V drive overheat - what to do about it

Just picking up on Omegas suggestion regarding fitting an electric pump. I suppose i could be installed 'parallel' (as in t-joint + pump + another t-joint, you get the idea) on the intake side so that when it operates, it forces more water through the box. It could possibly even be triggered to operate off the overheat sensor, or a secondary sensor to allow it to trigger before the overheat.

A bit complex solution to a simple problem but I'm thinking that playing with the scoops is not without it's potential issues either.
 
I'm resurrecting this thread because I had the opportunity to check the installation of the very same V-drive, done differently from Ferretti - just in case Jez (or anyone else with the same problem he had) might be interested.
As you can see below the cooling pipes are going back towards the gearbox, and the reason is that they are connected to the main raw water circuit used for engine and gearbox cooling.
This way, obviously the cooling water is constantly flowing, courtesy of the engine raw water pump.
Incidentally, the same builder also used to install in the dash a temp gauge for the v-drive, and as I'm told they never had one single case of overheating, with this installation.
BPM.jpg
 
MapisM said:
I'm resurrecting this thread because I had the opportunity to check the installation of the very same V-drive, done differently from Ferretti - just in case Jez (or anyone else with the same problem he had) might be interested.
As you can see below the cooling pipes are going back towards the gearbox, and the reason is that they are connected to the main raw water circuit used for engine and gearbox cooling.
This way, obviously the cooling water is constantly flowing, courtesy of the engine raw water pump.
Incidentally, the same builder also used to install in the dash a temp gauge for the v-drive, and as I'm told they never had one single case of overheating, with this installation.
Click to expand...
Thats interesting and it even seems to be an easier installation than the separate V drive cooling system Ferretti use which begs the question why Ferretti do it their way and this builder does it his way
 
Take the inlet hose off the V Drive box and placed in a bucket and see what the flow is like when you run the engine at tickover. It could be limescale or crap occluding the relatively small ID of the water supply line from the engine water jacket to the V drive, if so clear by hand or Rydlyme I would not use brick cleaner inside an engine cooling system.
 
Bandit said:
see what the flow is like when you run the engine at tickover.
Click to expand...
Is your suggestion referred to the OP setup, or to the other one I posted today?
Because in the first, cooling relies on the dynamic water flow, so it actually depends just on the STW, rather than engines rpm.

A side advantage of the setup I posted (which I prefer, in principle) is that you can't miss a lack of cooling flow - engine alarms are bound to go off well before gearbox or v-drive might suffer from overheating.
 
U R welcome, J.
Sorry, I don't have a pic showing how those hoses were connected to the main cooling circuit, but the engines were completely different than yours anyway.
Basically, the hoses were connected in the same point and in parallel with the equivalent hoses used for the g/box heat exchanger. No rocket science at all.
TBH, in your boots I would consider this modification even without any cooling problems at D speed, just to get rid of the V-drive specific seacock.... :)
 
P & J

indeed looks like a much cleaner and functional solution, just a matter for J to find a decent pickup and return point.

P. you mean they had a Y pickup from the engine going to the g/b and they had a smaller dia pipe going forward to the v-drive and the same back?
Wouldn't it be better if you used the calorifier points for that? Doubt the v-drive will need lots of water going through it...
I'm suggesting that as hoses dia should be similar and there wont be a need for fabricating fancy Ys and intefering with the main seawater flow

cheers

V.
 
My Ferretti 480 has a similar remote V-drive setup but from TwinDisc. In this installation there are thermostat controlled heat exchangers and they are connected to the main engine raw water circuit. Quite thick oil is specified to be used, single grade SAE W40. The operating temperature is set quite high and I'm wondering if you risk running the transmissions too cool if you connect them directly to the raw water circuit. At operating temperature I can bearly touch the surface of mine so they must be 50 - 60 C. At very low starting temperatures I can have several seconds of gear engagement delay, this goes away in a few minutes.
 
vas said:
P. you mean they had a Y pickup from the engine going to the g/b and they had a smaller dia pipe going forward to the v-drive and the same back?
Wouldn't it be better if you used the calorifier points for that? Doubt the v-drive will need lots of water going through it...
I'm suggesting that as hoses dia should be similar and there wont be a need for fabricating fancy Ys and intefering with the main seawater flow
Click to expand...
Nope V, when I said that the hoses were connected in parallel, I didn't mean through a Y adaptor (though I suppose it could work, if J doesn't have additional connection points in his raw water circuit).
In this installation, along the main cooling circuit, there are two separate connections for the g/box and the v-drive, though that's obviously engine-specific.

Btw, in the meantime I finished to sort my pics and found this one of the g/box, where also the V-drive hoses can be seen.
You can clearly see one of the two parallel connections, above the bigger hose marked Trelleborg.
ZF.jpg
 
baylabayla3288 said:
My Ferretti 480 has a similar remote V-drive setup but from TwinDisc.
Click to expand...
Completely different animal, BB.
I haven't seen the F480, but if it's a Twin Disc unit, I believe it's actually a V-drive gearbox.
The green BPM unit above is a pure V-drive, requiring a separate g/box attached to the engine.
 
MapisM said:
Completely different animal, BB.
I haven't seen the F480, but if it's a Twin Disc unit, I believe it's actually a V-drive gearbox.
The green BPM unit above is a pure V-drive, requiring a separate g/box attached to the engine.
Click to expand...

correct, mine has the reduction gears and the forward an the reverse within the same unit. The cardan between the engine and the remotely installed twin disc box is spinning constantly when the engine is running and with the same rpm as the crank shaft
 
Well, as an interim fix I've rydlym'd the f**k out of the v drives and got a lot of dirt and crud out so we'll see if that makes any difference. I need to spend some time looking at how to extend the engine cooling circuit but long term I think that is a good idea

Thanks all
 
Whitelighter said:
got a lot of dirt and crud out so we'll see if that makes any difference
Click to expand...
If it was so dirty, I would expect your treatment to get a result! :encouragement:

But coming to think of it, in your existing setup the raw water intake comes directly from a seacock without any filter, correct?
Because if so, I would think that another side advantage of picking the sea water from the main cooling circuit (which obviously has its strainer) is that the V-drive should stay cleaner for longer...
 
Aha, that's good.
Silly me btw, it's even visible in the pic that Deleted User posted... :ambivalence:
 
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