OK to feed anti-freeze into engine from a raised funnel?

[Vega1447]

Hi all.

Because my Vega (MD6A raw water cooling) is afloat on a fresh water lake I siphon antifreeze solution into engine after use when there is a risk of significant frost.

This is a PITA and if there is an airlock in the feed pipe the water pump impellor can run dry.Not Good.

So I've made up a "bucket & tube" lash-up that I can hang from a hook and allow to drain into water pump input pipe while engine runs.It will work fine - no risk of air lock but do I remember someone saying that too much "head" of water risks water getting into engine????
A friend who has the same engine (not a Vega) claims that there is no need to run anti-freeze through engine as the fresh water will drain through the exhaust pipe once sea cock is closed after turning engine off???As always; advice appreciated,

thanks,

John V1447 Breakaway
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[Vega1447]

Here is an option for winterization, draining and dewaterizing in case of flooding, the Groco Safety Seacock.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn56GucOWd4

 

[dougpol1]

John, over the years, to many to count. Most of the engines in boats
my family had when I was a boy and most of them I owned up to maybe
20 years ago were raw water engines. MY experience is the engines
will freeze if there is any water in them and there is no gurantee
that the water will drain out in fact in all likelyhood it won't
drain out. My engine is lower than the exaust and there is a stand
pippe so it's almost impossible for water to drain out the exaust.
I disconect the intake hose drop it it a gallon of antifrees and run
the engine. It will suck all the antifreeze into the engine and
exaust In about 60 years of boating I have never had antifreeze go
into the engine and never had anything on the engine freeze
including exaust pipe. I learned this From Eugene Ruark in
Deltaville Va. He had about a hundred boats in his marina and back
in the 1960's most of them were raw water cooled and he winterised
most of them using the method I described. IF there is no water in
the engine at all I would pour antifreese into the intake hose
holding it up high just enough to get the pump wet then you can let
the engine suck the antifreeze into it as I described. If you
can't run the engine you can pour antifreeze into it. I would use a
whole gallon into it. That is too much but won't overflow the exaust
pipe and allow it to leak into the engine through th
valves. Doug
On 01/2 2/2015 08:04 AM, John.Kinsella
John.Kinsella@... [AlbinVega] wrote:

 

[Whiskerpole]

Hi JohnIt would only be a problem if the amount of fluid you inject is greater than the ability of the cooling system to process. If it is, then you would risk the coolant overflowing into your engine.There is a drain cock below the drip stick on the MD6a, so you could simply drain the engine instead, but be sure to drain the impeller pump as well. My impeller pump froze and cracked once, so I learned this the hard way.Draining is much better than pumping anti-freeze into the environment. Also it's hard to know how much antifreeze has made it past the thermostat into the engine, so you could still end up with a freezing problem.As for your friends advice about the water syphoning away after the seacock has been closed. It doesn't jive with my experience. Any time I've drained the engine, there has been about a quart of water and my impeller pump did freeze and crack.Just my 2 bitsBob FuchsSilentium

 

[Vega1447]

Hi Bob, Doug & Pete.

Thanks for very useful info.

I think Bob's answer is closest to the setup I have.

You see, for a month or two round midwinter hard frosts are possible so I run some diluted antifreeze through the engine after use. I'm sailing once a week at most so no great cost.

After using the engine I close the seacock, disconnect the cooling water intake pipe from the seacock and union it to a rubber hose in a bucket of dilute anti-freeze.

Then I start the engine and the water pump sucks the dilute antifreeze from the bucket and (sorry) pumps it out the exhaust.

I tell myself that it is only a litre of ethylene glycol, that it is heavily diluted & will break down quickly.

Ignoring if you can the eco-crime committed, this procedure is tedious and runs the risk of the water pump running dry due to an air lock.

So my thought (as in OP) is to use gravity (rather than the water pump alone) to drain dilute antifreeze down to a union with the water pump intake and again run the engine but no with no risk of an air lock.

The concern (apart from eco-damage) is whether an excessive head of coolant could do damage to the engine??

I'm still not clear what the advice is here..

Thanks again,

John V1447 BreakawayOn 22/01/15 16:13, Robert Fuchs
rkfwkp@... [AlbinVega] wrote:

 

[pjacobs55]

Similar to this idea, I installed a 3-way valve (Groco TWV-750 I think) on the intake of my water strainer. One intlet went to the engine and the other to the bilge (about 6" from the bottom) via a hose. I got this idea from another forum.The idea is that whichever source you choose, bilge or ocean, the water goes through the strainer before it gets to the water pump.The other nice feature is that you can put a container of antifreeze under the hose in the bilge and suck it up into the engine. The only bother was pulling up the hose and filling it with water to prime it, but if it's quite easy. I imagine you'd also have to prime it to get it working as a bilge pump.Peter.

 

[dougpol1]

WEll I just use RV alcohol and supposedly there is no harm to the
environment. I use the same in the head and the water lines and the
galley pump. In the spring I just pump a bit of fresh water through
the pump and all is well. also for the environment jut as an aside.
WE clean our boat, do our dishes and for all other cleaning on and
in the boat except bathing. We fill a bottle with Amonia , vinigar
and add a little baking soda if we want a little abrasion with it.
Works good cuts grease great and is supposedly inviromentally
nuetral. just thought I would throw this tidbit in. Doug



On 01/22/2015 02:24 PM,
pjacobs55@... [AlbinVega] wrote:

 

[Vega1447]

Yeah.

It's the priming/airlock issue that I'm asking about.

I'm planning to replace " put a container of antifreeze under the hose in the bilge and suck it up into the engine"

by
"drain a funnel/small bucket of anti-freeze by gravity down to the water pump feed pipe... and then run engine till container is empty"JohnOn 22/01/15 18:01,
pjacobs55@... [AlbinVega] wrote:

 

[dougpol1]

That will work. Doug
On 01/22/2015 03:40 PM, John.Kinsella
John.Kinsella@... [AlbinVega] wrote:

 

[gurkin42]

This is what I have on my Vega. The weak point in this is the impeller so I have a spare and a quick change set up. I also have a strainer on the hose intake side. It works great I could not say for certain how much in gallons per hour but good enough.