Painting and Installing Heat Exchanger

Our painted heat exchanger hanging from a tree to dry.

After soaking our badly corroded heat exchanger, Ken washed it in soap and water then lightly sanded it to get the loose paint off.  He wished that he'd sanded the exchanger before soaking it in Chem-Prime, so he sprayed the outside with Chem-Prime and let it sit for about 15 minutes.  He then rinsed it in soap and water again and let it dry.  The picture below shows our heat exchanger after being sanded and sprayed with the Chem-Prime.  The white areas are caused by the Chem-Prime .. doing its thing.

For those who didn't see the picture below from our previous post about engine maintenance ... it's a picture of our heat exchanger before we removed it, surrounded by some rust.

 

Then we removed the heat exchanger ... the saddle bracket that the heat exchanger sits in was really rusty, and filthy.

  

While Ken fixed our leaky tiller head, I grabbed some damp paper towels and wiped off all the flaky filth and rust from the saddle bracket and other areas.  I then lightly sanded the saddle bracket, motor mounts, and anything else that I could reach.  The pictures don't really capture the crusty mess before, but I was happy with the results of my cleaning.

 

After wiping down the area again with a damp cloth, Chem-Prime was sprayed on the rusted areas.   After sitting for a while, some areas began to turn white ... it's doing its thing again.

 

 

A few days later, Ken taped off the openings of the heat exchanger and hung it from a tree in our backyard.  He then sprayed it with a can of Krylon engine paint that he picked up at the local hardware store ... Alpine Green Detroit Diesel.  He also cut some 1/8" rubber gasket material and placed it on the saddle bracket.  This will provide a barrier between the bracket and the heat exchanger.  Another couple of days later Ken removed the tape, added our new pencil zinc*, placed the exchanger on the saddle bracket, connected the hoses, and added the new clamps.  He had hoped to add new hoses at this time, but had trouble finding them (our West Marine sucks sometimes).  He was only able to find one of the three hoses that he needed (from an auto store) ... a red, 5/8" hose that's about 2 feet long and runs water from the impeller to the heat exchanger.  I guess we'll have to find the other hoses online.  We're going to start ordering extras of all these small things, because most of them have to be ordered online and then we have to wait for them to be shipped.  We don't want to have to deal with this when we're cruising ... at least not any more than we absolutely have to.

This green exchanger looks a lot better than it did before we started this project!  We're thinking that with the cleaning, Chem-Prime spray, new paint & clamps, and new zinc our heat exchanger should last for quite a while longer.

The new red hose ...

Another view from above ... so where do we find these hoses, especially the u-shaped one?

View from side ...

and from the top.

 

After the heat exchanger was in place, Ken added a 50/50 mix of water & anti-freeze to the manifold and opened the fresh water intake valve.  The time had come ... to find out if our engine was gonna start!  Aaahhh, the sound of our engine ... we'll hate it when we're motoring for hours instead of sailing, but at this point we loved it!  Then our attention was on our temperature sensor, hoping that we didn't over-heat.  We didn't... yes!

This coming Labor Day weekend should be the perfect time to take Nirvana out and run our engine.  We still have to add our lazy jacks before putting our main sail back on, so although we won't be sailing just yet ... we can't wait to take Nirvana for a ride around our neighborhood.  It's been way too long.

After using Chem-Prime and reading how it removes rust by changing it into a protective coating, we figured we'd try it out on a few other things.  We had a few rust spots on the ceramic tile of our back patio, so we sprayed it on them in hopes they'd disappear.  About 10 minutes later the rust was gone!  We rinsed the areas with water and good as new.  The rusty tool below looks a lot better now too.  We love this stuff!

*If you read our earlier post, you saw the trouble we were having with fitting a pencil zinc into the heat exchanger.  I spoke to a guy at Westerbeke after emailing him a few photos, and he thought that we may have an aftermarket exchanger.  He did tell me not to worry about having such a short zinc, as it should still do its job.  We're just going to check it often.   Perhaps size doesn't matter!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Soaking A Corroded Heat Exchanger

Our heat exchanger ... taking a soak.

As I mentioned in our post about replacing the engine's pencil zinc, we realized that the heat exchanger had a lot of corrosion in the hole where the zinc screws into.  Since there was so much corrosion, we figured it was time to remove and clean the heat exchanger before going any further.  

Ken removed the heat exchanger by making the sure the water valve was off, draining the coolant (not easy when there's no room underneath to catch it), then disconnecting the hoses.  He had containers to catch anything left in the hoses, and towels to clean up the inevitable mess.  The heat exchanger was then unscrewed from the clamps and removed.  The picture below shows the missing heat exchanger.

