Water fed stern glands

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Fullabeer

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Hi all,

I have a princess 33 mk2 that I’m close to finishing. Just changed the stuffing glands and I see they are water fed. Disconnecting them and ran the engines (on the hard with a hose feed to the engines, and nothing comes out the pipes that feed the glands.

I’ve sucked on them and some detritus came out, but I can see where they connect to the engines- VP TAMD40B.

Anyone know what they feed from and what sort of rate they are fed? Worst case, is it OK to use them without a water feed as a traditional stuffing gland?

Thanks in advance.
 
Cannot answer all - but just to say that traditional stuffing gland NEEDS the water ... if not supplied - then the stuffing will overheat and scorch .. can even damage the shaft .... look at an old shaft and you can usually find it worn down where the gland has been. When stuffing removed - its not unusual to see part of it scorched brown from lack of water ... often due to over-pressing of grease sealing the gland off till its run a while to open up to water again.
 
They are fed from the raw water system, if you can see where the hoses connect then I would remove them and check for blockage in the hose at the nipple where it connects to the engine. Usually they are connected to the gearbox oil cooler if you have one.
 
spannerman said:
They are fed from the raw water system, if you can see where the hoses connect then I would remove them and check for blockage in the hose at the nipple where it connects to the engine. Usually they are connected to the gearbox oil cooler if you have one.
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Hi, sadly I can’t see where the hose disappears to. Tried sucking and blowing. Seems clear, but no water
 
I had a chat with a guy in the boat yard and he reckons the feed isn’t a feed, it sucks water through and outputs it through the exhaust.

Does that sound possible?
 
Fullabeer said:
I had a chat with a guy in the boat yard and he reckons the feed isn’t a feed, it sucks water through and outputs it through the exhaust.

Does that sound possible?
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No. You just need to trace the tube back to find out what it is connected to. It could well be a grease feed for the stuffing box. If it is a water feed then it must be plumbed into the raw water feed on the engine or to a scoop in the hull that picks up water as the boat is moving. If it is the latter then obviously you will only get water flow when the boat is in the water. also the scoop may have a valve on the inside to shut it off.
 
If they are the old style with gland packing they need a water feed , follow the pipe it will go to one of the coolers , my Dad had a 33 with mermaid 80s it’s fed from the heat exchanger endcap.
 
Fullabeer said:
Thanks for the information. I wish I could trace the pipe back to the engine manifold, but it's too tight in there
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When running up the engine after changing the oil and filters today I checked how hot the water was at the take off point for feeding the stern gland, it was cold and I had run up the engine at 1000rpm for about 10 minutes or so to see how it held oil pressure.
 
Alicatt said:
When running up the engine after changing the oil and filters today I checked how hot the water was at the take off point for feeding the stern gland, it was cold and I had run up the engine at 1000rpm for about 10 minutes or so to see how it held oil pressure.
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So what would that make you think? Not a feed from the engine??
 
It's easy to follow the pipe from the end of the exhaust manifold where it branches off to go to the exhaust riser after the turbo and the other branch going to the stern gland, I was just surprised at how cool the water was still after running the engine, not that I think that the water is coming from anywhere else.

WaterFeed.JPG
 
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