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There are 4 o-rings for the heat exchanger. Treating with one then with the other should get everything out.
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Cleaning marine diesel heat exchanger. Cleaning Marine Diesel Heat Exchanger - YouTube. Seaboard Marine delivers Guaranteed Better Than Factory Performance Parts Design and Engineering for Cummins and other Marine Diesel applications. Weve been serving local Ventura County California since 1980 as a custom boat builder repower specialist designer and supplier of equipment to builders commercial fishermen and recreational users.
This heat exchanger was pressure tested cleaned inside and out and readied for a new coat of paint. A good auto radiator shop can pressure test it and then clean it all for about 3000 to 5000 depending upon your geography. I have a local guy that will do this for 3000-5000.
Not really worth my time to even consider doing it myself. Caustic sods is the opposite of acid it is basic. Add caustic powder to water until the mixture has a pH of 12.
That will be strong enough to dissolve any organic fouling. Treating with one then with the other should get everything out. Be very sure to.
I read somewhere that a good periodic maintenance chore for a freshwater cooled engine is to run a bucket of water through your seawater system that contains vinegar or a bit of muriatic acid to dissolve the accumulated growth in the heat exchanger tubes. When I had my heat exchange on my engine blocked all I did was remove it from the engine and used a small screwdriver to knock off the white deposits which were at one end only. Then washed out with fresh water from a hose.
You must use new O-rings and make sure they are correctly aligned before tightening. Heat Exchanger For reference only actual systems may differ. Record before and after operating temperatures for reference.
If there is scale build up on the impeller or the thermostat soak them in the circulating bucket while cleaning. Prolong engine life by scheduling a RYDLYME Marine cleaning each season. Yes if its a carbonate deposit vinegar being such a weak acid will take a long while to clean it out.
A sulphamic acid based descaler such as Fernox DS-3 will be much more effective. Sulphamic acid is just about the strongest of the so-called weak acids. Seaboard Marine offers a wide variety of cleaning repair services for aftercoolers heat exchangers transmission oil coolers seawater pumps.
Our in house facility is well equipped to service and maintain your valuable seawater components. Please see below for a fee schedule regarding cleaning services. Repair of MAN diesel heat exchangers.
Most older MAN diesel marine engines eventually suffer from corrosion of the aluminum heat exchanger tank. MAN reccomends removing the tube bundle and changing the o rings every 2 years. As aluminum and salt water do not play well together the surface where the o-ring seals becomes pitted very quickly.
This how to video describes the process I used to clean my heat exchanger on my sailboat using Barnacle Buster. Cleaned using watered down patio cleaner which contains hydrochloric acid. Check the link that SailngDog gave you and this one which is just the picture version without the MaineSail narrative.
The heat exchanger has the oil cooler tacked onto the aft end of it so there are two coolers inline if you rod the heat exchanger from the front you risk pushing the crud into the space between the heat exchanger matrix and the oil cooler matrix to do it properly you need to split the coolers so you get everything out but that is a lot of work involving removal of oilfilter mounting. In hindsight it would be simpler to use a 38 nipple screwed into one of the pencil zinc fittings on the HEs at the begining and end of the flush. Just remove the zinc fitting screw in the nipple slip a hose with clamp over the nipple and connect to the bilge pump line with a reducer.
Other than that the Cummins engines will require heat exchanger maintenance that includes removal from engine complete disassembly cleaning of the core pressure testing core reassembly with new o rings and lots of marine grease and a final assembly pressure test to confirm all is sealed properly before installing back onto engineThis needs to be done every 2-3 years in salt water. All of our sailboat repair and maintenance blogs are now hosted on our dedicated maintenance channel MOTHERSHIP MAINTENANCE Check it out here. Our service is non-invasive and a fraction of the cost of traditional marine mechanical service and we keep your downtime to a minimum.
Heres what we do Pre-Flush. Heat Exchanger Cooler Trans other systems when Zinc and or visual openings are accessible and possible. Pressure test Heat Exchanger for loss of pressure and leaks.
If an expansion tank recovery bottle is in place check for. Place the Heat Exchanger in a container and soak in CLR. The scrub the Heat Exchanger and use a brush to clean the tubes under clean water.
Soak hoses in CLR until they stop bubbling and rise with plenty of water. Treat any corrosion sandpaper down to bare metal wipe with acetone primer paint and finally engine paint. Wait 24 hours between each step.
Primed and ready for engine paint. There are 4 o-rings for the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is very difficult to clean.
About all you can do is back flush. I clamp a hose nozzle into hose that goes to gear cooler remove inlet pipe from aftercooler to heat exchanger and flush as necessary. The small holes for in and out pipes does not give you room to clean heat exchanger.
CFS Descaler is a safe bio-degradable calcium lime rust mineral and marine growth and descaling agent. Suitable for use as a safe fast and effective alternative to mechanical cleaning of equipment where scaling is and issue. For use in Engines fresh and seawater cooling systems strainers all heat exchangers water makers.