- Jun 5, 2016
- 5,551
- Boat Info
- 410 Sundancer
2001
12" Axiom and 9" Axiom+ MFD
- Engines
- Cat 3126 V-Drives
Who was that Bennett? Seems like I've heard it before!
Cat engine have a bunch of hose clamps on them. When you move a boat from South Florida to someplace that gets freezing temperatures, hoses contract with the first cold snap. Before you tear apart your cooling system looking for a leak, try tightening all the hose clamps near and above the heat exchanger.
I bought my boat when she was 6 mopnths old/35 hours on the engines. THe boat was ordered, built and delivered in May. The next January, Panama City had a 3 day cold snap with temps not getting over 32˚. My next trip down I found a bilge with puddles of red Cat ELC everywhere. I spent a morning wiping every hose clamp with a paper towel; found several wet and retightened every hose clamp I could get to. That was in 1997 and I haven't had a coolant leak since.
First thing I did was wrap some paper towels around anything I thought might be producing a leak. The biggest offender was the cap on the expansion tank, and that wasnt producing a whole lot. My thinking now is that when I have opened the tank, a small amount ran down and filled the voids in the paint on the HEX, and when I got back there to clean things up, it looked worse than it really is. I'm still going to pressure test it. It could also be as you describe, loose clamps so I'll check those as well. Like I said, I watched the coolant levels and they were rock solid all summer. May be she's a FL girl at heart and doesnt like the cold!