When Ken removed the heat exchanger and the end caps, he knew that he'd made the right decision to have it cleaned.  I wish we would have gotten a picture, but the tubes inside of the exchanger were also heavily corroded.  Ken planned on having a local radiator shop boil the heat exchanger, but none of them boil anything these days.   However, Ken did receive some advice from one of the radiator shops ... soak the heat exchanger in something with phosphoric acid (NOT muratic acid).  He recommended a product called Chemprime, which Ken found at the local hardware store.  

Chemprime ... and the old gaskets removed from the heat exchanger's end caps.

Using rubber gloves, Ken poured the Chemprime into a plastic container then placed the heat exchanger into the solution.  The Chemprime was a bright green liquid, which quickly started turning brown as it removed the rust and corrosion (first picture above).  About every hour Ken flipped the heat exchanger, letting it soak for about 4 hours.  He then rinsed the heat exchanger in water and wiped it dry.  Voila ... no more corrosion!

With the end caps removed (before soaking), you can see that the tubes inside are free from corrosion.

Since using this product, I've since learned that it's been used in the Louisiana and Texas oil fields for over 30 years!  Chemprime converts rust into a protective coating which can then be painted.  Just clean the surface, rub or spray on the Chemprime, then let it dry.  The rust will be converted into a white ceramic-like protective compound.

  This stuff sounds great!  It's supposed to clean and protect rusty tools and all sorts of other stuff.  It also claims to be good for cleaning out gas tanks.  I learned that this stuff even renews the grout on tile floors!  Just spray it on the tile floor, let it sit for an hour, then mop.  I'm going to try this on our rental someday.  With all the rust we've been seeing around our engine, I think we'll buy some more Chemprime and try spraying it on a few things.

The hole where the zinc goes was so full of corrosion that a pencil couldn't have fit through it ... now all of that corrosion is gone.  So now we can put that zinc in there ... or so we thought.  Ken bought two brass heads and a few anodes to screw into them for spares.  This will be cheaper than replacing the entire zinc every time it needs to be replaced.  Would you believe that the dang thing still doesn't fit?!  While we have no regrets cleaning our heat exchanger, the zinc is what started this whole project and it should fit.  Ken had to cut one of the new zincs in half ... surely that would do the trick.  Nope!

Ken proceeded to grind the zinc into a pencil ... literally a pencil zinc now.  That didn't work either.  Why won't this zinc fit?  Any smaller and there won't be any protection!  After looking closely at the exchanger, we think that the piece attached on the end of our Westerbeke heat exchanger may have been improperly placed.  If you look at this picture below, the zinc isn't screwed all the way in but it's still hitting the metal.  The same piece of metal on the left side of the exchanger is thinner.  Was this piece put on backwards?  Was it put in the wrong position?!  We'd love to hear your thoughts, and in the meantime I'm going to email Westerbeke a couple of pictures and see what they say.  

Other than the issue with the zinc, the next step is installing the heat exchanger ... or is it?  Ken has been thinking about whether or not he should re-paint the exchanger.  It looks to have been previously painted with a bronze paint, which has started to come off in spots.  After cleaning the exchanger, Ken lightly sanded it and removed most of the remaining paint.  He wishes that he'd thought of sanding the exchanger before soaking it in Chemprime, but since he didn't I'm thinking that he could just clean the exchanger with some detergent, spray it with Chemprime and let it dry.  Tell me if I'm wrong, but it's my understanding that the Chemprime should be enough of a protectant.  Many of the reviews I've read about this product mention spraying it on car parts and just leaving it.

So, the project continues!  I think Ken will be installing the heat exchanger real soon without any new paint and with a really short zinc for now.  He's already purchased the new gaskets and O-rings for the end caps, as well as some new hoses and clamps.  We're anxious to go sailing before Summer is over.  Oh, and one more thing about the zinc ... we've heard that teflon tape should NOT be used on the threads because the zinc needs metal-to-metal contact in order to be effective.  Thought I'd pass that bit of info on to ya.

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

The Elusive Engine Zinc!

New pencil zinc on the left, and the (missing) zinc that was removed from our heat exchanger on the right.

When I recently wrote a post about engine maintenance, a reader stated that he noticed we didn't mention anything about our engine zinc.  Engine zinc?!  Ken and I have both flipped through our Universal 25 manual several times, and we've never seen anything about a zinc.  Did we miss something?

After looking into this on the web, I learned that we do indeed have an engine zinc, often called a pencil zinc.  It's located in the bottom of our heat exchanger, and for some reason was left out of the owner's manual.  Crap!  No wonder we never read anything about this zinc.

I've learned that inside the heat exchanger, hot coolant (50/50 mixture of anti-freeze and water) runs through small tubes that sit in cold seawater.  The seawater absorbs the heat, which is discharged into the exhaust system then out of the boat's transom.  With all that water, the zinc is necessary to protect the other metals from corrosion ... thus protecting the engine.

