WTH is that @$@#$ sound??? (Got your ears on?)

[debbie]

It's a holiday weekend and I'm not calling the diesel mechanic until Tuesday, but my curiosity is killing me:

Took the boat out - our marina is depth-challenged. I can see seaweed and even a couple of freaking PINE trees growing in the water, topping out just a little below the surface. We have a sounder and are always very careful, in fact we can see that the silty bottom may be 10-15 feet below the sounder, but the alarm will sound because of some big ugly thing growing from the bottom. Yuck.

SO - I followed my buoys and had to slow and drift a bit for some dumbass who didn't realize he was the give-way vessel. Put her back in gear. Nope. Reverse? Naw. Grounded. My husband could see silt and crap churning behind us, I jockeyed her out gently and we were on our way. I was feeling pretty proud of myself. I noted it took awhile for the depth indicator to reappear, so I figured there was gunk that would dissipate, and it did after a few minutes.

After about 20 minutes the engine alarm sounded. That happens when it goes over 200-degrees. Throttled back and spent a few hours out, without a problem.

On returning we slowed WAY down. Upon observing a grounded trawler being towed by a little Boston Whaler, I laughed, and the boat gods struck me down for it. Suddenly our engine started to WHINE like you wouldn't believe. In neutral? Silent. In gear, WHINE. We were in the same area where I grounded on the way out (depth indicated 9 feet, WTH?!). Then the overheat alarm sounded. We made it into our slip using as little forward/reverse as possible (gotta love those bow thrusters).

So - WTH? Oil = ok. Coolant = ok. Seacock was open and water was discharging when we left ... checked the filter = clean. The prop seemed ok, no apparent issues. Please God, I don't want to go into that nasty water to LOOK.

Water pump needs a new impeller?

I'm big on cause and effect - it just seems like too much of a coincidence that our boat sounded like it was going to explode in almost exactly the same place as it had been grounded. But then again, the boat gods may WANT me to think that?!

Any other troubleshooting tips?

[Papa Charlie]

Hard to say.
You say there was water out the exhaust when yo went out, how about on the return?
Check the Sea Strainer to ensure that it is clear.
Open the cover on the raw water pump and make sure your impeller is ok.
May have to check the heat exchanger to see if there is blockage from the mud.
What was your engine temp when the alarm sounded?

Off subject question: Your vessel name "Valkyrie", is that for the Norse Methodogy about the gods or women that decide who in battle will live and who will die?

[Go Aweigh2452]

Impeller is my guess. Silt can eat the vanes quickly. You may have some vane parts blocking your heat exchanger too. Pull the end cap and look into the tubes. Hopefully, it's easy to see them at the opening and not in the tubes. You should also flush the raw water before running the engine to ensure you have all debris out. You may have dodged a bigger bullet slowing down below high temp...

[debbie]

Yes it seemed like there was water discharging on the way back, but my husband thinks *maybe* not as much. We always check before departure for water discharge and 'white smoke' which is normal.

Engine alarm sounds at 200 degrees. We normally run her around 2100 RPMs to stay under 200 (and that could be 7-8.3knots depending on wind, current etc). After the alarm sounds, I reset it and throttled back, within 10-15 minutes it was back to 180. However I did note on the way back that the temp was creeping, even at 1700 RPMs on open water it would climb but the alarm never went off again.

We never had this problem before and the engine only has 361 hours on it. We had an engine survey done in May 2010 and had it serviced after that (oil change / health check). So it's got to be something simple.

Does anyone know how large that opening would be for the fresh water intake? and would there (or maybe was there at one time) a screen on that opening? I wonder if something got wedged in that part (before the strainer). That would keep sufficient water from getting in, in the first place.

After we returned to the slip and shut down we let it cool and after about 15 minutes started it up and put it into gear, no noise. We'll have to take a look tomorrow.

And Valkyrie is for the women who decide who gets to move on to Valhalla...

