1978 Volvo Penta MD11C - Add Fresh Water Cooling?
Thomas D. Dean
I have a 1978 Pearson P10M with the original Volvo Penta MD11C,
located in the Seattle area. The engine is raw water cooled. 4 years
ago, I made a major effort to remove external rust from the engine. I
now have external rust on the engine.
Also, rhe operating temperature is now slightly higher than in past
years. I have flushed and changed the thermostat with no change.
I checked the injection port in the exhaust elbow - OK. Water flow
seems OK.
Other than that, the engine runs fine. No, or at least little,
smoke. I never run the engine out-of-gear for long. The engine
starts without excessive grinding on the starter - 30 sec max.
If the engine is warm, it starts instantly.
I am thinking of pulling the engine so I can do a proper job of
anit-rust (the engine is under the cockpit).
Should I add fresh water cooling? What else should I do to this
20-year old engine? I plan on replacing all the hoses and the
exhaust elbow.
I asked a Volvo-Penta mechanic I trusted. He said I would be wasting
my money. The engine would out-last me. Is this true? There are no
zincs on the engine, just the shaft.
richard_gray
In article <33130F...@ix.netcom.com>, "Thomas says...
Tom, I had this same engine in a 1981 Ketch and it ran very well if a little
underpowered for the 11 tons of boat. Volvo does not use zincs in the engine
reportedly because of the quality of the metals used in construction. They
also believe that the zinc particles clog up the heat exchanger (not a problem
in your case). I never had any electrolosis problems and used a perry nut
on the shaft end. I did convert my raw water cooling to fresh water. This
was a mistake. My engine was installed with a moderate slant to the rear and
as a result the fresh water cooling system always developed an air trap in the
engine after being run and shut down. I would only consider fresh water
cooling conversion if your engine is mounted level. The conversion kit
costs about $1,000 so you might weigh this against the life of the engine
and the problems that you are experiencing with temperature variation. Remember
that with raw water cooled engines you will see some temp variation as the
ambient temperature changes.
Richard Gray
s/v Windsong
RG...@notes.mdacc.tmc.edu@internet
richard_gray
richard_gray
jemv...@csn.com.br
In article <33130F...@ix.netcom.com>, "Thomas says...
>
>I have a 1978 Pearson P10M with the original Volvo Penta MD11C,
>located in the Seattle area. The engine is raw water cooled. 4 years
>ago, I made a major effort to remove external rust from the engine. I
>now have external rust on the engine.
>
>Also, rhe operating temperature is now slightly higher than in past
>years. I have flushed and changed the thermostat with no change.
>I checked the injection port in the exhaust elbow - OK. Water flow
>seems OK.
>
>Other than that, the engine runs fine. No, or at least little,
>smoke. I never run the engine out-of-gear for long. The engine
>starts without excessive grinding on the starter - 30 sec max.
>If the engine is warm, it starts instantly.
>
>I am thinking of pulling the engine so I can do a proper job of
>anit-rust (the engine is under the cockpit).
>
>Should I add fresh water cooling? What else should I do to this
>20-year old engine? I plan on replacing all the hoses and the
>exhaust elbow.
>
>I asked a Volvo-Penta mechanic I trusted. He said I would be wasting
>my money. The engine would out-last me. Is this true? There are no
>zincs on the engine, just the shaft.
Kiss. If you add fresh water cooling you will have TWO cooling
systems to worry about since you will still need the raw water system
to cool the fresh water one.
I will tell you what! Connect your engine to the bonding system
of your boat and check that your zincs are in order.
Least but not last: to many zincs are no problem, to feel are!
Vargas
John Ellerington
Thomas D. Dean wrote:
>
> I have a 1978 Pearson P10M with the original Volvo Penta MD11C,
> located in the Seattle area. The engine is raw water cooled. 4 years
> ago, I made a major effort to remove external rust from the engine. I
> now have external rust on the engine.
>
> Also, rhe operating temperature is now slightly higher than in past
> years. I have flushed and changed the thermostat with no change.
> I checked the injection port in the exhaust elbow - OK. Water flow
> seems OK.
>
> Other than that, the engine runs fine. No, or at least little,
> smoke. I never run the engine out-of-gear for long. The engine
> starts without excessive grinding on the starter - 30 sec max.
> If the engine is warm, it starts instantly.
>
> I am thinking of pulling the engine so I can do a proper job of
> anit-rust (the engine is under the cockpit).
>
> Should I add fresh water cooling? What else should I do to this
> 20-year old engine? I plan on replacing all the hoses and the
> exhaust elbow.
>
> I asked a Volvo-Penta mechanic I trusted. He said I would be wasting
> my money. The engine would out-last me. Is this true? There are no
> zincs on the engine, just the shaft.
cooling arrangement probably is reaching the end of its useful life. You
shouldn't waste your time pulling the engine out unless you are going to
totally recondition it. If it's lasted 20 years with raw water cooling,
don't bother changing it now - you'd definitely be wasting your money -
but you might consider budgetting for a new engine, in which case fresh
water cooling will give you better fuel economy, less corrosion and
longer engine life.
