how do you prevent fouling inside saildrive

[PabloPicasso]

my saildrive (volvo 2001) was completly occluded by shelled critters by the end of last season. The water intakes were blocked and caused the engine to overheat at anything much above tickover.

I have cleared the water intake and the inside of the driveleg is now clear.

How can I anti-foul the inside of the leg? Anyone any ideas, tricks?

 

[grafozz]

I just a/foul the leg and as well as possible, into the water intake holes and up inside the drain hole with a long handled artists brush . When its in the water I often snorkel down and use a long bottle brush and push/twist & wriggle it up through said drain hole , its amazing to see what comes out ! ( a bonus here if fishing , the crusties falling off attract fish very quickly ) .
However , it is worrying , this year I took off both saildrives to fit new seals , and stuck fast across one of the water intakes INSIDE the leg housing to stop valve , was a fat mussel with barnacles and worm all over it, it must have taken up 2/3rds of the opening !

 

[Tranona]

No real solution, other than to have a separate seacock. There is no need for water to flow through the leg. When I planned to go through the canals (now abandoned) I was going to install a 3/4" seacock and a Y valve, so that if the saildrive blocked I had an alternate source of cooling water.

 

[Nostrodamus]

This seems to be a common problem with sail drive legs and as you say it can lead to overheating. You need to clear them as often as possible.

 

[rivonia]

my saildrive (volvo 2001) was completly occluded by shelled critters by the end of last season. The water intakes were blocked and caused the engine to overheat at anything much above tickover.

I have cleared the water intake and the inside of the driveleg is now clear.

How can I anti-foul the inside of the leg? Anyone any ideas, tricks?

This is what we do on our CAT with two saildrives. Never had a problem so far (touch wood)

Good luck

Peter

 

[Gludy]

I had a separate seacock installed because of the very small intake holes through the leg. These can be post fitted of course.

 

[Gludy]

deleted

 

[oldsaltoz]

I have had both my VP's running from through hull fittings for several years no and never anything like an overheating problem, also have intake water filters installed.

Works for me.