I was preparing to change the oil and filter on my FP P 6000 genset this morning and came accross this potential safety issue. I would encourage anyone with a similar setup to inspect their genset as well.
On my 2005 H44 the genset is located underneath the navigation bench and is fully surrounded by a suitcase style sound insulation shell. Both the bench and the shell have a small access port so you can check the oil level without having to disassemble the bench or open the sound enclosure. In fact the only time that I ever open the enclosure is to change the oil and filters which I do every fall before I layup the boat. In any event having disassembled the bench and removed the sound enclosure I noticed some minor corrosion on the salt water cooling piping where it connects to the elbow to go overboard. I didn't think too much about it and started the genset to heat up the oil. I didn't notice it at first but I did have a steady stream of water about the size of a pencil shooting out of the 6" length of ~ 2" radiator exhaust hose. This hose is normally underneath the sound enclosure and is never visable unless you remove the enclosure. Further investigation revealed that the hose had a split in it about 1" below the upper hose clamp. The split was small enough that water was still also comimg out the overboard thru hull. Had I not had the shell off I would never have noticed it. I don't know how long it had been leaking. Obviously a concern of water getting into the boat and a potential source of carbon monoxide. I'll replace the hose this weekend and try to determine what caused the hose to split. My genset gets little use probably about 10 hours all season.
I don't want to be an alarmist here and I hope this is an isolated incident, however due to the potential consequences I thought it best to share this.
On my 2005 H44 the genset is located underneath the navigation bench and is fully surrounded by a suitcase style sound insulation shell. Both the bench and the shell have a small access port so you can check the oil level without having to disassemble the bench or open the sound enclosure. In fact the only time that I ever open the enclosure is to change the oil and filters which I do every fall before I layup the boat. In any event having disassembled the bench and removed the sound enclosure I noticed some minor corrosion on the salt water cooling piping where it connects to the elbow to go overboard. I didn't think too much about it and started the genset to heat up the oil. I didn't notice it at first but I did have a steady stream of water about the size of a pencil shooting out of the 6" length of ~ 2" radiator exhaust hose. This hose is normally underneath the sound enclosure and is never visable unless you remove the enclosure. Further investigation revealed that the hose had a split in it about 1" below the upper hose clamp. The split was small enough that water was still also comimg out the overboard thru hull. Had I not had the shell off I would never have noticed it. I don't know how long it had been leaking. Obviously a concern of water getting into the boat and a potential source of carbon monoxide. I'll replace the hose this weekend and try to determine what caused the hose to split. My genset gets little use probably about 10 hours all season.
I don't want to be an alarmist here and I hope this is an isolated incident, however due to the potential consequences I thought it best to share this.