Ken found the location of the zinc pretty easily.  It's attached to the winterizing drain plug at the bottom of the heat exchanger.  For those not familiar with the looks of a heat exchanger, check out the picture below.  It's the long horizontal tube that lies across the back of the engine.  You can't see the zinc in the picture, but it's easy to find.  

When Ken removed the zinc, there was nothing left.  We've owned Nirvana for over three years so we weren't surprised.  The zinc should be checked every 3-4 months and replaced at least every year ... even if it looks fine.

There are different sizes of zincs, and the proper size for the engine is determined by the size wrench that fits the hex head of the drain plug.  A 7/16" wrench =  1/8" thread, a 9/16" = 1/4" thread, and 11/16" = 3/8" thread.  Ken was able to find the zinc we needed at West Marine for about $10 bucks ... or at least he thought he had.  However, when he tried to put the new zinc in the heat exchanger it wouldn't fit.  I had read that some folks find the zinc to be too long and cut it, but our zinc seemed to be too thick.  After grabbing a mirror to get a better look, we quickly realized the problem.  The hole was heavily corroded, thus making the new zinc too thick.

What to do now?  After more research, Ken has decided to remove the heat exchanger.  We're going to bring it to a local radiator shop and have them boil it.  Ken's then going to replace the gaskets along with the zinc then re-install the heat exchanger.  This is probably a good time to replace the hoses and clamps too.  Better now than later!

We're so grateful that one of our readers mentioned the zinc to us.  If he hadn't, we may have ended up having to buy a new heat exchanger ... or a new engine!

While this is yet another delay in sailing this Summer, we're glad to learn about all of this now.  The more we know about our boat before cruising, the better.  With the recent maintenance on our engine, our quadrant (radial wheel drive) and now this ... I'm feeling like I know so much more than I did two months ago.  I'm getting a broad sense of how an engine works.  I've never had a desire to learn how to work on my car, but our boat ... that's another story.

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Engine Maintenance 101

Our Universal 25 diesel engine.  Although it's dirty, it's not that black around the edges ... something with the camera.  That pretty orange thing is the new FRAM oil filter.

Continuing with Nirvana's maintenance, Ken tackled the filters and fluids on Nirvana.  There was the oil (15W-40), oil filter (FRAM PH3593A), fuel filter (WIX 33390), water/fuel separator filter (Racor 2010TM-OR), transmission fluid (Type A), and impeller (Oberdorfer) ... enough to fill an afternoon.  

Impeller ... what's an impeller?!  Until recently, I'd never heard of such a thing.  I learned that the impeller is a part of the raw water pump that circulates water in order to cool the engine's internal cooling system.  You can see what it looks like in the pic above (that rubber piece in the middle that kinda looks like a star).  I also learned that this one little part is about $45 bucks!  Luckily, this impeller came with the boat.

  Nothing is easy on a boat right?!  When Ken changed the impeller, there was a little metal ring (snap clip) that needed to be removed and replaced (see the ring in top left corner of impeller package).  The ring came off easily, but putting the new one back on ... not so much.  Basically, Ken had to make his own little tool to get the thing on there by grinding down a pair of snap ring pliers.  About an hour later it was finally on.  There were two metal rings that came with the impeller (see pic).  Those are oil seats, which usually don't come with the impellers.  We didn't install those at this time since that's a whole other project.

Our impeller definitely needed changing, as you can see in the picture below.  The rubber was pretty beat up, and was starting to crack.  When I researched the maintenance schedule online, I found that it's recommended that an impeller should be replaced every 200 hours or every 2 years in clear water.  It should also be removed every winter to prevent the vanes from being bent all season.  If your engine over-heats for any reason, the impeller should be replaced.  Our engine over-heated shortly after owning Nirvana.  Perhaps that's why it needed changing, or maybe it's due to the fact that we've owned Nirvana for over 3 1/2 years and we're changing it for the very first time.

The old impeller, with the oil seats (seals) and an extra paper gasket.

Although Ken had changed the oil and oil filter before, he'd never changed the Racor fuel filter/water separator filter until now.  Needless to say, it was filthy and we plan on changing this annually.  Also, per Universal's recommendations, the oil & filter should be changed every 75 hours, the transmission oil (fluid) every 100 hours, and the fuel filter every 100 hours.  When changing the fuel filter, Ken also needed to bleed the air out of the diesel line in order to be able to re-fill the filter with fuel and restore pressure to the system.  He said it was easy ... just open the bleeder valve until you get fuel.   When removing the oil and transmission fluid, Ken used a hand pump.  When replacing the oil, Ken just used a funnel.  However, adding the transmission oil (fluid) was a little trickier.  The transmission is located at the back of the engine, underneath the heat exchange.  This makes it a PITA to get to the transmission, so Ken used a long spout to replace the transmission oil (fluid).

