RW Cooled Universal Diesel---Should I Convert to FWC?

[Timothy Cote]

Hi All!

I'm the new proud owner of an '82 Pearson 28 which came complete with a
raw water cooled 11HP Universal Diesel (Model 15, 5411). Shortly after
purchase the exhaust manifold was found to be completely trashed, and it
cost about $500 to replace. I'm still not putting out any H20 on the
backside and the temp rises to about 180 before I get scared and shut it
down, I expect this is the thermostat and will replace it and further
investigate on Friday.

Can I convert this gem to fresh water? What will it cost? Is it worth
it for an engine I've not maintained up till now? Is there some way to
de-scale the innards durring conversion? Has someone assembled a
conversion kit?

Thanks in advance. Please reply by email as well as newsgroup.

Tim Cote
Takoma Park, MD

[Rufus Laggren]

All the stuff you'll need to do to give it a chance to work, you'd need
to do anyway. If you get it to run consistently, as-is, stop while
you're ahead, unless you have lots of money.

Rufus

[edgar cove]

In article <36F9A0...@erols.com>, Timothy Cote <"
booklady"@erols.com> writes

>Hi All!
>
>I'm the new proud owner of an '82 Pearson 28 which came complete with a
>raw water cooled 11HP Universal Diesel (Model 15, 5411). Shortly after
>purchase the exhaust manifold was found to be completely trashed, and it
>cost about $500 to replace. I'm still not putting out any H20 on the
>backside and the temp rises to about 180 before I get scared and shut it
>down, I expect this is the thermostat and will replace it and further
>investigate on Friday.
>
>Can I convert this gem to fresh water? What will it cost? Is it worth
>it for an engine I've not maintained up till now? Is there some way to
>de-scale the innards durring conversion? Has someone assembled a
>conversion kit?
>
>Thanks in advance. Please reply by email as well as newsgroup.
>
>Tim Cote
>Takoma Park, MD

Assuming your raw water is seawater you are storing up trouble if you
let the temperature rise to 180 because you should keep it around 135
max if you want to avoid your engine becoming blocked with salt
deposits. Get a new thermostat and descale the engine before you trash
another manifold. Apart from that if the engine was designed for raw
water cooling it should be OK on it and the expense of FW cooling is not
justifiable
--
edgar (remove nospam from return address for e-mail reply)

[Bryon Kass]

Sorry to tell you this but that engine is toast. Kubota makes an
excellent
diesel but never for raw water cooling. I have had several come through
my shop and I have one now. When that engine a Z500 2 cyl Kubota is
exposed
to that many years of salt water forget repairing it. I suspect the
innerds
are full of scale and salt. The engine should never run over 135F if
salt
water cooled or the salt will precipitate out and fill up the block.
Normally
the head goes first in those little beasts. It is not worth converting
as
it will fail faster if not torn down and cleaned out. Cleaning will most
likely perforate the block or head making it surely scrap metal. I do
have
an alternative which is an idustrial Z600 that should take your marine
parts.
Price $1500. Only other alternative is new or good used fresh water
cooled
diesel. Some makes of engine were built to take raw water cooling but
not
this one. Your old trans etc can also be reused if OK. Check my site for
more
info.
Bryon Kass
webmaster and
Custom Design
150 Mechanic St.
Foxboro, MA 02035
508-543-9068 or fax 508-543-5127, Foot yard 508-384-2415
in THE ENGINE ROOM http://getit.at/engineroom

[totalc...@yahoo.ca]

On Wednesday, March 24, 1999 4:00:00 AM UTC-4, Timothy Cote wrote:
> Hi All!
>
> I'm the new proud owner of an '82 Pearson 28 which came complete with a
> raw water cooled 11HP Universal Diesel (Model 15, 5411). Shortly after
> purchase the exhaust manifold was found to be completely trashed, and it
> cost about $500 to replace. I'm still not putting out any H20 on the
> backside and the temp rises to about 180 before I get scared and shut it
> down, I expect this is the thermostat and will replace it and further
> investigate on Friday.
>
> Can I convert this gem to fresh water? What will it cost? Is it worth
> it for an engine I've not maintained up till now? Is there some way to
> de-scale the innards durring conversion? Has someone assembled a
> conversion kit?
>
> Thanks in advance. Please reply by email as well as newsgroup.
>
> Tim Cote
> Takoma Park, MD

