v drive cooling system

Crossroads · Post by **Crossroads** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 6:23 pm

We have had our 1976 trifly trojan for 5 years. We bought the boat with new 350 volvo penta gas motors with v drives. This fall we had marina winterize the motors as we have done for 4 years. This year the new mechanic said that our v drive was not being cooled and that he suggested installing a crossover line from the motor to cool the v drive properly. This was not mentioned previously by several different mechanics. Are we being scammed or does he have a valid point.
Confused Boater

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 6:34 pm

Your V drives should have a cooler I belive the water to V-dive is forced in by boat movement not the water pump ( the way trojan set it up ). tapping in to the boats engine raw water flow could improve the system if done right .BUT !! If done wrong you could deprive the v-drive of proper cooling and could reducet the coling of the engines . Of corse when the boat was repowered the cooler may have not been hooked up too .

I am asuming these are the walter v-drives the boat came with ?

Can you post some photos of the v-drive and engine set up ? I should be ablr to tell if its hooked up .

Big D · Post by **Big D** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 7:08 pm

prowlersfish wrote:Your V drives should have a cooler I belive the water to V-dive is forced in by boat movement not the water pump ( the way trojan set it up ). tapping in to the boats engine raw water flow could improve the system if done right .BUT !! If done wrong you could deprive the v-drive of proper cooling and could reducet the coling of the engines . Of corse when the boat was repowered the cooler may have not been hooked up too .

I am asuming these are the walter v-drives the boat came with ? ....

++

I suspect these are Walters with its own cooling loop, not through the engine. Pretty sure no external cooler involved. As Paul mentioned, needs to be moving to do any cooling which is only really needed when you're moving/in gear and the drive is actually woking otherwise it's static with no moving parts. Can be modified to be cooled from the engine raw water system, but like Paul said, it must be done right or else.

Crossroads · Post by **Crossroads** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 7:30 pm

Thank you both for your reply. My husband said that the boat has new penta volvo motors with only 400 hours which included the new v drives. The v drives have their own sea cocks which apparently cool the v drives. Thanks for your confirmation.

Big D · Post by **Big D** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 7:35 pm

Sounds like they simply utilized the existing cooling method as described above but would be good to see pics so we can confirm.

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 7:35 pm

The sounds just like the stock trojan set up . ( and it works ) With photos we can confirm that and tell you what up have .

Big D · Post by **Big D** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 7:36 pm

Hey, stop typing at the same time as me

aweimer · Post by **aweimer** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:45 pm

Your V-Drive should be cooled directly by 2 sea cocks. With forward and aft facing scuppers. No need to connect to the engine cooling system.

Durring winterization I do disconnect one of the lines and poor anti-freeze down into them. they are supposed to be self draining but eh, insurance i guess.

Don't bother letting them mess with it. They are fine as Trojan installed them in 1975!

Crossroads · Post by **Crossroads** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 6:13 pm

Thanks Aaron. It is great to get confirmation from other Trojan boaters.

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 9:15 pm

having grown up with the aft engine tri cabin, all advice is indeed correct. two seacocks. under the boat, one strainer faces forward, the other faces aft. this is why it's not a good idea to engage the transmissions on these boats at the dock. the cooling is forced into the v-drive. are they walter drives? these are great and you can find any info on them by going to
http://www.waltergear.com all you need is the drives serial number as each one is unique, right down to the bearings installed. they are very helpful.

tri cabin aaron, baltimore, md