wipe it clean and monitor for any new salt deposits. I can't see why an engineer would say catastrophic failure, in my opinion it's normal practice to check jubilee clips and tighten slighty if appropriate. If that's all it is, I can't see any problem using the boat and monitoring that area, obviously if it is getting worse I would get it lifted asap.

 

[simonfraser]

how old are the elbows ?
they get v hot salt water inside, prime candidate for corrosion etc.

 

[pete78]

Hi Scubadoo,

this was exactly my thought, but I guess I was a bit spooked by tails of catastrophic failure, hence why I asked for an opinion here to see what others thought and/or had done themselves. Good to see most are veering towards nipping them up and monitoring.

Simon - I'm unsure as I've only had the boat c18month and can't see a receipt for any direct work on them. I appreciate it's difficult to assess what's going on inside, but eternally at least they look reasonable. In a perfect world I'd just lift out next week and replace all that is necessary, however I don't live in a perfect world - Between engineer availability and logistics associated with the lift out it's not that simple, hence the ask for opinion from the knowledgeable folk here.

I'm very much leaning towards getting a 2nd opinion and nipping them up.

cheers

 

[julians]

My previous boat had a d4 260 engine, it developed a leak from the exhaust elbow.

On mine it was not leaking from the large diameter rubber hose that connects the elbow to the exhaust horn , but was from a plastic fitting that bolts onto the elbow that allows some water from the cooling system to mix into the elbow.

you can see the bit of the elbow where the plastic fitting bolts on in oldgits first picture (the circular holes, the d4 only has one hole though) . The mating surface of the elbow was so corroded that it didn't form a good seal with the plastic fitting anf had started to leak, so no amount of tightening etc made any difference. It actually made things worse as it dislodged more corrosion making it leak more.

I ended up replacing the elbow.

I think you're just going to have to inspect yours and make a judgement call.

After I tried to improve matters by tightening things, it became worse and it was leaking too much, so I replaced the elbow.

I'd put money on yours having the same issue if it does use that plastic fitting. I think not all d4 260s use the plastic fitting, some are just blanked off.

 

[oldgit]

It might be worth taking into account that both the risers pictured quite probably had not been changed for years and years. (Decades ?)
Both boats (one 1700 hours the other 800 hours) had reached the stage after previous owners, when awkward and expensive stuff which should have been replaced , left a neat little pile of delayed maintainance for the next mug owner to sort.