I would just like to say I have just finished changing my 5411 for a z600. It works but you cant use the alt bracket and the temp sender.We had to take part from 5411 like the exhaust studs the exhaust manifold. We also had to use the flywheel off the 5411.I closed off the lower water pump for the fresh water.I used my raw water pump to make the z600 raw water.I live in the great lakes we dont have salt so the head looks great for being 32 years old. I have the engine minus the oil pan and the valve cover I used the decompression from the 5411. This will work fine for fresh water only.

[brucein...@invalid.com]

On Fri, 8 Aug 2014 18:28:27 -0700 (PDT), totalc...@yahoo.ca wrote:

>On Wednesday, March 24, 1999 4:00:00 AM UTC-4, Timothy Cote wrote:
>> Hi All!
>>
>> I'm the new proud owner of an '82 Pearson 28 which came complete with a
>> raw water cooled 11HP Universal Diesel (Model 15, 5411). Shortly after
>> purchase the exhaust manifold was found to be completely trashed, and it
>> cost about $500 to replace. I'm still not putting out any H20 on the
>> backside and the temp rises to about 180 before I get scared and shut it
>> down, I expect this is the thermostat and will replace it and further
>> investigate on Friday.
>>
>> Can I convert this gem to fresh water? What will it cost? Is it worth
>> it for an engine I've not maintained up till now? Is there some way to
>> de-scale the innards durring conversion? Has someone assembled a
>> conversion kit?
>>
>> Thanks in advance. Please reply by email as well as newsgroup.
>>
>> Tim Cote
>> Takoma Park, MD
>

Yes, there is a de-scaling treatment. I do not know the exact details
but it is an acid and the technique is to remove the inlet hose and
run the engine slowly until you fill the engine with the acid mix.
Shut down and let it soak for a while. After the soak reconnect the
water line and restart to flush the acid mix completely out of the
engine.

I first heard of it from an Australian bloke who said that it was
commonly used by fishing boats. He de-scaled his 3 cylinder Yanmar
engine once a year.

Conversion to fresh water cooling is a bit of work. You need a heat
exchanger and a header tank and a raw water pump - this is in addition
to the normal engine water pump. The engine driven raw water pump
pumps sea water through the heat exchanger and than usually out the
exhaust . the engine driven water pump circulates fresh water from the
header tank through the engine block and heat exchanger and back to
the header tank.

180 degrees F is not excessively hot for a water cooled engine.

>I would just like to say I have just finished changing my 5411 for a z600. It works but you cant use the alt bracket and the temp sender.We had to take part from 5411 like the exhaust studs the exhaust manifold. We also had to use the flywheel off the 5411.I closed off the lower water pump for the fresh water.I used my raw water pump to make the z600 raw water.I live in the great lakes we dont have salt so the head looks great for being 32 years old. I have the engine minus the oil pan and the valve cover I used the decompression from the 5411. This will work fine for fresh water only.

--
Cheers,

Bruce in Bangkok

[Wayne.B]

===

I would like to add a few comments to that. 180 degrees F is not
excessively hot for a fresh water cooled engine but it is too hot for
salt water cooling. The reason is that salt starts to precipitate
out onto the cooling passages at around 145 degrees F. That is why
salt water cooled engines generally have a different thermostat
specified.

The descaling solution most often used is muriatic acid which is
available from swimming pool supply houses. There are also a couple
of proprietary products: One is called Barnacle Buster and the other
is Rid Lyme or something like that. All of these products require
safety precautions of course, and they should not be left in the
system longer than necessary.