PSS Seal Am I doing the right thing?

[jfkal]

Getting a PSS seal installed. Boat speed is under 7 kn so no forced water feed needed I understand. Only a small hose all the way above the water line to allow water to enter the seal and cool it.
Now I feel a bit uncomfortable having an open hose end connected below the water line to dangle in my engine room.
Could I just pipe it into the vent hose of the engine cooling water anti siphon loop?

Many thanks for your opinions

 

[Ridax]

First of all, how would that make you feel better? Regardless of how that hose is terminated (open end or into the anti siphon), the risk you are running is that the hose connection to the seal fails some way and lets water in there. Terminating it into anything in the other end won't change that.

As for connecting it to the anti siphon, I am not clear on what your plan was. Do you mean connecting it to the now open end of the anti siphon (the one that should let air in)? That, you should absolutely avoid, as it will prevent air from entering the anti siphon, if you are not planning on some T/Y connection in the air hose.

What you could do is to connect it to the water feed of the anti siphon, which will give your seal forced water flow.

 

[vyv_cox]

My PSS is piped exactly as your first sentence says, open end above the engine and well clear of the water line. The intention of it is that water can rise freely past the seal to avoid the need for 'burping' airlocks. Closing off the end in any way may cause the seal to run dry, which will destroy it in seconds.

The head of water in the vent pipe is just a few inches in most cases. Compared with many of the hose connections in the cooling circuit, where the head may well be a couple of bar, equivalent to 60 feet of water, the vent connection runs little risk of coming off its nozzle or failing in any other way.

 

[Paragon]

Much like Vyv, I fitted mine yesterday ensuring that the vent pipe is well secured to well above the waterline so there is no chance of it dropping into the bilge, which would then have negative consequences!

 

[jfkal]

Going hard astern?

My PSS is piped exactly as your first sentence says, open end above the engine and well clear of the water line. The intention of it is that water can rise freely past the seal to avoid the need for 'burping' airlocks. Closing off the end in any way may cause the seal to run dry, which will destroy it in seconds.

The head of water in the vent pipe is just a few inches in most cases. Compared with many of the hose connections in the cooling circuit, where the head may well be a couple of bar, equivalent to 60 feet of water, the vent connection runs little risk of coming off its nozzle or failing in any other way.

My concern is that going hard astern may push water up the tube. By plumbing it into the hose AFTER the siphon loop I though that it would be saver as this hose then anyway vents open but overboard.

 

[vyv_cox]

I suspect that you would have to go very hard indeed to drive water to 60 cm above the water. However, the worst that can happen is a small amount of water in the bilge, unless your hard astern goes on for miles!