Guest Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Seawater cooled auxiliary. Any thoughts on a seawater cooled auxiliary motor (Kubota diesel)? What is the likelihood of corrosion problems? Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Pope 251 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 High risk of terminal corrosion, older saabs, volvo's, bukhs etc, were designed for direct salt water cooling, not any longer though, Kubotas are an industrial engine converted for marine use, they should only be used with a heat exchanger or keel cooling pipes/chambers etc. One supplier of aftermarket heat exchangers is Link to post Share on other sites
Absolution 7 Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 One supplier of aftermarket heat exchangers is I have a heat exchanger and raw water pump sitting in the garage that hasn't made it onto trademe yet. It should make for a reasonably straightforward conversion to fresh water cooling. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 I had a seawater cooled petrol Volvo sterndrive that blew the head gasket. When stripped down the cast Iron head was like cheese. You could dig into it with a screwdriver! This engine was designed to be seawater cooled, so imagine what it will do to a engine not designed for this service. Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Ouch. Did you keep the anodes up to it Slacko ? Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 It lived on a trailer, and I bought it not running so not sure of the maintenance history. It had been a commercial boat, so lots of hours probably. I sold the stuffed volvo engine for more than the 202 engine that took it's place cost. More power, and lighter too. Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Arrrr yeah right, the problem with protecting metal from corrosion is that you have to have water in it all the time for an anode to work. So you have to flush the salt away with Fresh which is never very successful. Link to post Share on other sites
Battleship 100 Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 I had an old raw water cooled volvo on my last boat, was 40 years old and still ran like clockwork. A Kubota however I doubt would have been designed with this type of cooling in mind. I would steer clear if that is an option. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Thanks guys for your advice. What happens if I now convert to freshwater cooling with heat exchanger? I imagine there is a lot of muck inside the block and head even if there is enough metal for the motor to survive? Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Give it a good long flush with fresh water would be the easiest answer. You can buy additives for cleaning the waterways and radiators of the cooling systems on cars, but you could have problems with that, because the internal crud is Salt damage(not a common car problem) and these partucular additives may not be effective as they were not designed for that kind of corrosion and gunk possibly lying in there. You can cause no harm however and it could still be worth a try. I am not a fan of the Salt removing products available for flusing outboards, but in this particular case, it may be a worth while exercise to use one. A simple set up of a cheap bilge pump in a bucket and have the exit from the engine return to the bucket and just keep cycling the mix for some hrs, then a good flush with fresh too the water runs clean. Oh and make sure you use a good anti corrosion additive once you have your fresh water cooling set up and running. Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.