Fresh Water Cooling

[gferrie]

We have a 1976 Pearson 30 with Atomic 4 engine. The cooling system has been a constant problem for the past 3 years. Last year the system overheated returning to our home port and the local mechanic, who said he did not know Atomic 4s recommended getting rid of the fresh water cooling system and turning it back into a raw water cooling system, which he did. Since that time we have had nothing but problems with the system. There is no way to flush the raw water system with fresh water and we are starting to get a serious salt build up. After reading the forums we have found another mechanic in our area (Gartside Marine - Sidney, BC) who definitely does seem to know what they are doing. and they recommended getting the fresh water cooling system sorted out asap.

My question is can I purchase the kit Product No. - CFWK_01_264 and will this be everything we need to get our baby up and running again? I just don't want to go to the trouble to find out we need additional parts. I would like Gartside to do this but they usually order directly from Universal and it sounds like the cost may be much higher.

Secondly is there anything we need to do to ensure that the raw water cooling didn't cause any long term damage?

As you can probably tell I am not the most mechanically inclined.

Thanks very much again

[Don Moyer]

Our product is a complete kit and includes everything you
will need except for hoses and hose clamps which are normally supplied by
the installer.

Don

[sunnnnseeeker]

The fresh water cooling solved all my A4's over heating problems. If your engine is overheating with the raw water that is an indication that some part of the cooling is plugged up or your thermostat housing is leaking or the water pump is not fully working. Are you getting a good flow of water out the exhausts? In anycase, for the fresh water system to work, the entire cooling system (water passages) will need cleaned out and the water pumps must work.

[Van_Isle]

Is it possible here that the mechanic that removed your fwc system left the original thermostat in-place, and it's a high-temp model (180 deg?). That would precipitate salts out of the raw water at a much higher rate.

I'm the other way around. My thermostat is a 140 degree one and was originally in a rwc setup and re-used when a fwc conversion was done (by Gartside, by the way) ... so I'm running cooler than I should.

[Al Schober]

I'm running glycol coolant with no thermostat - been doing it for years. Try it, you may like it!
With glycol cooling, you'll be sensitive to leaks. With raw water, there's plenty of make-up coolant outside the boat - a little leak just goes into the bilge. With glycol, it's like leaking blood - you've got less than a gallon in the engine. When I went to glycol cooling, I finally had to replace the water pump (that had been leaking a bit). The new ball bearing pump is a thing of beauty (and a joy forever?).