Barnacles in Water Inlet

[sundowner205]

Hi All,

I just noticed something quite disturbing. I finished my winterizing last week. I changed the gear lube - no water, looked almost new.

I was moving my boat into winter storage, and I noticed that the water inlets on the lower unit are clogged with barnacles on the inside. I assume the only way to clean them out is to disassemble the lower unit. I have never done this.
Removed the lower yes, but never taken it apart.

How difficult is this? I'm pretty mechanically inclined, just not sure if I should take it to a pro. I have the factory OMC manual. Any hints, or advice?

Thanx, all.

-Mark

 

[Windykid]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

I would remove the lower unit. Clean out with small bore brush ( as in a Gun cleaning kit) then back flush and check flow.

 

[sundowner205]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

That's not an option; the holes have a screen covering them that is mounted from the inside...

 

[sundowner205]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

Perhaps I'm not being clear here...what I need to do is remove the upper gear case from the lower.

I've been reading the OMC manual and it seems to be a fairly simple procedure. However, I need to gain access to the water inlets which I assume are attached to a hose going to the raw water impeller. The manual makes no reference to this, and I just want to be sure I will be able to clean the inlets out from the inside once I separate the upper from the lower gear case before I attempt this.

 

[sundowner205]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

The manual just doesn't show me what I need to see. I think I may have to remove the water passage housing, not sure as of yet.

Does anyone know if the water inlet passage is accessible with the lower unit separated from the upper? Or would I have to remove the water passage housing as well?...

 

[Lou C]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

Funny you should mention this, I noticed the same thing on mine. It never ran hot on the water or on the water hose when winterizing it, but I did see some small shells in there. I looked in my 88 OMC factory manual, and basically what you might need to do, is to separate the upper housing from the lower. The water tube goes into a cover that also covers the driveshaft that goes into the lower unit. You would have to slide out the intermediate driveshaft, remove the water tube and remove this cover. The intake screen is down in a recess in the lower unit. I don't know how difficult this would be to do, a lot depends on past maintenance and if the last person who put it together used the OMC gasket sealer on the bolts, which does a good job of keeping them from corroding in place. What I did was get a really small screwdriver,like for a watch. Then I slide the tip of the screw driver into the water intakes slots and was able to break up the shells without destroying the water intake. Next after I remove the drive, I will remove the impeller and flush water up the water intakes with the muffs so that the shells can be flushed out. If that gets em out that's as far as I am going, I'm not sure if I have the skill to take the drive apart as of yet. My mechanic could probably do it in an hour or less.

Here's a pic that gives you an idea, how it comes apart. After pulling off the upper unit, you need to remove the driveshaft (#66, slides out) and #58 water passage housing. That's as far as you need to go, then you need to pry out the intake screen #5. If you went this far I'd check the water tube for barnicles too. Maybe replace the gaskets for the tube while you are in there. It doesn't look like too bad of a job but having never done this before, I don't know of the possible pitfalls.

 

[sundowner205]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

Thanx, Lou. That sounds like a good idea. I was reading over the separation process in the Factory manual, it looked pretty simple, but I really don't want to get into removing intermediate shafts, etc. if I don't have to.

I'm going to try what you suggested. Perhaps if I can break them up enough they can be flushed out with the impeller removed. If not, we know what we have to do

I'm also going to look into a closed-cooling system for both the block and manifolds like this one: http://www.aaamarine.com/servlet/the-247/OMC210-185-260-HP/Detail

Is it just me, or were the barnacles horrible this year around these parts?

 

[Lou C]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

They were really bad, even the guys at the yard where I had it powerwashed when they pulled it out for the season were amazed at how much there was on my drive. I usually have them do the antifouling on the drive, but I may do it myself next season, with a combination of spray and brushing Trilux, the one coat they put on does not last even half the season. One thing to try is when you do paint it, really sray the paint into the intake grilles, to discourage growth. It's enough, to make me get an outboard next time!

BTW, if you have been running in salt, I don't think you can convert to closed cooling unless the engine is close to new, the corrosion already started will clog up the heat exchanger. If I ever replace this engine, for sure I will put in closed cooling before it ever goes in the water.

 

[sundowner205]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

My bottom paint didn't really do its job either. I suppose it could have been worse. My outdrive was the worst, however. Even after pressure washing and scraping, I think I'm still going to have to remove it from the transom mount to get rid of all the barnacles way up inside the pivot housing. I noticed alot of small mussels as well.

What is your home port? - If you don't mind me asking. Just trying to gain a reference to the outreach of the barnacle problem.

