Do you need a pump and alarm in the engine bay?

[Nostrodamus]

I have the usual manual and automatic bilge pumps but when it comes to the engine bay there is nothing and nowhere for it to drain too.

I presume the reason for this is that you don’t want contaminated water going into the main bilge and being pumped overboard.

Is it worth putting some kind of pump in the engine bay. My concerns are that there are sea cocks in here for the raw water intake and the sailing leg diaphragm. If there was a leak it would be a nightmare pumping it out by hand.

A water level warning alarm in there would be a good idea as well.

Any thoughts?

 

[Sandy]

Have you discussed this with the builders, there must have been a design decision over why it was done like this?

 

[nimbusgb]

A float level switch and alarm in a separate engine bilge has got to be a good idea. Engine inlet, propshaft hole, even a fuel tankl dumping several hundred of litres of diesel ( my tank would drain into the engine bilge as could a return line failure) into the bilge would all be nasty scenarios!

 

[ghostlymoron]

It would be worth having a seperate bilge pump for the oily water from your engine bilge. (neglecting the environmental considerations of pumping oil into the sea). In the extreme case when a sea connection failed the pump may not be enough unless it's very large in which case the water level would build up to a level such that it could overflow into the main bilge and the main bilge pump would begin to operate as well. (this would happen without a seperate engine bilge pump anyway).
If you had an automatic bilge pump, you could wire an alarm bleeper in parallel ot warn you when it was operating.

 

[prv]

You shouldn't have an automatic engine bilge pump, because it will potentially pump oil or diesel into the sea resulting in a hefty fine if seen. A manually-activated one is more reasonable, as you can check first that it's only water. Although, since engine bilges are rarely clean and a little oil goes a long way, personally I'd have something with a spout in the engine bay so that it can be pumped into an empty bottle and disposed of ashore. If it is only clean water you could pump it into a bucket to empty over the side.

If you have a catastrophic failure of seacocks or saildrive, it will overflow into the main bilge and be dealt with (or not!) by the main bilge pump.

An alarm to warn you of water in the engine bilge could be a good idea regardless of the mechanism for dealing with it.

Pete

 

[wizard]

I have the usual manual and automatic bilge pumps but when it comes to the engine bay there is nothing and nowhere for it to drain too.

I presume the reason for this is that you don’t want contaminated water going into the main bilge and being pumped overboard.

Is it worth putting some kind of pump in the engine bay. My concerns are that there are sea cocks in here for the raw water intake and the sailing leg diaphragm. If there was a leak it would be a nightmare pumping it out by hand.

A water level warning alarm in there would be a good idea as well.

Any thoughts?

Am just in the process of making up a water detector alarm for the engine bay as we speak for the potential leaks mentioned.

So, yes it is a very good idea

As to the pumping out I think that you would need one of those inline bilge filters to stop any oil in the water from being pumped out.