stuartw
Member
Having had numerous small leaks in the raw water cooling circuit, I decided to strip the whole thing down, between the raw water pump and the gearbox oil cooler. Apart from the inevitable leaking "O" rings on each heat exchanger end cap pipes, I was somewhat amazed at the amount of calcification. There were webs of deposits in the end caps which had built up over the years, to such an extent that the area for the water to go down and back up each matrix, was reduced by over 60%. The matrix pipes themselves were of course somewhat choked. Even where the "O" rings were seated, there was calcification under them where they were seated on the end caps, evidence of poor sealing and water pushing underneath them, leaving the deposits, which exacerbated the situation.
Having examined the "O" rings, I decided to replace the lot, ie qty 8 between the two engines. On shopping around, I found that all the dealers where selling these at around £4 each! So it made a bill for those alone around £35 inc PP. Having been in engineering for more years than I care to remember, I decided to find alternatives, as the VP ones looked nothing special.
I have found a 40mm ID x 7mm wall, in Nitrile @ 70A Shore hardness which are more resilient than the original and only cost £0.65 each - a big difference. These were obtained from Rhondama. I bought 10 which came to £8.40 inc PP.
I then decided to de-scale the whole system from the pump to the exhaust including the gear-box oil cooler, using sulphamic acid, dissolved in very hot water. Each heat exchanger was filled up with the solution, pouring it in very slowly because of the frothing due to the CO2 given off. This was left for about 30 mins. The oil cooler was left in position and filled up via the pipe leading to the charge air cooling heat exchanger. The take off pipe to the sternglands was left on initially to de-scale the sterngland. It was subsequently blocked off for a second application. The endcaps were done separately in a bucket. The sulphamic acid was bought for £10 (2.5kg) from Kamco - St. Albans. It contains a pink indicator which is useful in gauging when the solution is spent.
On re-assembly, a small amount of Dow Corning Marine silicone sealant was used to bed the "o" rings into the endcaps, purely as a belt & braces exercise.
As there was some rust & flaking paint on the engines I decided to tart them up, so enquired from a VP distributor what the VP green paint cost.
£28.62/ltr brushing & £20.80 aerosol.. WOW!
So I took myself off to a local industrial paint supplier, armed with a piece of the engine as a colour match, and bought 1 ltr of "Corrofast" fast drying/brushable synthetic enamel to a Renault 972 colour - Vert Coriander. There is a small colour difference, but a blind man would be glad to see it. Cost £16.10/ltr
Below is a list of spares etc that I have bought, together with the VP prices
Engine oil Volvo Truck oil- 2x20ltr = £65 - VP 2 x 20ltr = £163
Oil Filter Volvo Truck filter x2 (large) = £22 - VP x 2 large =£23
Air Filters Fram CA4365 x 4 =£26 - VP x 4 =£80
"O" rings 40 x 7mm Nitrile =£7
- VP x 8 =£37
Paint CorroFast x 1ltr =£16 - VP x1ltr =£28
___________________________________________________
Totals alternatives =£136 VP =£331
Saving = £195
The above only represents some fairly minor items, and of course does not mean that any engine bit can be sourced. Having said that it means I can spend that £195 on something else.
Purists may say that you don't get the Volvo quality by using alternatives - Huh- what quality. I prefer to trust my own engineering knowledge, rather than some marketing hype. Anyway it works for me.
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Having examined the "O" rings, I decided to replace the lot, ie qty 8 between the two engines. On shopping around, I found that all the dealers where selling these at around £4 each! So it made a bill for those alone around £35 inc PP. Having been in engineering for more years than I care to remember, I decided to find alternatives, as the VP ones looked nothing special.
I have found a 40mm ID x 7mm wall, in Nitrile @ 70A Shore hardness which are more resilient than the original and only cost £0.65 each - a big difference. These were obtained from Rhondama. I bought 10 which came to £8.40 inc PP.
I then decided to de-scale the whole system from the pump to the exhaust including the gear-box oil cooler, using sulphamic acid, dissolved in very hot water. Each heat exchanger was filled up with the solution, pouring it in very slowly because of the frothing due to the CO2 given off. This was left for about 30 mins. The oil cooler was left in position and filled up via the pipe leading to the charge air cooling heat exchanger. The take off pipe to the sternglands was left on initially to de-scale the sterngland. It was subsequently blocked off for a second application. The endcaps were done separately in a bucket. The sulphamic acid was bought for £10 (2.5kg) from Kamco - St. Albans. It contains a pink indicator which is useful in gauging when the solution is spent.
On re-assembly, a small amount of Dow Corning Marine silicone sealant was used to bed the "o" rings into the endcaps, purely as a belt & braces exercise.
As there was some rust & flaking paint on the engines I decided to tart them up, so enquired from a VP distributor what the VP green paint cost.
£28.62/ltr brushing & £20.80 aerosol.. WOW!
So I took myself off to a local industrial paint supplier, armed with a piece of the engine as a colour match, and bought 1 ltr of "Corrofast" fast drying/brushable synthetic enamel to a Renault 972 colour - Vert Coriander. There is a small colour difference, but a blind man would be glad to see it. Cost £16.10/ltr
Below is a list of spares etc that I have bought, together with the VP prices
Engine oil Volvo Truck oil- 2x20ltr = £65 - VP 2 x 20ltr = £163
Oil Filter Volvo Truck filter x2 (large) = £22 - VP x 2 large =£23
Air Filters Fram CA4365 x 4 =£26 - VP x 4 =£80
"O" rings 40 x 7mm Nitrile =£7
- VP x 8 =£37
Paint CorroFast x 1ltr =£16 - VP x1ltr =£28
___________________________________________________
Totals alternatives =£136 VP =£331
Saving = £195
The above only represents some fairly minor items, and of course does not mean that any engine bit can be sourced. Having said that it means I can spend that £195 on something else.
Purists may say that you don't get the Volvo quality by using alternatives - Huh- what quality. I prefer to trust my own engineering knowledge, rather than some marketing hype. Anyway it works for me.
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