I painted my outdrive this year with 1 coat of Interlux outdrive primer, and 2 coats of the Trilux outdrive anti-fouling. I would say it worked for about 1 month - horrible longevity considering the stuff is $34 per can. I was going to have the marina do my outdrive this coming season, but after hearing that you had one do yours and it was still bad, I may have to find another solution.

I know certain antifouling/bottom paints cannot be applied to aluminum because of the copper content in the paint reacting with the aluminum, but, there has to be a solution here...

My motor has about 75 hours on it since a rebuild, so I think I'll be alright with the cooling conversion. From what I've read, anything over 125-150 hours should not be converted. Although, I have also read of motors with 400+ hours being converted to closed cooling without any problems.

 

[sundowner205]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

Update. Broke up the shells/barnacles with a small screwdriver and as soon as the rain lets up I'll put the muffs on, remove the impeller, and see if I can flush them out. If not, it will be time to separate the upper from the lower unit.

 

[Lou C]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

The boat is moored in the Northport Harbor area, and the fouling is usually bad but not this bad, then again, it was in from April 30th to Oct 20th or so. I hear the no longer available tin paints were the best at antifouling, and they did not react with the aluminum on the drive. How did your barnacle removal go?
If I wind up taking it apart,I think I'm going to paint the inside of the screen and water tube to keep the pesky critters out.

 

[sundowner205]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

The boat is moored in the Northport Harbor area, and the fouling is usually bad but not this bad, then again, it was in from April 30th to Oct 20th or so. I hear the no longer available tin paints were the best at antifouling, and they did not react with the aluminum on the drive. How did your barnacle removal go?
If I wind up taking it apart,I think I'm going to paint the inside of the screen and water tube to keep the pesky critters out.

Hi Lou,

You're practically rite next to me - I'm in Port Jeff. And you're right - it usually isn't this bad. Definitely going to look into some other options, especially if we end up buying a new boat. It almost makes you not want to moor or slip it.

I started poking through the inlet screen with a small screwdriver, and I think that I got most, if not all of them broken off whatever they attached themselves too. I was going to remove the cover to take out the impeller and attempt to flush them out, but then it started raining pretty hard. So I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

How is your situation? Any luck?

I really hope we don't have to separate our drives in order to remedy this...

 

[Lou C]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

I probably won't get to pull the drive off till next weekend so I will flush it then, I winterized it a couple of weeks ago on a nice October day. I'll let you know what happens.
The intersting thing about fouling is it does vary with the area. Huntington, Northport and Centerport are bad for fouling, but supposedly at Brittania, which is in Northport but all the way down by Rte 25A, the fouling there is not as bad, hard to believe but this is what I hear.
Next year in addition to painting it myself, I am going to pull it out midseason and paint it again and replace the anodes. The big one on the front of the drive was basically gone, I still had a little on the small cube shaped on on the rear of the drive and the one on the transom mount was about 1/3 deteriorated. Fortunately the drive does not have much corrosion.

 

[sundowner205]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

Amazing how the fouling can vary in such close proximities.

My anodes are in the exact same condition as yours. I've been seeing an aluminum replacement kit on ebay alot lately for around $39 that has all 3 anodes included...

But yeah, keep me updated on your situation, and I'll update here as well. Best of luck.

 

[Lou C]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

As far as the anodes go, you probably want to stay with zinc because it will be more active than the aluminum of the drive and protect better than aluminum anodes in salt water.
And as far as the next boat, I'd have to consider an outboard strongly. On the one hand I like the simple old school 4 cycle car engine of the I/O, the 4.3 in mine is original, not rebuilt, going on 21 years old! But the fouling problem is a headache, yet, of the powerboats moored near me, at least 1/3 are I/Os. The issue with modern outboards is that if you do have a problem, they are not so do it yourself friendly. I know people with 4 stroke Yamahas and they all seem to love them though, and outboard powered boats hold their value much better here than I/Os, in addition to needing much less maintanence and being easier to winterize.

 

[Lou C]

Re: Barnacles in Water Inlet

I dragged this post up from last fall, for the salt water boaters. I was able to break up the shells with a very small screwdriver (you could use a very small awl or pic, or dentist's tools) without destroying the plastic grille covering the water intakes. I then removed the impeller from the upper gear housing, set the drive so it was laying on its side on top of my cart and put the muffs on (first I put a plastic bag around the u-jionts to keep any water out of them). I found that if I squeezed the muffs tight to the lower unit, enough water flow got up to the upper housing to flush the shells out. It took a bout 4 tries but this was easier certainly than splitting the upper and lower housings to get them out.