Sea Flush and Barnacle Buster

Joint Custody

Joint Custody

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2017
1,254
Lake Powell Utah
Boat Info
2001 460 Sundancer
Engines
Twin Cummins 6CTA8
Thoughts on using Sea Flush and Barnacle Buster?

Our boat has been in fresh water all its life. I know the after coolers have never been off the boat and cleaned " 900" Hours.

We dont have a tech at our lake that could take them off so I could bring them back to SLC to have them done at a radiator shop and I dont know if I want to pull them myself.

Does barnacle buster really work on cleaning the lake water system?

Thoughts from those that have used it?
 
Fresh water doesn’t have the salt and marine growth that is problem in marine environments. The build up is usually light to none existent.

If you want to you can buy or make a circulation system and buy Barnicle Buster online, pretty easy job.

Pulling the aftercoolers and heat exchangers can be done DIY, and lots of details on this site.
 
Fresh water, if your temps are normal I’d leave it alone..
 
shopping
http://www.clubsearay.com/index.php?threads/barnacle-buster-rydlyme-concentration-ratio.91160/
 
There's no question that fresh water is very forgiving on these systems, but 20 years is a long time. You are not alone in that you have never serviced your after coolers. Most boaters here have never done it either. There are 30 year old boats in our marina that have never had them serviced. Our previous owner didn't do it, so I did it when I bought the boat. It was nine years old. There was just a hint of corrosion on the inside of the case and practically no growth of any type in the tubes. After we did the loop, there was a tiny bit of marine growth in the tubes and some "crust' on the tops and bottoms of the bundles from the 7 months it was in salt water, and some deposits on the inside of the caps from the anodes being eroded away from being in the salt, and that was 3 years after the first service. As I see it, the advantage of servicing these in fresh water situations is that I get eyes on their condition and reassembling them using lots of grease eliminates the condensation water on the inside of the case from seeping down between the case and the core and causing any bit of possible corrosion around the sealing surfaces at the o-rings.
Were it my boat, I would definitely service them and reassemble them as per SeaBoard's method, pressure test them, and you are good to go for a while. I will do mine every 5-6 years going forward. I made a pressure test set up that I can test with them right on the motors every other year, or whenever I want actually.
As far as the heat exchangers go, the tubing bundles don't really get anything built up in them, but the raw water system gets a flush with Barnacle Buster when I service the after coolers. I made up a flush system using a bilge pump and a 5 gallon bucket. The water/BB flushing mixture looks gross, so even though there's "nothing" there, it removes all the film that builds up on the surfaces, that can't be a bad thing.
 
my3sons said:
There's no question that fresh water is very forgiving on these systems, but 20 years is a long time. You are not alone in that you have never serviced your after coolers. Most boaters here have never done it either. There are 30 year old boats in our marina that have never had them serviced. Our previous owner didn't do it, so I did it when I bought the boat. It was nine years old. There was just a hint of corrosion on the inside of the case and practically no growth of any type in the tubes. After we did the loop, there was a tiny bit of marine growth in the tubes and some "crust' on the tops and bottoms of the bundles from the 7 months it was in salt water, and some deposits on the inside of the caps from the anodes being eroded away from being in the salt, and that was 3 years after the first service. As I see it, the advantage of servicing these in fresh water situations is that I get eyes on their condition and reassembling them using lots of grease eliminates the condensation water on the inside of the case from seeping down between the case and the core and causing any bit of possible corrosion around the sealing surfaces at the o-rings.
Were it my boat, I would definitely service them and reassemble them as per SeaBoard's method, pressure test them, and you are good to go for a while. I will do mine every 5-6 years going forward. I made a pressure test set up that I can test with them right on the motors every other year, or whenever I want actually.
As far as the heat exchangers go, the tubing bundles don't really get anything built up in them, but the raw water system gets a flush with Barnacle Buster when I service the after coolers. I made up a flush system using a bilge pump and a 5 gallon bucket. The water/BB flushing mixture looks gross, so even though there's "nothing" there, it removes all the film that builds up on the surfaces, that can't be a bad thing.
Click to expand...
One part of the removal and disassemble process is to clean the cooling fins so that there is effective heat transfer from the warm air to the fins. Flushing doesn't do anything for that. How did your air side look after 9 years?
 
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