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Engine losing coolant


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I cruised 3 1/2 miles to the services this morning. Lifted the deck boards to tighten the stern tube greaser, noticed some liquid under the engine. Checked the oil level that was fine. Checked the coolant header tank it was virtually dry. Checked the hoses and connections I could see, nothing obvious there. The engine was too hot to reach round the front to feel for water but I could hear a dripping sound. Left it half an hour, put some coolant in, half an hour later the level hadn't dropped. Set off but pulled over after a mile, I'd lost maybe 1/2 pint of coolant.

 

It seems that the problem only occurs when the engine is running and my best guess is it's something around the front of the engine.

 

Any ideas on this? 

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1 minute ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

I cruised 3 1/2 miles to the services this morning. Lifted the deck boards to tighten the stern tube greaser, noticed some liquid under the engine. Checked the oil level that was fine. Checked the coolant header tank it was virtually dry. Checked the hoses and connections I could see, nothing obvious there. The engine was too hot to reach round the front to feel for water but I could hear a dripping sound. Left it half an hour, put some coolant in, half an hour later the level hadn't dropped. Set off but pulled over after a mile, I'd lost maybe 1/2 pint of coolant.

 

It seems that the problem only occurs when the engine is running and my best guess is it's something around the front of the engine.

 

Any ideas on this? 

What engine is it?

 

It's not unusual to only leak when running as that is when the system is most pressurized.

 

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Hoses or end caps that only leak when hot and under pressure are a firm favourite.

 

Do you have trapped air in your skin tank that is pushing the pressure higher than usual and making this worse?  Try venting it and see if any air comes out.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

I cruised 3 1/2 miles to the services this morning. Lifted the deck boards to tighten the stern tube greaser, noticed some liquid under the engine. Checked the oil level that was fine. Checked the coolant header tank it was virtually dry. Checked the hoses and connections I could see, nothing obvious there. The engine was too hot to reach round the front to feel for water but I could hear a dripping sound. Left it half an hour, put some coolant in, half an hour later the level hadn't dropped. Set off but pulled over after a mile, I'd lost maybe 1/2 pint of coolant.

 

It seems that the problem only occurs when the engine is running and my best guess is it's something around the front of the engine.

 

Any ideas on this? 

Which engine? probably water pump. When you stop look for traces of water below the pump.

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5 minutes ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

I cruised 3 1/2 miles to the services this morning. Lifted the deck boards to tighten the stern tube greaser, noticed some liquid under the engine. Checked the oil level that was fine. Checked the coolant header tank it was virtually dry. Checked the hoses and connections I could see, nothing obvious there. The engine was too hot to reach round the front to feel for water but I could hear a dripping sound. Left it half an hour, put some coolant in, half an hour later the level hadn't dropped. Set off but pulled over after a mile, I'd lost maybe 1/2 pint of coolant.

 

It seems that the problem only occurs when the engine is running and my best guess is it's something around the front of the engine.

 

Any ideas on this? 

It could be any number of things, and leak-location can be made very difficult as the heat of the engine quickly evaporates the signs on the engine.

 

1) Whilst it is cold, look and see if you can see any water 'staining' on the engine.

2) Dry everything out

3) Wrap sheets of kitchen roll around pipes, pumps, connections, anywhere you can.

4) Put kitchen roll in the bilge.

5) start engine and carefully look to see where any kitchen roll starts to get wet - your leak will be somewhere close to that area.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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6 minutes ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

Sorry I should have said it's a Vetus M2.04. Is replacing the water pump a big job, engine out?

My vetus used to be very tempremental. Does it have the seperate plastic header tank situated above the height of the engine?

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28 minutes ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

Sorry I should have said it's a Vetus M2.04. Is replacing the water pump a big job, engine out?

In general terms - not Vetus specific. Depends upon the space at the front of the engine and access. If its reasonable I think it should take an hour or less. Alternator belt off, possibly water pump pulley off, undo water pump bolts - roughly  4, take pump out (may be a struggle to break the gasket seal, clean all the old gasket off. Fit new.

Edited by Tony Brooks
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The engine cooled sufficiently for me to do an impression of a small boy, finally managed to get myself in a position where I could see what was going on. Below the water pump was dry, good news. The problem: there's a hose from the water pump which connects to the rest of the cooling system. Somehow this has moved, it's now touching the v belt. There's a very definite groove where the v belt has worn the hose away to the extent that it now leaks. It's easy enough to use some cable ties to move its position a few mm away from the spinning belt. Any tips for a heath robinson fix so I can do a couple more miles, wrap a load of gaffer tape round it maybe? Also, will I lose all my coolant when I replace the offending hose?      

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Self amalgamating tape if you have any, gaffer tape if not.  For only a couple of miles you could just top it up every now and then, for a longer distance maybe not.

 

You probably won't lose all your coolant, but you will lose quite a bit of it.  Either catch and replace it or consider it might be a good time to renew your antifreeze ...

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3 minutes ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

Self amalgamating tape, if that ptfe? I think I have some. 

NO. self amalgamating is completely different. Even loads of insulation tape may bodge for a few miles. 

I would also run with cap off so it doesnt pressurise and go steady.

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And when binding with it you must keep a tension on it ''stretch'' or it won't self amalgamate properly. The hoses on my 33 year old car are nearly all self amalgamating tape now, brilliant stuff.

Edited by bizzard
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Another good bodge that will get you buy is if you are a cyclist? and have a spare inner tube wrap a length of that round the pipe a couple of times and wrap titghtly over the top with three or four cable ties, assuming you can get at it?

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I've moved the hose away from the v belt with a thick cable tie. This opened up the hole a little, water started dripping out. I've cleaned the area and wrapped a load of insulating tape around the hose, seems to have done the trick! Is the consensus to replace the hose or just wrap self amalgamating tape around it?  

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1 minute ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

Is the consensus to replace the hose or just wrap self amalgamating tape around it?  

Depends if you want a bodge or a proper fix.  If you aren't going river running you will get away with bodging and keeping an eye on it for a long time.

 

If you usually have a clean dry engine bilge it's a simple visual check.

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43 minutes ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

There's a very definite groove where the v belt has worn the hose away to the extent that it now leaks

 

I had similar but caught it before it got to the leaking stage.

Its easy enough to get replacement hoses.

 

maybe check the fan belt is tight enough - I tightened mine up a bit and it now doesn't flay-about so much.

 

Get it replaced and keep a spare. Do regular checks and swap it out before it leaks.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

I've moved the hose away from the v belt with a thick cable tie. This opened up the hole a little, water started dripping out. I've cleaned the area and wrapped a load of insulating tape around the hose, seems to have done the trick! Is the consensus to replace the hose or just wrap self amalgamating tape around it?  

Done properly self amalgamating tape should make a very sound job of it. What I do to reinforce the area, I wrap a coil of thin soft wire or a copper strand from a cable around first or it can be done afterwards on top of the tape. But I must stress its important to keep tension on the tape when binding.

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