On boat now...tethered pc to cell, need plumbing help!

[luvitt]

Im such a geek. boat isnt even finished and I have 3g web & built-in pc so I can get help from this forum!

I am redoing all my plumbing. the last thing left is plumbing my hot water heater to my yanmar 4jhe. The original setup had a Tee with a petcock in it. I pulled everything apart and examined the Tee with the petcock and see that the pet cock doesn't close the connection at all. it doesnt even screw down half way through the Tee. so, I figured i'd just buy a new petcock and use the old Tee that was already braized with copper pipe on each end to attach the heater hose. So, I bought a new petcock and didn't even look at it before I paid for it. Well, it doesnt appear that it will be any better. and they both have a little hole through them.

Am I thinking about this wrong? I thought the purpose of this petcock was to act as a shutoff valve to stop the engine coolant from circulating through the hot water heater? also, if I flush the engine with any chemicals or whatever, I want to isolate the heater so it doesnt kill the aluminum or whatever inside the heater? So how does this setup accomplish this? I assume it must be correct, b/c I think its original from the manufacturer. I posted a pic of my Tee w/ the old petcock, and a pic of my new petcock. again, neither will close completely to isolate engine coolant from hot water heater.

side note: would anybody be interested in a post about something I know a lot about? I installed a desktop pc and tether to my 3g cell phone with no additional cost. I run a program called pdanet which prevents my carrier from charging me extra for something I already pay for--a data plan on my cell. it just transfers my usage through the computer instead of the tiny screen. not illegal. let me know if you are interested, I did a bunch of cool stuff and run all kinds of nav software and internet radar/weather, etc. verizon has good near coastal coverage. I'm getting 3.4 Mbps on the boat, fast enough for this.

thanks.

 

[Rich Stidger]

I'll take a shot at this.

It looks like the original "petcock" may not be a in-line valve that is supposed to shut off the heating water from the engine to the water heater.

The second picture looks like a typical petcock that is used to drain a radiator- that is, as you screw in the petcock, it exposes a hole that connects to the center of the valve stem.

I think that petcock is only there so that coolant can be drained from the engine block. Not all engine installations have a water heater, and if your engine was not attached to a water heater, it might have had a drain petcock at that location.

In other words, maybe you don't have any problem at all.

Regarding your 3G web setup, that sounds pretty cool! I too am as much of a geek as the next retired engineer, but I gotta ask..... Are you planning to sail this thing or are your intentions to become a floating supercomputer east coast hub?

 

[luvitt]

Haha! yeah, i'd like to be a floating hotspot! even looking into satellite, but maybe the cheaper mobile RV version.

I hoped to launch April 1, but doesnt look like it.

However, it does appeare that the engine was connected to the hot water heater. the hoses were already run and exiting next to heater location. they werent physically connected to the heater, the entire cabin was dismantled when i bought her. but the engine is plumbed for it. im pretty sure it was hooked up. but that petcock doesnt make sense to me. i think it should be a shutoff valve. the old and new petcock are exactly the same. if it was a shuttoff valve, it would stop coolant from circulating through the heater when it was turned to the off position. the hose might still be full of coolant, but it would just be an extension of the engine cooling system and would not have any effect on cooling the engine when off?

 

[sailormanbigd]

3g Put'r Setup

HI, sorry can't comment on your petcock problem. I would like to know more about your putr setup. I was intending on haveing web capabilities on the "free boat" when finished. I need something simple-ie laptop for nav software, gps link (mapping), and hopefully email/internet. I was hopeing for something that was very cheap to operate-say free, if possible. If i gather right you have a 3g cell phone for your service provider and link it to your putr for access? The cost of your phone service is probably cost prohibitive for me. Do you think it will still work 10 miles offshore or more? Do you need a cell phone attennae booster? Is this the only way to get email/internet on a boat? thanks for any info, want to retire cheaply in three years to the boat and be self sufficiant-power supply, water supply, and still be sort of plugged in. Patrick

 

[Ross]

Re: 3g Put'r Setup

That is a drain valve. You could add a shut off valve perhaps if your engine doesn't depend on the circulation of the coolant through the water heater. I am not sure that I understand why you would want to do that.

