salt to fresh H2O

[steven f.]

Last year I moved my boat from a pure salt water enviroment to my new house that is on a brackish canal. During periods of heavy rain my canal turns almost totally fresh, in the dry season it's pure salt water. I've heard that there can be some problems when taking a diesel from saltwater to fresh water and visa-versa. The engine is a Westerbeke 21a with a heat exchanger. Just wondering if this is an old wives tale or is there some truth to it, I can't find any problems. My zincs are changed regurarly and they actually seem to last longer. I consider it a bonus to run the engine in fresh water sometimes but, hey, what do I know?

 

[Gordon Torresen]

Salt vs fresh water

There is no doubt, fresh is better than salt water. I can see no harm moving from one to the other. Many boaters have a valving set-up where they hook up a fresh water hose and run the engine on that for a while whenever they put the boat away.