Coolant in Bilge ?

[jablonsa]

My C&C 34 is now stored for the winter. Its got a Yanmar 3GMD 3 cylinder diesel 20hp engine. Its a raw water cooling system and was winterized with 4L of coolant. Coolant had come out of the exhaust while it was being winterized.

During my visit today I found lots of coolant in the bilge. It must have come from the engine because i used different colour for the other water system. Could not pin point the source but I can say that the water strainer was still full of coolant/antifreeze. On a follow up trip during a day where we had +7c temperatures all day long I opened the cylinder valve to see what would come out. only about 5ml of coolant had come out. Manually turning the engine resulted in some additional minuscule amounts of coolant to come out the valve. I pumped out just under 1L of coolant out of the bilge.

My question is what could be the reason for this. Should I be worried. Im new to sailing and this has me worried.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Did you winterize the boat yourself? I am guessing if you did not then you might be confusing engine coolant for the winterizing anti-freeze. That would explain why you are finding it in the strainer.

 

[jablonsa]

The stuff in the strainer is the winterizing anti-freeze aka coolant. Thats ok. my concern is why am i seeing it in the bilge. I would say there is about 2-3 liters of it there. it must of come out of the engine because thats the only place that stuff was put in. Im just wondering if anyone has any suggestions where it might have come out and why. Since its an external cooling system im guessing there is no overflow. How sould i go about starting the engine. is there a way to diagnose where this is coming from. is there somekind of gasket i should be looking at or could it only come from some hose.

 

[Ross]

Is it of a distinct color from the fresh water system? If not it could have come from the water system and not from the engine. Everything drains into the bilge.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Trying to help here without much success. You are saying that your engine is seawater cooled("external cooling"). And only your engine was winterized, not the plumbing nor the head. So the only possible place it could have come from is the engine.

Reviewing the winterizing process the anti-freeze enters near the thru-hull, goes through the strainer, then through the pump, then the engine. It exits through the heat exchanger, goes out the mixing elbow, and on out through the muffler and exhaust hose. Or something close to that. Did you do the winterizing or watch it done? How many gallons were used? Could the leak be on the output side like a bad muffler or disconnected hose?

 

[jablonsa]

I watched it being done. Im new to all this so i had someone who knew what they were doing do it. instead of pumping the antifreeze through the intake it was put in through the strainer. one container was used. i think they are 4liters or so. there was coolant/antifreeze that had come out of the output. the rest of the boat was winterized too but with a different color. the one in the bilge is the color that was used in the engine. I guess this is something ill have to figure out in the spring along with a longlist of other things.

 

[Stu Jackson]

How can you wait for springtime?

If the antifreeze was supposed to be in the engine, and it's now sitting in your bilge, something is NOT being protected.

Perhaps you took notes or photos when you were being "trained" on doing the winterization. You might want to go back and check what he did, step-by-step.

You could also do a search on this forum and others for raw water cooled winterization tips and tricks; Google works, too.

YOU, and only YOU, really need to learn what to do, NOW.

Good luck.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Stu, do you think he needs to worry about the engine? It is likely that the anti-freeze went through the engine flushing out any water. And probably even pushed the water out the exhaust. Most of the four liters(one gallon) seems to be in the bilge but I am thinking there is no water left to freeze. Having written that I would still ask the person who did the winterizing to come back and try again.

My marina always used three gallons and that was with heat exchanger cooling. But then they also sold the anti-freeze.

 

[Ron20324]

putting antifreeze in the strainer left water in the hose between the strainer and thruhull. could be the hose burst and drained some a-f from the engine?

 

[rpwillia]

Did you spill any putting it into the strainer?

putting antifreeze in the strainer left water in the hose between the strainer and thruhull. could be the hose burst and drained some a-f from the engine?

That would account for the anti freeze in the bilge.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Ed, the stuff sometimes

does two things: antifreeze and corrosion inhibitors. So rust is just as nasty as expanding water into ice...

 

[higgs]

I would check to see if the strainer was put back on tightly. A drop per second over a couple of months adds up. Otherwise, I would run my hands over the hoses to see if you find any moisture that might indicate the source.

 

[BobM]

If you have a deep bilge you probably have antifreeze there on purpose. Many people put non-toxic antifreeze in their bilges to prevent freezing rather than remove the water. With a deep bilge it is a pain to get the water out. Mine is nigh five feet deep and I always throw some of the non-toxic "pink stuff" in the bilge.

 

[Bob V]

The first step should be a call to the guy that did the winterizing.

 

[jablonsa]

The guy who did the winterizing is now in the middle of the Atlantic ocean on his way to Europe. So its kind of hard to get hold of him. I was at the Toronto Boat show again yesterday and talked to one of the guys at a booth that was filled with engines. He kept saying it was normal and that I should not worry. But I simply dont understand how this coolant could have escaped.

There should not have been any water in the hose between the intake and strainer because the valves were open and any water in there should have flow out while the strainer was opened and drained.

Yes i put antifreeze in the bilge but it was a different color than the one in the engine.

 

[Sam Salter]

I've got a C&C 26 with a Yanmar.
There's information missing from this thread.
There's no such thing as a 3 cycle Yanmar. I suspect you mean 3 cylinder Yanmar, and at 20 hp it sounds about right.
If you're this unsure about the engine you may be unsure about raw water or fresh water cooled. If it is raw water cooled there's no heat exchanger and the raw water is pumped around the engine. If it's fresh water cooled then there is always antifreeze around the block and you should be able to see a header tank with antifreeze in it. What sort of engine is it?
ie: 3GM30 or 3GM30F (the first is raw water cooled the second is fresh water cooled (F)) - your engine may not be a GM but should have a similar Model #.
With a bit more info we could get a bit more specific.
sam

 

[jablonsa]

Ya sorry. Its raw water cooled. The model number is 3GMD 20HP/3400 RPM.
I went to the boat this weekend to have a look around to see if i could see anything. When I opened the cylinder valve only about 5ml of coolant came out. I also manually turned the engine over which went fine and also resulted in very small amounts of coolant to come out of the valve i had opened. Visually i could not see anything wrong. I also could not located the location of the leak so the mystery continues.

 

[TropicalPengy]

have you experience raw water in the bilge before the winterization? that you may have mistaken for stuffing box/packing gland drip, or just standingwater left by the bilge pump?If the color you displaced the raw water in the system with is whats in the bilge you more than likey have a raw water leak, look near the jacket I would guess around base of block ect? could be a bad gasket, or hose, could be a very slight leak that you may not have noticed before due to evaporation, many winterizing solutions do not evaporate as readily as water even sea water, have you ever noticed any salt build up? or very high salinity to bilge water? could also be a function of boat being closed up in cold weather preventing evaporation. also could be a leak from the exaust, in lift muffler if you have turned motor over and not let run warm enough to expand hoses to seat properly, I would start by checking hose clamps and looking for cold shrink cracks near clamps or bottoms of hoses...less its obvious where its coming from? start at top of system wiping gently with clean paper towel, checking often at each point for signs of color on towel, gravity works so wherever you notice color thats the first leaky spot

 

[jablonsa]

the bilge has been dry when its not raining. when it does rain its another story. stuff gets in by the mast and i suspect the hull join. i have to tighten the screws up a bit more.

as for the engine. ill try having a better look at it next weekend if i get a chance. perhaps take some pictures