 

[luvitt]

it cant be a drain valve. its inline the hose right at the inlet to the hot water heater. it wouldnt drain anywhere. the way it is, it looks like it was meant to be a shutoff, but the most it would do is restrict the flow into the hot water heater a little.

I discovered the hoses when my bilge filled up with coolant, and said "ahhaa, this goes to the hot water heater". the petcock doesnt close all the way, so it cant be a drain?

anyway, im just gonna buy a shutoff valve so i can isolate hot water heater in case i flush the engine.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

It is a drain valve.
I understand why you may think otherwise as it is located at a high(er) point than expected. What these valves do is allow air into the system to more thoroughly and quickly drain the system and more importantly, allow you to bleed air out of the system once it has been flushed. Don't install a shut-off there as that would interrupt the circulation flow through both the engine and heater. An added benefit to leaving them as installed as they are lower than the heat exchanger and allows an alternative means of draining the antifreeze side of that system.

If you do flush the engine, you want to include this part of the system as well and make sure you preclude an air lock when refilling.

 

[luvitt]

ahh. ok. i understand about the air lock. but still not this stupid little valve. it is not in anyway open to the outside. it is totally inline of the heater hose. open or closing it doesnt appear to me to do much of anything. If i turn it all the way to the top, the little hole does not make itself visible from the outside. and ...............

forget it! gotcha! upon further inspection, the valve is hollow through the top, screwing it all the way to the top seals it. screwing it down uncovers the hole and opens the system to outside air from the vertical hole in the valve. so it should be generally closed from the outside when running the engine and could be open to flush or bleed.

sorry i didnt understand!

thanks a bunch, one problem solved. now on the the electrical.

 

[Ross]

If you are old enough and have lived with old cast iron radiators you will remember the air vent at the top end of each radiator. The hot water pipe came in on one side and the cold water return was on the other side both at the bottom. The radiator wouldn't work if it had air in it so each fall you went about with a tin can and a little key and vented each radiator until you got a steady stream of water. If you didn't do this the radiator only got hot part way up. Car radiators also had a little valve down near the bottom so that you could drain them completely if you didn't have anti freeze in them. Farm tractors sometimes didn't have to work in the winter so you didn't waste money on anti freeze.

 

[luvitt]

ah, barely remember radiators as a child at home. makes sense now. thanks

 

[caguy]

If you would start a thread on you PC set up if would be greatly appreciate. I have the Treo 700p and a Toshiba Laptop. It would be helpful on the boat as well as at work where our firewall prevents having any kind of fun.

 

[garylinger]

I too am somewhat of a CHEAP GEEK and would like to hear more about the computer setup....

 

[luvitt]

i will start a thread shortly. it works real good. i disconnect from my network at work and plug in my phone and surf so they dont know what im doing!

 

[Jimm]

My second office is my boat ..... Blackberry with verizon 3G is same as being on cable at home office. Connection wherever you have cell coverage. For Verizon that's about everywhere on the east coast - don't know how far out to sea. Monthly, 5GB service is about $50.

 

[luvitt]

My second office is my boat ..... Blackberry with verizon 3G is same as being on cable at home office. Connection wherever you have cell coverage. For Verizon that's about everywhere on the east coast - don't know how far out to sea. Monthly, 5GB service is about $50.

But you dont need to pay the extra $50/month! my plan includes unlimited data on the phone. to tether to the laptop they want an additional $30/month. I dont pay the $30, and i dont get charged extra.

Its a little hard to explain, but i will try: if you have unlimited data on your phone, you can just kinda transfer that functionality to your laptop. think of it as just blowing up your phones screen and displaying it on the monitor. if you did that, you would just be surfing the net on a bigger screen right? well, thats kinda what this does. except you dont have to display your phone on the monitor. you get to use your real pc. its just ICS (internet connection sharing), its built into windows. you dont even need that program PdaNet. you can set it up yourself, but PdaNet does it all for you.

I will start a separate thread now.