Is your boats systems going to freeze up this weekend?

Heckler

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I see that more severe cold is forecast for the next few days. After my visit a few weeks ago to my boat (afloat in Pwllheli) to check if it would come to harm from the cold and seeing ice on the harbour water surface and seeing ice forming in the taps, I will be going down again this weekend to make sure all is ok. I drained the systems down again last weekend BUT it worries me that the 2 rivers flowing in to the harbour cause fresh water to float on the top of the harbour and I guess that that brackish water is going in to the intercooler and staying there (I run the engine all the time for battery charging etc)
Just a thought for others in the same situation
Stu
 
[ QUOTE ]
you should not be alarmed by the sightof ice

[/ QUOTE ]

I was alarmed by the sight of ice, espcially when my (raw water cooled) engine inlet strainer was full of it (solid), as was the toilet bowl (and pump frozen solid), the taps, and all the pipes, and most of the engine! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Fortunatley the engine seems to have survived, at least it ran ok for 20mins this week and the oil looked ok afterwards, but I did mix up a bucket of antifreeze and put a pipe from it onto the pump inlet and ran it a little to suck it thru, hopefully it will stay a little more liquid than solid this time.

I also like to run the engine to charge batteries etc, but its a pretty small job to pull inlet pipe off pump and pop another on thats stuck in a bucket (which now lives next to the engine) to be run thru each time I leave, at least I can sleep at night now...

Ants
 
[ QUOTE ]
I can sleep at night now...

[/ QUOTE ] Or can you. If you got the engine up to full temperature so that the thermostat was open you may have got a little antifreeze in there, otherwise it all went straight through the bypass and out of the exhaust.

You did collect what was coming out of the exhaust for safe disposal didn't you and not merely let it out to poison the fish and other aquatic life!
 
Yes I warmed the engine for 20 mins first to get thermostat open, and yes the exhaust outlet it quite high above the waterline so I can suspend a bucket under it to catch the output.

But yes worth making those points for anyone reading this and thinking of doing the same.

Ants
 
I hope not --she`s nicely tucked up in Preveza , although the weather hasn`t been that good of late but not freezing thank goodness.
 
Vic
I was worrying about the raw water in the intercooler, it goes straight in and out the exhaust, the thermostat regulates the fresh water side of the sytem which has antifreeze in it.
Stu
 
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