Volume of water - minimum - to open thermostat ?

[Refueler]

OK .. boat in storage ashore ...

Engine has heater in the engine bay maintaining good +ve temp ... BUT with winter here - we usually drop to -20C or so ... and then the heater is not going to overcome that ... its presently holding about 10C more than outside .. with 12C being max its shown above outside ...

The engine is a VP AQ170A (6vyl 170HP) raw water cooled lump.

The length of hose I have is not sufficient to reach the boat to have a continuous water flow ... so I am looking at containers of water to trickle enough into the system to not tear the raw water and circulation pump apart ... get engine warmed to open the thermostat and then I can pour in ~10ltrs of AntiFreeze ... shut down and leave with the heater through winter.

Question is how much water do you think needed to get that thermostat open ? Given that I will not be providing full flow as would be when afloat ??

 

[snowbird30ds]

If using containers could you remove raw water pump cover and make a face plate with hose spigot on, take out impellor and shut off seacock so it's just gravity fed from the containers, maybe chuck a bucket under the exhaust outlet with an old bilge pump to return water to containers, re-circulation will warm the engine quicker.
Thinking more about it where does the expelled raw water enter the exhaust on your engine? Could it be re-routed straight to the containers?

 

[gaylord694]

OK .. boat in storage ashore ...

Engine has heater in the engine bay maintaining good +ve temp ... BUT with winter here - we usually drop to -20C or so ... and then the heater is not going to overcome that ... its presently holding about 10C more than outside .. with 12C being max its shown above outside ...

The engine is a VP AQ170A (6vyl 170HP) raw water cooled lump.

The length of hose I have is not sufficient to reach the boat to have a continuous water flow ... so I am looking at containers of water to trickle enough into the system to not tear the raw water and circulation pump apart ... get engine warmed to open the thermostat and then I can pour in ~10ltrs of AntiFreeze ... shut down and leave with the heater through winter.

Question is how much water do you think needed to get that thermostat open ? Given that I will not be providing full flow as would be when afloat ??

Get a longer hose I would

 

[Rappey]

How about removing the thermostat then you can easily fill engine with antifreeze mix.

 

[snowbird30ds]

Now with brain back in gear I realise your engine is outdrive with water in and out through the leg so I was probably talking tosh in previous post.

 

[Refueler]

Now with brain back in gear I realise your engine is outdrive with water in and out through the leg so I was probably talking tosh in previous post.

Correct - its an outdrive leg.

I do have a 'break' in the water feed from the leg ... so I can connect a hose or a bucket specially modified ...

The setup 0 by previous owner - means disconnect the junction of pipe halfway from transom to front of engine ... connect the bucket which has a hose connector in its base ... fill the bucket while running the engine .... once warmed up - change to AF ..

Black hose is from Leg ... blue is to engine ... when finished - blue hose is reconnected to the black.

I do intend to add a 3way junction there ... at present there is no valve closing off leg intake ... so its impossible to do the job in water before liftout. Once a 3way with valves is fitted - then jobs much easier .. I can do it before liftout.

 

[Refueler]

Get a longer hose I would

Its not only length ... its cold out there and garden hose is terrible when cold ..

 

[Refueler]

How about removing the thermostat then you can easily fill engine with antifreeze mix.

I know I can do that with Yanmar ... my 2GM is done that way ...
\
But this engine ? I thought about removing thermostat .... wondering how much fluid will just go out bypass and not round engine ??

Wondered about jamming thermostat open specially for flushing - which then means bypass is closed off ? Get a new one in there for general running. Having a jammed open Thermostat then means no need wait for engine to reach temp.

 

[stelican]

When in the past I was wintering raw water engines in a non saline environment we carried out the following procedure.
Drain block (ensuring no blockage in drain pionts) drain oil cooler, drain exhaust manifolds. Remove water pick up hose from transom shield and insert funnel into pick up hose.start engine and pore 5litres of 50/50 antifreeze mix into hose, switch off and redrain all points.never had a block or cooler manifold crack. Temp down to -10c
Don't rely on trying to get much antifreeze into the system through a thermostat that will close as soon as it senses cold coolant.

