[C38] Water Heater Plumbing

[Steve Smolinske]

 David,

It does sound like your not getting all of the air out of the system.
What you see by looking in after taking the cap off is the coolant which
should be a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water and is totally separate
from the impeller.  Fill up the system with 50/50 and start it up let it
run and keep an eye on the level as the antifreeze begins to circulate
the level will drop sometimes making a burp or slurping sound.   Keep an
eye on your temp. it will climb don't let it stay to long above 210,
shut down the engine let it cool for a bit and start all over.   It can
take several times doing this until the coolant is  full.  This doesn't
mean that a bubble is not still in the system.  Put the cap on and start
up the engine, you should have a butterfly bleed valve forward and
starboard of the radiator cap crack this open after the engine has been
running and it should vent lots of steam if there is a bubble inside.
Close and wait then open this way you will get to a point that when you
open it only antifreeze comes out, when this happens you have bled the
engine of the air.  With the water heater in a takes a lot longer
especially if you have removed the hoses and drained it.   The last time
I did  this it took about 30-45 minutes.  This was after having removed
the water heater for another project.   

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: listserve-bounces at catalina38.org
[mailto:listserve-bounces at catalina38.org] On Behalf Of
david at dlrfilms.com
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 7:13 AM
To: Catalina 38 Listserve
Subject: Re: [C38] Water Heater Plumbing


> After years of chronic engine heating problems, I asked this C-38 
> forum for suggestions.

I guess it's my turn.

We had now heating problems when we bought the boat, but last Summer
started to get overheat alarms.

Simply cracking open the system to check this and that seemed to clear
it, so I have (hopefully) deduced that it is an "air-lock" problem.

But the overheats have gotten more frequent and are less reliably
cleared by cracking open the system.

Our most recent fix it to take the hot water heater out of the loop,
which works, but I can still see the air-lock forming, but without the
hot water heater in the system there seems to be enough circulation
pressure to push past it.

Because if the deteriorating nature of the problem I am wondering if the
freshwater impellor might be damaged, but when I start the engine with
the cap off the coolant tank, I can see (what appears to be) vigorous
flow.

It also seems like maybe the cap, which is spring-loaded and leads off
to the overflow tank might not be working right. When the air-lock forms
it pushes the coolant back down the tube, but my intuition is that this
should function more like an air-release valve. But I'm not an engine
guy in any way, so not knowing what it's supposed to do, I don't know
whether or not it's working right.

I'm half hoping the whole thing will overheat and seize so I can put in
an electric drive.

Help?


_______________________________________________
Listserve mailing list
Listserve at catalina38.org
http://catalina38.org/mailman/listinfo/listserve_catalina38.org

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.61/2314 - Release Date:
08/19/09 18:06:00