Re: Seawater drain or not a good idea?
You know,
I have thought about putting some sort of fitting and maybe a ball valve at a low spot in the raw water system in my 97 454/Bravo.
I have closed cooling but there's a fair amount of raw water that pools in the system from the pump up to the heat exchanger and maybe in the riser/elbows since they get the raw water discharge from the heat exchanger
If I did something like that it would only drain the water in the hose but probably wouldn't do much for what ever water pooled in the heat exchanger or risers.
I just allow the system to suck up about 5 gallons of 50:50 RV (non-toxic) anti-freeze. I put a tub below the drive in such a way to catch most or all of the discharge. If you are able to collect it you can use it over and over.
This absolutely DOES NOT work on raw water cooled engines because you cannot control the concentration of AF that actually gets into the block. (The T-stat won't let any in until the engine gets hot and then not very much at that..........do you feel lucky?.......
WELL DO YA?
)
Your best bet of course is to drain everything. If you think you have pooled water in that hose that goes under the engine to the PS cooler, it might be a good candidate for that fitting and a ball valve or a short piece of hose with a cap on it similar to those radiator flush systems...... It would sure be easier to open that valve or unscrew the cap instead of trying to pull the hose to drain it.
It would also add a place for leaks to occur, or if you forget to close the valve or leave the cap off.......how many people forget to replace their bilge drains every time they go to the lake?
.... So there's a trade-off...
But that kit looks like it would work well.
Cheers,
Rick
