Todd320
Well-Known Member
- Jul 21, 2016
- 1,508
- Boat Info
- 2007 Sea Ray 320DA
- Engines
- Twin V-drive 5.7L 350 Horizon
My boat is dry stored (32’ Sea Ray) the marina flushes the engines each time they put it away, but they don’t have to flip the sea cocks since it is out of the water. But they do need to raise the hatch, attach the adaptor to the hose, plug it in, quickly start the engines, run for 10 minutes, then repeat for other side. They only do one engine at a time since if they did 2, they lose too much water pressure. (Or so they claim). When I use the boat for weeklong cruises, I do not flush the engines every day, just at the end. Not saying that is right. But you are correct, should just be an easy to get to sea cock, and a connection outside the boat for a standard hose, and voila, you can flush the engines. Even better, automatic with the flip of a switch pull from fresh water, but i think engines are 3-5 gallons/minute(?), if so, in 4 minutes you could empty out a full 40 gallon fresh water tank if both engines were on...OPERATING IN SALT WATER QUESTION -
My 420 Sundancer is located in the Pacific Ocean (salt water). The Mercury engine manual states at "each day end":
The manual (Section 5 / Page 71) goes on to specify that the following 14 steps are to be used at the end of each day that the boat is used in salt water:
- If operating in salt, brackish or polluted waters, flush the cooling system after each use.
My reaction upon reading this was SERIOUSLY - YOU HAVE TO BE F****** KIDDING ME?!
- Close the seacock, if equipped, then disconnect the seawater inlet hose to prevent water from siphoning into the engine or boat.
- If not equipped with a seacock, disconnect the seawater inlet hose from the seawater pump, and immediately plug the hose to prevent water from siphoning into the engine or boat.
- Using a suitable adapter, connect the flushing hose from the water source to the water inlet of the seawater pump.
- Completely open the water source to provide maximum water supply.
- Place the remote control in the neutral idle speed position.
- Immediately start the engine.
- Depress the throttle‐only button and slowly advance the throttle until the engine reaches 1300 RPM (± 100 RPM).
- Observe the water temperature gauge to ensure that the engine is operating in the normal range.
- Operate the engine with the transmission in neutral for a minimum of 10 minutes.
- For power packages operated in salty, brackish, mineral‐laden, or polluted water: Continue to operate the engine until the discharge water is clear.
- Slowly return the throttle to idle speed position.
- Stop the engine.
- Immediately shut off the supply water and remove the flushing attachment.
- Tag the ignition switch with an appropriate tag requiring the seacock to be opened or the seawater inlet hose to be reconnected prior to operating the engine.
Has anybody on this forum who operates in Salt Water ever tried to do this (let alone do this every time they operate the boat in salt water). If so - how long does these 14 steps take to complete (twice - once for each engine!) and what tools / equipment do you need each and every time?
From an engineering standpoint - it would seem that if they ever expected their advice to be taken seriously they should have installed a switch at the cockpit that operates a valve that moves the water intakes from the seacock to the fresh water tank. Unless somebody has a full time crew - I can't see anybody using the boat recreationally honestly doing this.
I see an opportunity for an entrepreneur with an engineering background to create a mechanism that does steps 1-4 with a push of a button ....