Draining Coolant

[MickH]

Hi,

I have a Barrus Shire 45hp, is there a drain plug for the coolant please ?

Also, how much does the coolant system hold? So I know how much Antifreeze to buy

Thank you in advance

[Tony Brooks]

Just now, MickH said:

Hi,

I have a Barrus Shire 45hp, is there a drain plug for the coolant please ?

Also, how much does the coolant system hold? So I know how much Antifreeze to buy

Thank you in advance

 

Unless this is a heat exchanger cooled engine impossible to answer. The skin tank could have a vast range of capacities.

 

There is probably an engine block drain tap/plug but to fully drain the system you ma have to take the bottom skin tank connection off.

 

I suspect your best bet capacity wise is to either measure what comes out or refill, including venting the skin tank, pint of antifreeze to two pints water. The when bled etc give it a good long run to mix the liquids. Just count the number of pints and note for next time.

[MickH]

Thank you Tony, so best bet is to take the bottom hose off the skin tank I guess, my only concern then would be if I have t obleed the calorifer

[Tony Brooks]

13 minutes ago, MickH said:

Thank you Tony, so best bet is to take the bottom hose off the skin tank I guess, my only concern then would be if I have t obleed the calorifer

 

You may have to, cross that bridge when you come to it. Technically I suppose you really should drain the calorifier circuit a swell, but if you stick to a 33.3% mixture I am sure you won't need to drain it. Even if it does drain they will often self bleed but if not it is either a case of breaking a joint at the highest point in the circuit to let the air out or getting a friend to help you with a watering can of premixed antifreeze and water. Set the engine revving say 1200 to 1500 rpm. Take off the calorifier return hone on the engine smartly placing your thumb over the engine side of the connection, and while friend tops up the header tank you wait for a slug of air to come out of the hose, then put the hose back on while the engine  is still revving. I would say that given a decent fit-out there is better than a 50-50 chance you won't have to bleed it.

 

When it is drained you could take the opportunity to fit a bleed at the highest point.

Edited October 29, 2021 by Tony Brooks

[Cas446]

2 hours ago, MickH said:

Thank you Tony, so best bet is to take the bottom hose off the skin tank I guess, my only concern then would be if I have t obleed the calorifer

 

Buy a hand drill mounted pump and two bits of old garden hose pipe. For the hose from the engine to the bottom of the skin tank, take it off at the engine end. Catch what comes out in a bucket, then feed the pump hose down the engine hose to the bottom of the skin tank and use the drill pump to pump the old coolant into a container. Takes all of 10 minutes and minimal spillage. Then change your coolant hoses for new and refill.

[blackrose]

I just sucked all the coolant out with a wetvac from one of the skin tank hoses. It took a few fills of the wetvac bucket. I also drained the coolant from the engine before that by taking the drain plug out (Isuzu 55). If you have the engine owners manual it should show you where it is, but if you drain it from lower down on the skin tank and take the coolant filling cap off the engine then you don't really need to drain the engine separately.

 

Be sure to flush it out with water, suck all the water out again and refill with red 5 year antifreeze rather than the blue 2 year stuff. 

Edited October 29, 2021 by blackrose

[Phoenix_V]

has anyone found anywhere sensible/legal/ecological to get rid of the old stuff?

[Onewheeler]

1 hour ago, Phoenix_V said:

has anyone found anywhere sensible/legal/ecological to get rid of the old stuff?

Our recycling centre told me to chuck the container of antifreeze into the general waste skip as it all gets incinerated. Shrug....

I just take the bottom hose off the skin tank, dump it all into the bilge then pump it out and mop up with disposable nappies.

[blackrose]

7 hours ago, Phoenix_V said:

has anyone found anywhere sensible/legal/ecological to get rid of the old stuff?

 

Yes your local council recycling centre.should have facilities for old oil, antifreeze and other waste household chemicals and automotive fluids. Isn't that where you usually take your old engine oil?

