Heat exchanger

[MAURICE]

How often do you clean yours? Ive had my boat for 5 years and havnt touched it everthing seems ok. Have been thinking for a while about reverse flushing it with some chemical or other.

 

[stuartwineberg]

Wander over to the dark side

How often do you clean yours? Ive had my boat for 5 years and havnt touched it everthing seems ok. Have been thinking for a while about reverse flushing it with some chemical or other.

Have a search around the motor boat forum - this is a recurring topic there. In a nutshell they seem to favour rydlime plus reaming out the tubestack. If you have a turbo and an oil cooler don't forget to check the air charge cooler stack and the oil cooler heat exchanger as well. There is a school of thought there that says if there are no problems leave well alone but I am not qualified to give advice on that one.

 

[Bobobolinsky]

It's not a good feeling being on a boat, becalmed and the drift fetching you down on a rocky shore, with an overheated engine

It is simple to remove the heat exchanger tube stack and descale in the marina. Finding a well boiled adult shrimp or horse mussel in the rubber inlet, blocking the stack, is not easy to sort out at sea

 

[pvb]

How often do you clean yours? Ive had my boat for 5 years and havnt touched it everthing seems ok. Have been thinking for a while about reverse flushing it with some chemical or other.

Mine's just been cleaned for the first time in 20 years, only because it had to be removed to get at something else. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered unless the engine started overheating.

If you have a Volvo Penta engine with those stupid little rubber rings on the copper pipe connections, I'd be tempted to leave it alone unless it's vital to clean it.

 

[rafiki_]

Mine were cleaned while she was out over the winter. Not much crud apparently.

 

[david_bagshaw]

every year inspect both ends and wet vac dry at lay up, remove & pressure wash in and out every 5. has worked for me.