Cleaning out the hand pump and spout with Dawn soap and water ...

Our engine is located underneath the salon cushions, around the galley's counter.  If you're familiar with Catalina 30's, you'll notice that the port side settee has been raised (thus the wood strip at the top of the engine, under the cushions) by the previous owners.  We think they did this to allow more space for the Universal 25 engine, which about 3" higher than the standard engine.

It's always good to have spares nearby, so we plan on buying more filters, another impeller and a water pump soon to have as a backup.  If you have a Universal diesel engine, did you know that you can buy Kubota tractor parts much cheaper?  That's what we did when our engine over-heated and we needed a water pump.  We saved a lot of money!  The details and where we ordered the pump from are in our post here.

I'm starting to learn the basic concepts of the engine, and the next time Ken does all this work I plan on learning how to do it myself.  We never know what situations will arise when cruising, so the more I learn the better.

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

*UPDATE:  A reader commented that we didn't mention changing our zinc ... what zinc?!  Yep, we didn't know about that, but we do now.  Check out my post about the condition (and location) of our zinc here.

Kubota Parts for Universal Diesel

For those of you that have a Universal diesel engine on your sailboat, you'll be happy to hear that the water pump we ordered from Kubota tractor parts was exactly the same as our old water pump on our Universal diesel engine in our Catalina 30, and it worked perfectly!  Ken was able to take Sunday off after all, and he spent the morning installing the new water pump.  He did have to remove the nipple from the old water pump and re-use it, but there were no problems.  Universal's water pump was around $300, and Kubota's water pump was around $62.  Big savings!  We're going to order another water pump in the near future just to have on board since they're so much cheaper than Universal's water pumps.

FYI:  The Universal part number (for our engine) was 300203 for a 950 engine, and the correlating Kubota part number was 15552-73030. 

By Sunday afternoon the new water pump was on the engine, as well as a new belt.  We wanted to test things out, so that evening we motored around the canals to make sure we did not overheat.  No problems! 

Maybe now we can finally get some sailing practice!  

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Running Hot!

Unfortunately I am talking about Nirvana's diesel engine!  This past weekend Ken and I were anxious to take Nirvana sailing after all the hard work in the boatyard.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, our attempt to sail on the 4th of July weekend didn't go so well, as it was too windy for us inexperienced sailors.  Ken had to work Saturday, so that evening we took Nirvana out to motor around the canals of our subdivision.  The evening was uneventful and we were home and in bed early, with plans of taking Nirvana sailing the next morning.  The weather forecast called for light winds and calm waters, so Ken and I thought it would be a perfect time to go out by ourselves and practice the basics of sailing.

So, yesterday morning Ken and I were on our sailboat by 9:00 am and ready to get some sailing practice.  We motored through the canals of our subdivision, and when we were almost to Lake Pontchartrain Ken pulled up the main sail.  I was at the wheel when all of sudden Ken shouted, "Turn if off!  Turn if off!".  I didn't know why he was shouting this, but turned off the engine in confusion.  Ken pointed to the temperature gauge, which was as far as it could go, showing the engine was running hot!  To be honest, I never really noticed nor thought about the temperature gauge, but I will from now on. 

After the engine was turned off, Ken quickly pulled down the main sail.  We were still in the canal and Ken didn't want the sail to cause us to drift in the wrong direction.  Since we were in the canal, we were near homes and docks.  Luckily, we were able to drift into the direction of a home with a really nice, big dock and no boat.  We tied up Nirvana and Ken went into the salon to check out the engine.  It appeared that the water pump was broken, and leaking.  The bearings were shot, and the water pump pulley was moving back and forth causing the belt to loosen.

We sat around for about 15 minutes, while waiting for the engine to cool down.  We had a gallon of anti-freeze and some water, which Ken used to keep us from running hot again.  After the engine cooled, we untied the lines and were able to drift about halfway home, with the wind behind us.  After making a sharp left turn, the wind was no longer behind us and we had to turn the engine on.  We kept a close eye on the engine and thermostat, and made it home without the engine overheating.

Needless to say, the day did not go as planned!  However, we were thankful that we weren't further from home when this happened, and that there was no permanent damage to our engine.  Ken spent the afternoon removing the water pump, which appeared to be in pretty bad shape.  One of first thoughts was, how much is this going to cost?!  Ken got online and found out that a water pump for our Universal diesel engine was about $300.00!  After further research online, Ken found that Kubota tractor parts can be used instead.  The same water pump is only $80.00.  Ken and I plan on going to the local Kubota dealer this afternoon with our Universal water pump just to make sure that they're the same.  We'll let you know how it turns out, as this may be helpful to anyone else looking for Universal parts.

So, it looks like we have another little project on our hands before we can finally start sailing!  This week we hope to buy a KUBOTA water pump (and save $220.00) and get it installed.  

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!