Next message: Rufus Laggren: "Re: lv-ab: Cape Cod"
I think Lew may be a bit pessimistic in saying your engine is on its last leg. However, it faces some serious aggravation when you start cruising salt water (compared to fresh).
Hot engine passageways will collect deposits from salt water and eventually clog. Regular (yearly?) flushing with a mild acidic solution helps clear these, but saltwater does make engine life more problematic. I have heard of people with water at their berth hooking up a Y-valve and flushing their engine with fresh water after a day sailing. However, I have a 1963 Columbia with a raw water (that what it's called when it pumps the outside water directly through the engine) Palmer gas engine that still runs very happily after years of abuse; I'm in SF bay (salt water), and AFAIK the boat's been here forever.
Filters are _real_ cheap insurance because there is a lot of junk floating around out there. Repowering starts at about $5k if you find a nice used engine and do most of the work yourself and know where to get stuff done cheap; $15k-$20k is a more likely figure if you get a new engine and have it installed. You can harass the boatyard and find out how small a filter or strainer they think will be effective and thus reduce the footprint somewhat, but it's a good idea to put one right after the seacock. I don't see why you can't also leave your existing filter in place and thus insure against pump fragments. No reason you can't have two filters if they don't impede the water flow too much.
Rufus
----- Original Message -----
From: "janet_sturgis" <>
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 00:03:51 -0400
To: <>
Subject: lv-ab: Engine water strainers
> My 1976 Bristol 32 still has her original Universal Atomic 4 which hums
> along very well. As far as I know, she has had no trouble with life in the
> Great and Finger Lakes, even with the build up of zebra mussels in the last
> decade, and one grand trip up and down the ICW all the way down through the
> Bahamas and back to Central New York...all with just a small external
> thru-hull type strainer on her raw water intake.
>
> The boat yard experts want to install a Forespar strainer the size of Long
> Island (between 5-6 inches in diameter) which I have no doubt will need lots
> of extra fittings to adjust to the small hose size for the engine intake.
> They also want to install it in front of rather than after the water pump,
> so any debris from impeller breakdown will go uncaught anyway.
>
> My plan since buying the boat last summer is to liveaboard (doing that now),
> refit the boat somewhat to my taste and requirements as a singlehander, and
> set off for some extended cruising, down the ICW, including some coastal
> hops, at least to the Bahamas in the next year or two. I may loider a bit,
> enjoying gunkholing along the way. No rush, as I just retired.
>
> What do you think? Is this a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it?" Or
> do I really need to ward off weeds that threated the integrity of my engine?
> Last thing I want is an overheated, broken-down auxiliary to deal with...all
> jammed up with gunk.
>
> Jan Sturgis
>
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