Engine Overheating Problem ... Solved!?

[AndrewB]

All season my Beta engine has been running steadily hotter. Each time I've used it, the temperature needle on the gauge has been a little bit nearer the red line. Two days ago it finally passed the line, and the overheating alarm went off.

I'd checked everything in the manual. Raw water flow. Raw water intake filter. Impellor, Engine coolant level, Engine coolant pump. Coolant flow in engine. I even tried disconnecting the calorifier. Nothing helped.

Then yesterday I pulled out the heat exchanger stack (left to last, difficult because some of the end bolts are quite inaccessible). There was some sludge round the stack, which I attribute to the remains of the two pencil anodes which have been used since the stack was last checked. Cleaned stack and replaced. Bingo! The temperature has gone back to normal.

Memo to self: Clean the stack each time a new pencil anode is fitted (annually).
Further memo: Next time, get a heat exchanger that doesn't need an anode, like the Bowman on my old Perkins.

 

[tillergirl]

Funnily enough, in 1994 I was making the choice between a Volvo or Beta. The price was little different. What tipped me towards the Volvo was that it was a base Perkins and much quieter while the Beta had an obviously small heat exchanger and an anode and an annual service requirement for cleaning the exchanger. Now I have lost TG and have moved to a motor boat just on account of arthritis I now have an old Perkins. No electronics, nuffin fancy not even glow plugs (and doesn't need them). It just starts and runs, and runs, and runs. Won't ever be spectacular but is obviously well thought through.