 

[billskip]

Can't you blow all the water out with compressed air?....or most of it and when you put (if necessary) the anti freeze in there will be very little water to dilute.

 

[Refueler]

When in the past I was wintering raw water engines in a non saline environment we carried out the following procedure.
Drain block (ensuring no blockage in drain pionts) drain oil cooler, drain exhaust manifolds. Remove water pick up hose from transom shield and insert funnel into pick up hose.start engine and pore 5litres of 50/50 antifreeze mix into hose, switch off and redrain all points.never had a block or cooler manifold crack. Temp down to -10c
Don't rely on trying to get much antifreeze into the system through a thermostat that will close as soon as it senses cold coolant.

A raw water cooled engine like this always has cold water hitting the thermostat ... where would it have hot water to keep thermostat open ?? The Water travels round the manifolds before it hits the thermostat - basically only the engine block is thermostat controlled ... so once engine is warmed up - the raw water travelling via manifolds etc will be warmed ...

 

[Refueler]

Just been going through the manual for the Engine / Leg combo and nowhere does it say about running Anti-Freeze through the engine ... it advises opening the drain valves on the engine block /. manifolds .....

 

[gaylord694]

No you need to run antifreeze through otherwise

 

[Refueler]

No you need to run antifreeze through otherwise

I was not saying I would not do it ... I like others regard it as normal practice - not only to protect against freezing .. but also Anti-Freeze usually has cleaning / anti-corrosion agents in it ...

The post was to highlight that the manual doesn't mention it.

It does have a section about running anti-corrosion agent though ..

 

[stelican]

Well I bow to your superior judgement.

 

[James_Calvert]

Once I had a longer run than hose to get from the tap to a bucket set up effectively like yours.

I had 9 gals of water in containers ready to use, plus a couple of buckets and still had to run back to the tap for 2 or 3 containers full.

So say 25 gallons or so?

 

[Refueler]

Once I had a longer run than hose to get from the tap to a bucket set up effectively like yours.

I had 9 gals of water in containers ready to use, plus a couple of buckets and still had to run back to the tap for 2 or 3 containers full.

So say 25 gallons or so?

Thank you ... you understood fully my post ...

So hose it is !!

Before I bought the Winter Mobile Home - I had a good concrete area close to the well which hose is fed from. That concrete base was my winter boat stand. But with the mobile on it - my boats are now alongside or behind my workshop / garage - a long way from the well.

I could if really necessary move the boat - but the trailer is unbalanced with the boat and not good to climb onto boat without blocks etc under.

 

[Refueler]

Paid out hose .. typical cold weather problem of kinks in hose ... but finally got it to the boat and it just reached !

Had a bit of trouble getting engine to start ... batterys seem to be iffy ! So my old Halfords style SLA emergency starter saved the day ...

Engine started .. warmed up on plain water .. then Antifreeze ...

Before re-launch and weather a touch more amenable ... will modify the raw water piping to have a 3 way valve system to allow the bucket to be used before lift-out !

 

[Refueler]

In local DIY / Builders shop and looking for a simple 3 way setup to make the job easier ..... what ever happened to simple brass multi ways ? Checked out two different large shops ... nada !

But one shop had this ....

OK - its plastic - but it has screw on adaptors that I can the jubilee clip the pipes to .. not relying on 'Hozelock' clip on connection.
The levers operate good valves in the body -

I think it will work ok - as its raw water - not hot ... it has no real pressure as it will be in the inlet side of the raw water pump. If the valves do fail - I can screw in brass valves as replacements.

Idea is to connect leg water inlet to one of the two ... then my bucket will connect to the other. The single out will then feed to the engine.

 

[snowbird30ds]

Looks good to me, when done let air into the intake side so the water can drop out of the leg and maybe tip some antifreeze down that side too.