Vinegar to Yanmar

[Bill O'Donovan]

Someone once suggested adding a half-gallon of white distilled vinegar into the raw water intake to cleanse the rods in the heat exchanger, since they're practically inaccessible for cleaning. Would vinegar hurt the rubber impeller, and is this otherwise a good idea? Thanks.

 

[Jim]

Rods?

What rods? If your engine is fresh water cooled I don't think that there is any zincs in it and you wouldn't want to clean them any way. If you are refering to the tubes in the heat exchanger they are easily cleaned by removing the end covers of the heat exchanger and pushing a dowel rod through them and/or by passing a piece of shot line with some knots tied in it back and forth through a tube (after first feeding it through with a piece of wire or the dowel rod.

 

[patrick]

Doubt it would do any harm

to anything mechanical provided you flush it out well. You probably should ask an engine guy. Weak hydrochloric acid might do better but I do not know.I wonder what acetic acid does to sea creatures? It does occur naturally though so it is probably ok with Greenpeace. Since it is a bleach, they will just become blonde if they aren't already from the chlorox used in water tanks. Sorry, I just had to say it.

 

[Steve Dion]

Radiator shops boil them out.

Bill:Radiator shops boil them out with very harsh chemicals. Vinegar should be just fine. About the only things in there would be the water pump, some brass/bronze and rubber parts. I would think you would want to let it sit in the heat exchanger for a couple of hours if it going to do any good. There was a product on the market that was called Marsolve. This is made to disolve the salt deposits in the raw water side of the system. If you start looking for this product, I think that they had a change of ownership in the last year or so. You may be able to find a link with some research.