why heat the engine bay over winter?

A simpler explanation

Yes the heaters stop the engine from freezing. Yes it stops them from going rusty and all the wires getting damp. But a boat has to last much longer than a car. Mines 14 years old now and I expect it to be going for many years yet and looking well. I also dont want to arrive to find the upholstery all manky and damp. Course all these things would be expected in a fourteen year old car. If it was not already on the scrap heap, some kid would have bought it for two hundred squid. On the other hand, the boats still worth?? 75-85 grand. Not a small amount of money in most peoples eyes.
But not if it's a manky mess!!

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Haydn
 
Re: A simpler explanation

we can rely on haydn for some good old fashioned northern logic, well done

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Re: A simpler explanation

In a small boat, ventilation and removing the upholstery does the job just as well. Dehumidifier will be far more useful than a small heater if it's humidity tis what someone is worried about

If the engine and leg have been properly winterised, there is no need for a heater to stop engine and leg damage

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Re: how many boat engfines suffer this?

I did nuffing last year except let all the water run out as usual, on relaunching in the spring it popped a core plug out and flooded the bilge, thats the bit that stops the block cracking i believe. Bought a new core plug for £2 ( i paid extra for the stainless steel type ) and banged it in, so i've learnt my lesson, this year i've put a blanket over the engine to keep it warm!

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Re: how many boat engfines suffer this?

Surely a blanket is going to do nothing. A blanket works on humans because the body generates heat and the blanket keeps that warmth insulated.

An engine at rest generates no heat, so the blanket has nothing to keep in. It's going to provide very little insulation against a night of cold.

<hr width=100% size=1>Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
 
Re: A simpler explanation

Small boats get chucked away like cars. Dehumidifier is obvious requirement but we were talking about heating. We removed the upholstery a few weeks ago. Well that is, the upholstery man, aided by the mechanic and electician did!! But they replaced it with new. So still needs keeping nice and warm.../forums/images/icons/smile.gif

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Haydn
 
Interesting discussion, i live 250miles inside the Arctic circle(northern norway),we all have heaters in our engine bays set at 4/5 degrees, all winter which could be 6months long and totally dark......Having said that if the boat is out of the water we do not have heating on.

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Re: how many boat engfines suffer this?

A few years ago with a heat exchanger cooled Yanmar I forgot to suck the usual 50% anti freeze mix through the raw water system, and did not heat the engine either, but I had drained all raw water from the system via various drain cocks.

The following spring relaunched and everythng appeared ok. Sped off down the river toward open sea, stopped for a few seconds to retrieve phone from cabin and boat would not climb back onto plane and engine labouring at about 2800rpm.

Stopped again and looked in engine compartment, which to my horror was half full of water. Bilge pump had stopped when terminal strip submerged and blown breaker, and the engine could not lift the extra tonne of water onto the plane.

Fortunately realised that water was coming from engine so stopped it and water level stopped rising. Removed terminal strip from bulkhead and pulled wires clear of water. Fortunately breaker reset and started pumping out. 20 minutes later engineroom near dry. Restarted engine and found a jet of water coming from end of heat exchanger, ingress rate about twice the speed of pump.

Turned back up river at full speed (engine speed seemed not to vary ingress rate), with engine hatch open, watching water level. Had to stop for about 5 minutes of every ten to let pump catch up.

Made it back to berth and started stripping engine, a lot of work involved in dismantling ancilliaries (alternator, front pulley, raw water pipework & brackets and even Turbo) to gain access to the heat exchanger.

On dismantling it became apparent that the expansion of freezing water at the bottom of the heat exchanger had partially extruded the sealing "O" Ring at the end of the exchanger matrix, allowing a jet of water to pass. Total cost of repairs about 3 pounds for 2 O Rings and about 6 hours of my labour hanging upside down into engine compartment cursing the designer who managed to squeeze such a big engine into such a tiny space.

Nowadays always make sure that I run anti freeze mix through raw water system AND have thermostatic heater in engine bay, plus dehumidifier to keep everything smelling sweet and dry.

Chris

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I would put a space /tube heater in th e/r if my boat was out of the water over the winter as the natural (water) insulation is 'missing'.

Frankly, in the uk you are going to be sitting in water that at worst may have a thin layer of ice on the surface. Certainly on my boat there are two huge air intakes on either side so there is quite a flow of air in the space which I guess ventilates things. If you put heaters in then you ought to block the air intakes to max. effeciency. No?

Michael

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Re: ventilation

Not sure it's that significant after all it never dries the bilges out, on ours anyway

therefore there must be approaching 100% humdity in the engine room all year round unless you do as we do by opening the hatch from the cabin which has a dehumidifier on a mid setting. Last 2 winters ended up with a completely dry bilge.

Everyone seems so worried about freezing which never seems to be a problem to us on the UK S coast but I reckon it's the damp that causes all the rot mildew etc etc deal with that and no probs. Obviously the further north and inland one goes the less applicable this advice is.

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