Update to Heat Exchanger project

Hello everyone!  My wife and I are new to the Brewer World, having purchased Shelagh, a Brewer 44, last spring.  We bought her in St Augustine from a wonderful FO.   In honor of the fact that we were only the second owners and just a bit suspicious of the renaming jinx, we decided her name was beautiful and did not change it. We just completed our first major refit and put her back in the water today.  She needed some hull work and a new transmission coupling, prop shaft and other odds and ends.  Thanks to Covid, our 2 week refit took almost 5 months, but we couldn't be any happier than we were the day we bought her.

Just thought I would introduce us to the forum and make some new acquaintances.  We are in Grand Rivers, KY and hope to head south in a couple of years.  We still have not sailed her, nor have we had the mast up since she was first put on the hard last May, but hope to have her remasted and out on Kentucky Lake this season.  

I do have an over-heating problem that I plan to continue to address in short order.  I have replaced the impeller (not really needed after inspection, but hey - why not?), the transmission cooler and all "In" side hoses on our Perkins 4.236 and plan to work on the heat exchanger and hoses soon.  What is the proper running temp at, say, 1600 rpm?  She was getting well over 200 degrees F if I pushed her much beyond 1300 RPM, so our cruising speed was limited to about 3 kn last summer.  Aside from heat exchanger, thermostat and coolant change is there any thing else I should be addressing?  She has analog instruments but putting an infrared thermometer on the coolant, heat exchanger and exhaust manifold never really seemed to get into critical temp range.  Should I trust the instruments (circa 1989) or my IR thermometer?  Is there somewhere, specifically, that I should measure engine temp to know how hot she is running?

Thanks for any help and I am very grateful for any advice;  I am a total novice!

Dave Scola
S/V Shelah
Grand River, KY

Dave,

Welcome!!!  You didn't mention water intake (probably because this is obvious, but I'll say it anyway). Growth and occasionally small fish can foul your water intake strainer. I have a reminder to clean ours monthly (or more often in warm waters). Ours is located in front of our water box, right at the through-hull. Keep that through-hull well lubricated, shut it, screw off the cap for the water strainer, muck it out, put it back in and open the through-hull. That was often the cause of engine overheating when we were first learning our boat. 

Our temp peaks at 180, then drops to 160 and stays there. 

 

Hello Dave,
We also bought our Brewer 44, Andiamo, from a FO seven years ago. We bought her in Cape Coral, FL, and have sailed her to Maine three times, Bahamas three times, and Caribbean once. Great boat, solid as a rock. Be sure to check your chain plates carefully. We snapped one while under full sail and were lucky to save the rig. I pulled them all and discovered hidden corrosion in many. Replaced them all. Hope to see you out there. We’re in Georgia now and will cross to the Bahamas in two weeks. We recently replaced our Perkins with a Beta Marine 60. The engine ran fine but the ancillaries kept breaking in inconvenient ports.
 

Thanks, Cindy Ann! Yes, I did check the raw water intake, sea strainer and all associated hoses...and they all needed cleaning. I lubricated all the seacocks while she was on the hard, though we only had a problem with one of them that was stuck for good (not related to engine overheat issue). That one, the starboard side cockpit drain, was permanently frozen, so it was replaced with a shiney new one.

Thanks for the info on temp, that helps!

Gino and Carolyn, you have a beautiful boat! Very cool that you made the cover of GOB! Yeah, looks like there may be some corrosion on the underside of at least some of the chainplates. Thats a project on the list of things to do, for sure, The first year, we have been focused on making the hull as solid as new and to rework the engine to make sure we have reliable propulsion. As soon as I have that done, I will move on to the actual SAILING components. I'd hoped to get the chainplates at least pulled,re-bedded and replaced where needed earlier, but having her in a no DIY yard for 5 months set that plan back.

As for the Perkins... "ancillaries kept breaking in inconvenient ports"...isn't that the definition of sailing? I figure as long as the Perkins runs and doesnt present too many recurring problems, I will stay with an engine that I can actually work on without an IT degree. When the time comes for a repower, though, the Beta Marine engines are on the top of my list.

We, too, hope to see you both out there in the not-to-distant future!

Not familiar with Perkins. But. Our Lehman overheated from poor water inflow -- the Chesapeake requires a lot of cleaning of the external bronze through-hull as well as the screen before the sea chest.

It also wasn't happy when the heat exchangers (Lehman's have 3) are cruddy. The main heat-exchanger has a zinc pencil. It can break off. I had to finally take the thing apart to get the broken-off pencils out of it.

Air in the engine's cooling water system is a possibility.

A loose belt may mean the engine's pump isn't circulating enough water.

One suggestion (which seems hugely complicated to do) is to put a bucket under the exhaust and measure how long it takes to get 3 gallons of water.

I think the Lehman cooling pump is a Jabsco F5B and is rated for something like 3-5 GPM (depending on RPMs and gearing; I may be way wrong on this) So. I'd expect to get three gallons in a minute or two.

I like to see a healthy spray, also, suggesting plenty of water flowing through. (Which means a clean muffler.)