June 13, 2017
While waiting for weather in Noumea, we tackled the engine overheating problem we’ve been having for while now. I took the heat exchanger core out and found it partially clogged with algae. It seems that the holes in this commonly used raw water strainer are just too big and allow little twigs and leaves to enter the raw water cooling circuit.
My solution was a small piece of fiberglass window screen. I cut a round hole in the center of a piece about 18 inches square, pushed it into the basket and trimmed the excess off the top. I used an o-ring to hold the screen down over the inlet tube at the bottom of the filter and a wire tie to hold it open at the top. The modification, including the head-scratching phase, took about ten minutes and I really think it’ll help keep the gunk out of the engine.
Here’s the final result…
-Rich
