SALT AWAY

[gettaway]

When we bought our boat, the new to us Silverton 37C, part of the the sea trial - mechanical survey led to new manifolds, exhaust elbows, rebuilt heat exhcangers and hoses . I have about 15 hours on the new exhausts and cooling parts so yesterday I decided to purchase and install the PERKO Flush-Pro kits on each of the engines raw water intake system. I also purchased a Salt-Away starter kit, (a quart of salt away and the water hose mixer unit) I have several friends who swear by this product and ritual to keep thier salt water engines clean and increase the lives of thier exhaust / cooling systems. if life gets in the way and I dont take the boat out for a while, I try to at least run the engines every week for at least a little while, my thought was if I run the engines while in the slip, I'd run them with fresh water in lieu of the normal raw sea water and then flush with salt way when I have actually taken the boat out or ran salt water through them.
I am curious if any of you do the same or similar or have an opinion on this?

[prowlersfish]

I think its a great idea that can ad years of life to the engines

[Commissionpoint]

Though I am not familiar with the product you mentioned you have a great idea there. I think most folks should be flushing more often than they do, espescially those in full salt. I have an open system and I boat in waters classified by the EPA as 'AA' Drinking Quality. Consequently I don't flush that often at all, mostly because I don't know how much cleaner anything I can run through there is than what goes through there normally.

Thats a funny looking Trojan in your avatar picture there Scott, not as funny looking as the one Tony has though.

[gettaway]

Thanks CP... I know not a Trojan but a TBOY for sure!

[yorklyn]

I used it for years on my wave runner. It is a great product. its basically a chloride rinse. It also works really well as a rinse to remove salt residue over the entire boat. Contrary to belief, salt (chlorides ) cannot be completly removed with just water. When installing most of our industrial coatings a "chloride rinse" is recommended. We have sandblasted metal holding tanks to a white metal finish and then powerwashed the entire tank with water mixed with a chloride rinse. We have zero flash rust after it dries. no chlorides=no rust

[gettaway]

Thanks,

I figured it can only help to flush an engine running in salt water. The engines and manifolds are closed cooling but the coolers and elbows are raw water

[myakka]

It would be easy enough, and safer, to build a flush valve out of brass. I've seen a Perco shear after the upstream barbed fitting. Luckily, it was on a volvo I/O and the line looped up above the boats waterline before descending back down to the flush valve. Another product to use for flushing salts is white vinegar.
Mike

[gettaway]

Mike,

I hear what you are saying, with the clear plastic design I too had my reservations, however , PERKO specifically states the Flush Pro kit is for inboards, generators air conditioners , etc, all of these applications are "typically" on boats that are kept in the water. if you look into the inlet and outlet of the unit, the hose barb connections are reinforced with internal ribs running the length of the hose barb. It alos looks to be the same material as the clear piece on sea water strainers.

anyways, thanks for the input.

I replaced the exhaust elbow on the generator yesterday (Thanks Bob for the tip on making my own) I ran the genny for about a half hour running fresh water into a 5 gallon bucket with the suction line for the gen raw water pump drawing from the bucket. I then ran a rather strong sollution of Salt Away through the gen. and shut her down while good and foamy. I doubt this has ever been done to the generator by the looks of the crumbling old exhaust elbow.

[RWS]

I have been quite religous about flushing my fresh water cooled diesels, genny and the HVAC raw water system after each use.

I have a garden hose quick disconnect plumbed into each raw water intake.

As the boat goes up n the lift, the engines are run at idle for 5-10 minutes on city water.

Do I need to add somnething more to this routine?

RWS

[Big D]

I have dealt with several salt water boats ending up here that had Volvo sterndrive packages with the Neutra-salt water flush system. Out of those that I've service, only one pair of manifolds had to be replaced. I can't say however whether all the rest were originals and saved by this system or had been changed out already so I can't say how well the system works. As mentioned above, once crystalized, salt is not that easy to rinse off with plain water. The following link shows the system and it can be installed on inboard applications as well: http://www.marinedirect.com.au/catalogu ... 1110/c2014 or

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=n ... xvJHdmKAVA

Can get it from Volvo and other retailers. Link is Australian but should be widely available here also.

[myakka]

Gettaway an I/O is an inboard engine. Only the drive system is different.