Changes To My Raw Water Cooling System

Cleaning out the heat exchangers was a good thing, but I was still very unimpressed with the raw water cooling system layout for my two diesel engines and the generator. Here are some of the reasons.

The raw water strainer for my port engine was hidden away in the forward port corner of the engine room. If you wanted to clean out the strainer, you first had to crawl on top of two big-ass batteries (a shocking experience).

The starboard water strainer was even more outrageous. This one was hidden away in the starboard forward corner of the engine room. To get to it, you had to crawl over the battery for the generator. Not only that, but there was a valve and outlet on the top of the strainer. If you opened the valve, it had the potential for creating a geyser of sea water right into the 115 volt power receptacle above the value (another shocking experience).

Some prior owner had added this cheap-ass strainer for the generator. The strainer was literally falling apart. It was held together with wire cable zip ties (gotta luv it).

 The cheap-ass strainer went in the dumpster, and was replaced with a proper strainer, similar to the other two strainers.

I was very impressed at the way the fuel filters were mounted on the port side of the engine room, so I decided to try to do something similar on the starboard side of the engine room with the raw water filters. I bought some aluminum extrusion at Home Depot, and started cutting and drilling. Aluminum extrusion is great stuff; it's like Lincoln Logs for adults.

When I started removing the old raw water hoses, I found more horrors. One hose was in such bad shape I was able to tear it off the thru-hull value with my bare hands. I ended up replacing all the raw water hoses.

Test fitting my new raw water filter bracket. The Lincoln Logs worked!

This is the final installation. The bracket has several coats of white paint. All the raw water hoses have been replaced and double clamped. The whole thing is mounted in an area of the engine room that is relatively (emphasis on the word "relatively") easy to access if the filters need to be cleaned out. And, the whole thing is well clear of my electrical equipment (which I hope to overhaul next winter).