Hi all, the Perkins 4108 that I had in my boat (27ft cruiser) was beyond economical repair, so I fitted an Isuzu 3KC1 that I scavenged from a 360 digger.
Currently I am using the diggers radiator and pulley driven fan, but obviously this is not the most efficient method in a small boat engine bay. The perkins used a tube and shell heat exchanger and wet exhaust, unfortunately I sold all this with the engine (for much too low of a price!). As I can see it, I could either use raw water cooling (not really too happy with that idea), or use a heat exchanger system which would also allow me to run the bypass circuit to a calorifier.
So my main question is, where can I find a reasonably priced heat exchanger? Any tube and shell heat exchangers with the word "marine" in the name are ridiculously expensive (upwards of £300 for the size I'd need) whereas a plate heat exchanger of the same thermal properties is about £30.
Has anyone used a plate heat exchanger with raw water before now? The only thing I'm worried about is clogging of the cooling channels, obviously I'd be using a strainer in conjunction with it, but I'm still not sure how easily it would get blocked.
If anyone can weigh in on this, it would be very much appreciated.
Thanks
Mark