Dry-joint ehxaust elbow gaskets

[achris]

Just working on a friend's 4.3MPI with closed cooling. He bought the boat recently from a small town in South Australia. Drove over and towed it back home (Perth)... No short trip at 3,100km (1,900 miles)... And not such a small boat either, an older 20' cabin cruiser.

Since owning the boat he's experience a small but persistent coolant loss. Checked all the hoses and tighten the clamps, but to no avail. Then he noticed a very small trail of coolant on the exhaust manifold, running down from the elbow joint. He's bought the boat to me and asked if I can fix it, and do a service and a few other small things....

And here's where I get on my soap-box. I know those dry-joint gaskets aren't cheap (about $80 each here in Aust.), but FFS, why botch up a job to save a few dollars? It drives me to tears when I see things like this (hence the rant!). This (photo below) was obviously done by some backyard butcher who cared less about customers than getting the job finished and moved on to the next sucker!

Bottom line is....If you're not willing to do the job properly, take it to someone who is!

Cheers all, and have a good day.

Chris.............

 

[QBhoy]

Hi

im not certain he would loose coolant from the closed cooling system from there. That will be raw water surely ?

 

[Scott Danforth]

come on Chris.... a tube or schmutz isnt the proper sealer?....LOL

Cheers.

 

[achris]

Hi

im not certain he would loose coolant from the closed cooling system from there. That will be raw water surely ?

One side of that gasket is the top of the exhaust manifold, which is part of the closed cooling system... Poorly made gaskets (in this case cheapo nasty "we can make it cheaper than the genuine" gaskets) don't clamp properly and yes, COOLANT leaks out. No doubt some sea water would have leaked out from the elbow side, and that probably accounts for the rust on the manifold...

come on Chris.... a tube or schmutz isnt the proper sealer?....LOL

Thanks Scott, very droll!

Chris.........

 

[Lou C]

Hi

im not certain he would loose coolant from the closed cooling system from there. That will be raw water surely ?

It's a full system with antifreeze in the manifolds and raw water cooled exhaust elbows/risers.....

 

[QBhoy]

It's a full system with antifreeze in the manifolds and raw water cooled exhaust elbows/risers.....

Ah. Fair play Lou. How does it recover the water from the manifolds. Actually never seen a closed cooling system gm set up...up close at least.

 

[Bondo]

How does it recover the water from the manifolds.

Ayuh,.... usually through another port 'n hose at the other end of the manifold, feedin' into the heat exchanger,....

I still ain't run into the dry-joint stuff yet,.....
Bob had a set, 'n We did compare the gaskets 'tween wet/ dry joint,..... different sizin' all together,....

 

[achris]

Ah. Fair play Lou. How does it recover the water from the manifolds. Actually never seen a closed cooling system gm set up...up close at least.

Here's the flow diagrams for a closed cooled system. 2 diagrams here, one for earlier manifolds/elbows, one for the dry-joint system. Both work the same way, but one might be easier to read than the other. The separation between the close and raw cooled systems is the gasket between the manifolds and the elbows. On the closed cooled they are 'block-off' gaskets, on the raw, full flow.

In both systems the raw water cools the heat exchanger and the elbows on the way out, and the engine coolant cools the engine block, heads, intake manifolds, controlled by the thermostat and the exhaust manifolds have continuous coolant flow through them.

HTH,

Chris........