440 Jim
Well-Known Member
- Feb 11, 2021
- 530
- Boat Info
- 1989 440 Convertable
Twin 3208T Cats
- Engines
- Twin 3208T Cats
So, been wanting to come up with a way to freshwater flush my heat exchangers. A few weeks ago I got a hose barb fitting and while cleaning the strainer, flushed them out for about a half hour. Just disconnect from pump outlet and hook up individually. I noticed under hose pressure the fwd discharge kind of sprayed, not the normal steady flow. With the pump on it, it barely flowed.
Well, my time was limited and I was already in the process of putting together a recirc system to flush the heat exchangers with cleaner, so I bugged out.
Dock neighbor (good guy) sent me a txt saying my fwd discharge looked weak, I "explained" it I thought.
Spent a few days last week on The Office, did a freshwater flush before the HE recirc cleaning and almost nothing from the fwd.
Thought, Damn the HE must be screwed. Hooked that up first and good full flow through the recirc sys, ???. There is about 3' of discharge hose completely accesable to the thru hull. I hooked the hose adapter up, and same thing.
Pulled the hose from the thru hull and the through hull was clogged with small mussels it appeared (weird to me), reamed it out, hooked back up and same thing. Then pulled the 3' section of discharge hose and inspected-same thing as the thru hull about 8" into the hose. Got that reamed out and cleaned and all good.
Did the aft unit then done. Mid 50s air temp now, good improvement from last time I checked air outlet temp.
The puzzling thing is that I have never seen that in 40 years of boating. Thru hull is way above waterline. My guess is some "seeds" got pulled in and landed. I've dealt with growth from Indian River to Savannah over the years and this was a first.
Well, my time was limited and I was already in the process of putting together a recirc system to flush the heat exchangers with cleaner, so I bugged out.
Dock neighbor (good guy) sent me a txt saying my fwd discharge looked weak, I "explained" it I thought.
Spent a few days last week on The Office, did a freshwater flush before the HE recirc cleaning and almost nothing from the fwd.
Thought, Damn the HE must be screwed. Hooked that up first and good full flow through the recirc sys, ???. There is about 3' of discharge hose completely accesable to the thru hull. I hooked the hose adapter up, and same thing.
Pulled the hose from the thru hull and the through hull was clogged with small mussels it appeared (weird to me), reamed it out, hooked back up and same thing. Then pulled the 3' section of discharge hose and inspected-same thing as the thru hull about 8" into the hose. Got that reamed out and cleaned and all good.
Did the aft unit then done. Mid 50s air temp now, good improvement from last time I checked air outlet temp.
The puzzling thing is that I have never seen that in 40 years of boating. Thru hull is way above waterline. My guess is some "seeds" got pulled in and landed. I've dealt with growth from Indian River to Savannah over the years and this was a first.