Salt blockage in Vire7

[johnneale]

I have no water circulating the engine block of my elderly Vire7. It is certainly completely blocked up with salt. Short of knocking out the side plugs, is there anything I can use to dissolve it ????

 

[pampas]

Look up Ryhldme on Google

 

[neil_s]

It's not salt, its limescale. Fernox DS3 from a builders merchant will dissolve it, but if it's blocked up completely, I guess you will need to poke a hole through first.

Neil

 

[argus]

I had a vire 7 that had an alloy exhaust box with a water jacket, this was bolted to the exhaust port. The cooling water - sea water was pumped through the exhaust jacket before entering the cylinder jacket. The core plugs in the cylinder jacket act as sacrificial anodes and should be replaced each year mine never lasted longer than 13 months they are easy to replace. Your blockage may be a lime scale in the cylinder jacket but an aluminium chloride (clear crystals) in the exhaust jacket - the sort of blockage you get in an outboard that wasn't flushed out before storage. I would dissmantle and probe with a wire to get some flow before trying to circulate a cleaner, dont use a domestic central heating it may contain an acid that will attack your exhaust jacket which is very expensive to replace try soda in hot water first.

These people used to supply Vire engines & spares
www.fairwaysmarine.co.uk

 

[Guest]

"...............dont use a domestic central heating it may contain an acid that will attack your exhaust jacket which is very expensive ..........."

Have to disagree there .... average Central Heating system has Alloy gubbins and I think any acid of that sort of strength you hint at would be detrimental to an expensive boiler / CH system. In fact you can get various concoctions of Furnox to suit various materials / situations ....

 

[johnneale]

Thanks for all that info - I've managed to drill the s... out and given it a good flush

happy sailing
john