Regards...John.
Bryon Kass
Thomas D. Dean wrote:
>
> I have a 1978 Pearson P10M with the original Volvo Penta MD11C,
> located in the Seattle area. The engine is raw water cooled. 4 years
> ago, I made a major effort to remove external rust from the engine. I
> now have external rust on the engine.
>
> Also, rhe operating temperature is now slightly higher than in past
> years. I have flushed and changed the thermostat with no change.
> I checked the injection port in the exhaust elbow - OK. Water flow
> seems OK.
>
> Other than that, the engine runs fine. No, or at least little,
> smoke. I never run the engine out-of-gear for long. The engine
> starts without excessive grinding on the starter - 30 sec max.
> If the engine is warm, it starts instantly.
>
> I am thinking of pulling the engine so I can do a proper job of
> anit-rust (the engine is under the cockpit).
>
> Should I add fresh water cooling? What else should I do to this
> 20-year old engine? I plan on replacing all the hoses and the
> exhaust elbow.
>
> I asked a Volvo-Penta mechanic I trusted. He said I would be wasting
> my money. The engine would out-last me. Is this true? There are no
> zincs on the engine, just the shaft.
is in the intake. I would either leave it in and do the rehab of
the outside while it is in place or for piece of mind replace
the engine with a new or newer one. The removal and reistall
expense is about the same if you buy a new engine. The engine
should not be changed to FWC as the added internal pressure will
destroy it. That engine should not be rebuilt unless the block
is hot tanked to get rid of scale. For the expense involved a
newer Yanmar FWC would be a better idea or a newer Volvo etc.
Bryon Kass
webmaster and
Custom Design
150 Mechanic St.
Foxboro, MA 02035
508-543-9068 or fax 508-543-5127
in THE ENGINE ROOM http://www.ici.net/customers/cusdn
Leo P. Cailleteau
Before you spend a lot of time and money on fresh water cooling, you
should remove the exhaust manifold and clean its interior and the
interior of the engine block.
You will find that the exhaust manifold has several chambers and
ports that direct the water into the top of the cylinder. The chambers
and the ports will have a great amount of scale build-up. This can be
done by tapping the manifold with a rubber mallet, poking the
chamber(s) with coat hanger or long screw driver. The ports will
have to be drilled out to their original size. You should also
consider taking the manifold to a radiator shop and have it "bolded"
The have big time chemicals that will clean the rust and scale. (I
have some success with muratic acid and oxalic acid - DO NOT USE IN
COMBINATION AND WARE GLOVES AND PROTECTIVE GLASSES. THIS STUFF IS
REALLY BAD).
Carefully examine the exposed portion of the engine where the
manifold was attached, you will find that scale has build up around
the fuel injection ports and the cylinder jacket. Remove the engine
cooling water drain cocks (they are on the engine block right under
the where the exhause manifold) . Using household water pressure,
inject water into the holes left by the cooling water drain cocks,
this will flush out the cyclinders and point out where you have to
scrape scale. Be careful, depending on the amount of scale and
corrosion, you could punch a hole in something like the injector
shaft.
I went throught this process 2 years ago on my 1979 Volvo MD17C (3
cylinder version of the MD11C) and everthing works fine. Make sure you
get some new exhaust manifold gaskets ahead of time since you need
them when you re-install the manifold.
Hope this helps, Let me know if you have any question.
Leo (dad...@neosoft.com)
John Ellerington <jo...@tcp.co.uk> wrote:
>Thomas D. Dean wrote:
>>
>> I have a 1978 Pearson P10M with the original Volvo Penta MD11C,
>> located in the Seattle area. The engine is raw water cooled. 4 years
>> ago, I made a major effort to remove external rust from the engine. I
>> now have external rust on the engine.
>>
>> Also, rhe operating temperature is now slightly higher than in past
>> years. I have flushed and changed the thermostat with no change.
>> I checked the injection port in the exhaust elbow - OK. Water flow
>> seems OK.
>>
>> Other than that, the engine runs fine. No, or at least little,
>> smoke. I never run the engine out-of-gear for long. The engine
>> starts without excessive grinding on the starter - 30 sec max.
>> If the engine is warm, it starts instantly.
>>
>> I am thinking of pulling the engine so I can do a proper job of
>> anit-rust (the engine is under the cockpit).
>>
>> Should I add fresh water cooling? What else should I do to this
>> 20-year old engine? I plan on replacing all the hoses and the
>> exhaust elbow.
>>
>> I asked a Volvo-Penta mechanic I trusted. He said I would be wasting
>> my money. The engine would out-last me. Is this true? There are no
>> zincs on the engine, just the shaft.