Contemplating FWC install over the winter. . .

[Cool Beans]

That kit isn't getting any cheaper. . .might as well do it now, eh?

This is assuming all the clearances work out in favor of the MMI kit.

My question then is, for those of you who have converted, how thoroughly did you clean out and flush the engine before you said "good enough"?

Acid or vinegar flush till it ran clear?

Remove manifold and side plate and scrape and dig?

Did you do all of the above and even remove the head to clean and dig out?

Anyone ever regret going to FWC?

Just curious, thanks

[Al Schober]

I did nothing to the engine when installing FWC - but it had been rebuilt and flushed out a few years before. No regrets and no overheat problems.
Only caveat is that your coolant system has to be tight. A little leakage with raw water was no big deal. Leakage with FWC is coolant, and you'll end up with air in the engine. I finally had to install a new ball bearing Moyer coolant pump in place of the old Oberdorfer. Don't mean to rain on your parade - just my experience.

[msauntry]

I took off the side plate and blasted crud out of there with the garden hose, scraped and poked with metal pokie things, and used a magnet to pick up lots of crud. There were two block drains by the #1 and #4 cylinders that were clogged and easy to unclog. There is a gap between the #2 and #3 cylinders that is supposed to be there. There is NOT a gap between the others, so don't go poking in there trying to create one

[ernst]

Installed the Indigo kit maybe 8 years ago. Flushed thoroughly before, that's it. Absolutely no regrets.

[ILikeRust]

My question then is, for those of you who have converted, how thoroughly did you clean out and flush the engine before you said "good enough"?

Answer: very.

Of course, in my case, the conversion was part of an overall tear-down and refresh of the engine. So I had the whole engine completely disassembled. Which made it a lot easier to dig around in all the passages, nooks and crannies with a wire shirt hanger and flush it all with muriatic acid.

Anyone ever regret going to FWC?

Not yet. My bank account regretted it for a short while...

[sastanley]

Cool Beans
I probably should have taken my sideplate & manifold off and really gotten them cleaned out, but I didn't. I did an acid flush, a couple of vinegar flushes and several fresh water flushes, and it wasn't enough.

I've been dealing with mucky smelling antifreeze ever since..

However, the FWC conversion was a success, so now I just need to get in there and get the engine cleaned out, & that'll run about one $10 jug of antifreeze.

It is worth the effort to clean it ahead of time.

[Loki9]

That kit isn't getting any cheaper. . .might as well do it now, eh?

This is assuming all the clearances work out in favor of the MMI kit.

My question then is, for those of you who have converted, how thoroughly did you clean out and flush the engine before you said "good enough"?

Acid or vinegar flush till it ran clear?

Remove manifold and side plate and scrape and dig?

Did you do all of the above and even remove the head to clean and dig out?

Anyone ever regret going to FWC?

Just curious, thanks

I cleaned my A4 out as part of a complete rebuild. I cleaned it really really well. The passages in the head were packed so tightly with rust scale that I don't think any amount of flushing would have cleared them. Maybe acid would have, but maybe not. I'm glad I took it apart to do it right. So far, after installing the Indigo electric pump FWC kit, I've put about 150 hours of trouble free operation on it. Without the constant hot saltwater attack, I'm sure this A4 will run another 35 years.

[gfatula]

Cool,

I included it when I purchased our current Moyer rebuilt. If you can manage it DO IT! Managing the engine is simpler. Winterizing and running on the hard are simple and therefore your time commitment is much reduced at those busy times. The engine is happier!! No corrosion issues. A fun puzzle to solve when you install it! Ha!

One issue I discovered: The mounting bands for the heat exchanger I received are made of mild steel and will rust. They are painted steel bands that hold the exchanger to its mounting bracket. After two seasons mine had erupted with rust. I removed them, leaving the heat exchanger hanging from its hoses, and repainted them. I also slathered them in Lancote when I put things back together. Having a piece if mild steel used for that part in this application gives me pause. I will have a couple made of ss and add an insulating piece of something between the new ones and the exchanger. If I were getting ready to install mine now I would replace the bands so I didn't have to deal with reinstalling it! It is always a labor of love but my flexibility quotient gets factored into any projects now and the Islander 28's engine space presents some challenges as I am sure yours does.

Haul out is coming. We have not been on the hard until mid December for the past couple of years. Mid November is this year's target. Dealing with the simplest winterizing process is important to me. Having the engine permanently winterized helps. Having a hose from the bilge to the engine's raw water intake hose is primarily. and hopefully never used, an emergency bilge pump. As soon as the boat is on the trailer I close the rw intake, open the bilge intake, place the bilge hose pickup strainer into a gallon jug of rv antifreeze, start the engine, run two gallons through and shut it off. Open the rw intake and let the main rw strainer's antifreeze drain back through the rw valve, Drain the strainer, the wl muffler and the heat exchanger rw side of antifreeze into the bilge and collect it there. Done with the cooling system. FW helps.

Down

[edwardc]

My previous engine was RWC, and during a head replacement we did a cleanout and found 2 -3" of black "Gunk" in the bottom of the block around the cylinders. This consisted of mostly of organic residue from all the microscopic sea life that gets cooked in an RWC block. Removing it made a 15 degree difference in the cruising temperature. So cleaning the block as thoroughly as possible through the side plate is a must to get the most benefit out of an FWC conversion.

When I later had to replace the engine with a fresh rebuild, I did the FWC conversion, so the inside was squeeky-clean from the start. After 200 hours runtime, my anti-freeze is as clean and clear as the day I filled it.

I can't say enough good things about the FWC. The engine runs at a steady 180 degrees even under heavy load in mid-summer with ambient air temp at 95-100 degrees and water temp in the 80s. At idle in neutral, it comes down to about 160.

And winterizing is a snap, now that I don't have to fuss with removing the thermostat and clamping-off the bypass hose.

One last note. Be sure to change the pencil zinc annually. It gets eaten away quite a lot in a single season.

[positron]

I tried a vinegar flush this Spring, but it seemed to do very little to remove the black gunk. Then I tried...soap. Biodegradable dish soap in water. Sucked about 2 gallons up into a warm engine and let it sit for a couple of days. Rinsed lathered and repeated. It worked a lot better than the vinegar.

[Cool Beans]

Groovy! Many thanks for the feedback. Just want to check some fitment dimensions and clearances.

How big is the Heat Exchanger?
And how much height clearance do I need of the new pump? Does it stick up past the top of the thermostat housing?

Still uneasy about tearing into the engine for a full cleaning. . .I most likely will, but things only tend to break for me when I start messing with them I just don't want to stick my screw driver through the side of a cylinder wall

[edwardc]

See for yourself. It sits within the engine "envelope".