Water in the Gearbox

[dds]

My Borg warner Velvet Drive (71C) gearbox is full of an oil/water emulsion after the innards of the oil cooler collapsed. I now have a new cooler but I am having some difficulty draining the emulsion which is very sticky. I could gradually introduce new transmission oil but this promises to be an expensive and slow process. Any suggestions as to what I might use to mix with the emulsion to get to flow? Is it an insane idea to use diesel oil?

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[sailorman]

y r u hiding in the closit.
expose yourself

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[claudio]

Will 'engine flushing oil' work ?
Drain off as much as oil / emulsion as possible, top up with flushing oil, run engine in gear for a few minutes then empty out. Check and do again if necessary


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[vyv_cox]

Suck out as much as you can with an engine oil drain pump.

Without knowing the grade of your hydraulic oil it is not possible to give advice. Some are synthetic, in which case mixing with an engine oil would be dangerous. Others, such as Esso Nuto or Shell Tellus, are mineral and will happily mix with engine oil.

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[dds]

The oil is automatic transmission oil, eg Castrol dextron (?) III. It's an epicyclic gearbox.

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[30boat]

Try soluble oil.It's used for machining operations and as the name sugests it is meant to be dissolved in water.It won't affect the seals or any rubber parts.I would experiment first with a bit of the fluid taken from the gearbox first.

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[vyv_cox]

Dexron III is a synthetic whereas Dexron II is a mineral. You could take a chance on flushing with a soluble oil at low load but the ideal solution is to flush with the proper stuff.

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[david_bagshaw]

How old is the gear box?

The earlier ones had paper clutch plates, so fatal damage might have already occured. (some time in the 70s/80 I think they changed to bronze plates)

You realy need to speak to a borg warner repair agent first

good luck

<hr width=100% size=1>David
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.euroboating.net>http://www.euroboating.net</A>

 

[Blue_Blazes]

I had a similar problem a few years back with a 71c gearbox that got full of water. Mine was filled with 40 grade engine oil as recommended by the engine manual of the Detroit Series 53 it was coupled to. I sucked out as much oil/water as I could with one of those little brass engine oil pumps through the dipstick hole. I then filled it with new 40 grade oil, and ran the engine in gear pulling against the mooring (low revs) for about 5mins, keeping an ear out for anything untoward. I then sucked out the emulsified oil/water and repeated the process twice more untill all I had was clean oil. The gearbox seemed to suffer no ill-effects and was still running great 5 years later. I don't know if I was just lucky, nor do I know if it would work with ATF filled boxes. You've got two choices. Risk it, or get the box professionally stripped and checked.

Good luck,

Bill.

<hr width=100% size=1>One of these days I'll have a boat that WORKS

 

[PeterGibbs]

There are numerous situations where diesel can clean up a nasty mechanical mess.
It is highly unlikely that you have seals that would tolerate oil but not diesel.

Many of us have experienced the dreaded "black butter" when engine oil and water mix; holding the water in suspension is actually to your benefit until you get the black butter out - which should be like yesterday. The risk in delay is rusting, even fine oxidation, to sensitive parts that will not tolerate it.

With minor hesitation, I would plump for the sensible means of getting all errant water/ black butter out of the box. Pronto.

Peter Gibbs

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[Birdseye]

at this time of year, a bit of heat might help. try putting a fan heater next to the box

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[dds]

Update on the water.

It is now out of the gearbox. In the first instance, having managed to drain off unemulsified water, I topped up the G/B with fresh AT oil and left to drain (for 2 weeks until I could get back to the boat!). On return I was very happy to find that 99% of the mess had drained out (as measured in collecting vessel). I then flushed out the G/B by running it gently with a series of diesel(30%)/AT (70%)oil mixes finishing with 2 pure AT oil flushes. Took about 6-7 litres of AT Oil but the G/B is, I believe, now clean and all seems to be operating OK. The boat comes out this weekend so she'll sit through the winter with a new G/B oil cooler and fresh clean oil in the gearbox. Many thanks to all for the useful advise.

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