Seawater blockage in VP saildrive

[brians]

Following my recent post on VP2020 seawater cooling I think I have now isolated the problem.

I removed the intake hose from the saildrive seacock, turned on the seacock expecting a fountain and only got a dribble. Put 6" screwdiver down seacock and then blew thru using inflable pump. Still no flow.

Guess the problem must be further down in the leg.

Has anyone else suffered this problem?

 

[smileygirl]

sounds like something got sucked in - try rodding it through with a length of coat hanger wire

 

[TonyS]

I have instances where weed has caught round the front of the saildrive but the flow alarm fitted shows it straight away. People have reported mussels growing in the saildrive. Best to try rodding it through if you cannot connect mains water to it - that clears most problems.

 

[oldsaltoz]

G'day Brian,

We run twin VP's on our cat, after some problems with flow via the sail drives we put in 2 standard raw water pickups and strainers.

Have never looked back, as the sail drives are under water they do not get hot but do restrict the flow as you have discovered. This is not an uncommon fix for this problem and works very well.

It must be over 5 years now and no sign of any problems of any sort.

Hope this helps.

Avagoodweekend......

 

[PeterGibbs]

Based on experience with my VP 120 SD, the chamber at the foot of the leg is prone to growths, and has to be rodded out - there is a vertical opening at the leading edge of the leg for this. Rake out, and the side vents too. I routinely get quite a lot of dead growth falling out when servicing in the spring.

There is little else to hinder raw water circulation, in my experience.

PWG