[CaptainRedDog]

I can add a little to this. I was aboard Valkyrie and piloting her in when the engine whining started. I'm not sure if the "grounding" incident is related or not. When I started the engine to go out, at first there was no water coming out of the tailpipe. Then after about 10 seconds, water started coming out. Not real sure about the volume of water coming out.

After getting her in using as little engine power as humanly possible and bow thrusters, I shut her down. As debbie said, after 10 or 15 minutes I cranked it back up and put her in gear and there was no whining noises.

Over the past couple of months if we got the RPMs around 2100 or 2200 (2600 max rating on the cummins engine), the engine temp alarm would sound and we'd slow her down and the engine would cool down. As we were coming in under minimal power, the engine temp was still 200 degrees. It didn't cool down.

We plan to go down tomorrow and check things out. I want to start it up and check the water coming out. I'll check the things mentioned in here.

I'm pretty sure water is coming in through the seacock because I removed the cover of the filter and water was coming in until I closed the seacock. The strainer was clean.

Thanks for all the input so far.

[SomeSailor]

When was the last time the impellers were changed?

[Papa Charlie]

I would say your impeller need to be replaced and if it was replaced before, was the heat exchanger checked. Could be restriction in the heat exchanger that is causing the overheat problem. This does not sound like the problem just happened but has been building for some time. You should be able run your engine at wot and have the temperature remain constant. There should be no climbing of temp other than initial warm up.

[debbie]

Impeller is one of the parts we'd meant to keep on board. We have about 8 fuel filters...no impellers. I'm thrilled if I don't have to go into that disgusting water with those creepy things that live there to see if there's a stick in my intake. I don't know how much suction there is, but my fervent hope is that when the suction stops, if there's something in there, it will fall out.

Thanks all.

[SomeSailor]

You could also flush it with fresh water from a dock hose to be sure it's not obstructed. Same with the heat exchanger & lines. I'm assuming your raw water pump is engine mounted?

[debbie]

OK - it was the water pump/impeller. Holy COW that thing just blew apart - had to be careful to get all the pieces out. Fortunately we found a place in Ballard that has a couple in stock. I'm not sure how often they need to be replaced, but since this one didn't last much past 350 hours I think we will inspect it at least annually.

Kinda stinky that the signs were so subtle but next time we'll know better.

[SomeSailor]

I change mine each spring. For the $50 it costs, I figure it's cheaper than wondering.

[debbie]

Smart to change, if you open to inspect might as well change.

So my next question, just how does one "flush"? A couple of you have mentioned it, and it sounds self-explanatory, but this is a boat, so I am making no assumptions. Would we actually flush thru the system, or do you mean just get some water in and rinse it out?

[SomeSailor]

If it were mine, I would connect a hose from the intake of the pump, and flush fresh water towards the sea (towards the sea strainer and out), and then do the same thing from the far side of the heat exchanger back towards the sea. You can reverse flush and any sand you may stored away in there. :)

I couple of pieces of PVC pipe could build any adapter you needed for $10 or so.

[debbie]

Makes more sense than a funnel and bucket of water, but that would be a lot easier :-) tks!

[rbcooper]

Debbie,

I've moored boats in the Kenmore area (Davidsons, Cap Sante, North Lake and Harbor Village marinas for over 15 years and I know just how depth challenged the area is. I make it a point to check the sea strainers after every transit and to check the impellers every year. I change the impellers every two years regardless since as somone else suggested, it's cheap insurance.

In addition IF I ever have a minor grounding incident I have a diver check the exposed underwater drive gear (shafts, cutlass bearings, struts, propellers and rudders) for damage. Even though the bottom in this end of the lake is really really soft mud it can still do some damage that will not be obvious at the slow rates that we normally cruise at. Again relatively cheap insurance.

Regards,

Robert Cooper

[debbie]

Thank you - very good advice and we will take it. We got to Poulsbo and back without any trouble but we will haul out soon and have it checked. We did take the precaution of having a mechanic do a health check after the impeller was replaced and have also looked at the strainers since - there was nothing after the grounding, and it's still clean but we'll keep checking, it's a good thing to have on our checklist.