[Tony Brooks]

3 hours ago, blackrose said:

 

Yes your local council recycling centre.should have facilities for old oil, antifreeze and other waste household chemicals and automotive fluids. Isn't that where you usually take your old engine oil?

 

One would hope so but if the OP is CCing it may not be that easy. More and more they expect you to provide some form of prof of address in their area. If the OP does not have a car then they may not even be allowed into the centre.

[blackrose]

I've never had a problem using several different recycling centres and have walked in before. It's been a couple of years but I've never been asked for any ID. I thought they only checked you if you drove a van?

[Tony Brooks]

5 minutes ago, blackrose said:

I've never had a problem using several different recycling centres and have walked in before. It's been a couple of years but I've never been asked for any ID. I thought they only checked you if you drove a van?

 

It is an increasing trend as far as ID is concerned with certain councils refusing to pay the council with the most convenient tip for residents refusing to pay the council running the tip. For example West Berkshire verse the Reading, Wokingham, Bracknell consortium and there is something similar going on just west of Basingstoke. I am sure these are not the only ones with council finances being way they are. The R3 tip (Reading, Wokingham, and Bracknell) is only  about 100 yards from Fobney lock (K&A) but displays notices that pedestrians are not allowed AND they expect you to make an online booking giving your full address and provide specified separate ID when you turn up. The barrier is controlled by someone who checks you comply.

 

However Uckfield tip (Maresfield) is exactly as you say, not checks and I am sure you could walk in.

 

There seems to me to be an unceasing tendency for councils to encourage fly tipping by making access to their tips difficult.

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

One would hope so but if the OP is CCing it may not be that easy. More and more they expect you to provide some form of prof of address in their area. If the OP does not have a car then they may not even be allowed into the centre.

And if the boater is CCing, and not paying council tax, why should he be able to benefit from council services?

[ditchcrawler]

5 hours ago, blackrose said:

 

Yes your local council recycling centre.should have facilities for old oil, antifreeze and other waste household chemicals and automotive fluids. Isn't that where you usually take your old engine oil?

Ours doesn't take antifreeze

[CanalRetentive]

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

And if the boater is CCing, and not paying council tax, why should he be able to benefit from council services?

Because you'll be paying for it one way or another, either by letting them use the tip or by having to collect it all from a hedge when they eventually give up and dump it saying "Well I tried to do the right thing but they wouldn't let me!".

 

Sound preferable to just let them use the tip.

[David Mack]

6 minutes ago, CanalRetentive said:

Because you'll be paying for it one way or another, either by letting them use the tip or by having to collect it all from a hedge when they eventually give up and dump it saying "Well I tried to do the right thing but they wouldn't let me!".

 

Sound preferable to just let them use the tip.

I don't disagree that it is in the wider community interest for stuff to be dumped at waste sites rather than flytipped. But waste is expensive to deal with, so no council wants to bear the cost of non-residents using their facility.

 

My daughter lives in Liverpool, and a couple of times I have taken rubbish from her house to the local tip. Very different to other facilities I have used - long opening hours, no proof of residency required, no limit on multiple trips (for cars and small vans) welcoming helpful staff. They also run a free bulky item collection service.  Part of me thinks this is aiming high in the provision of council services, but then I see furniture and rubbish abandoned on grassed areas at street corners, and conclude that providing a good tip service is a necessary part of minimising flytipping, given the mindset of a proportion of the local population.

[Tracy D'arth]

I would suggest dumping it in an Elsan  point.

[dmr]

I've yet to find a tip that takes antifreeze.

Consensus is to pour it down the drain (sewer not soakaway) well diluted.

 

Fresh water pumps on boats don't last long and usually fail due to slight leaks or the pressure switch. Don't throw away the old pump, they can be really useful for jobs like draining the cooling system.

 

[Scholar Gypsy]

Slightly tangential. I have added a drain point to a low point (as it happens on the calorifier return circuit) and this enables me to drain all the water in the top half of the engine and the hoses, just by gravity. Handy for changing thermostat or replacing any hoses (as I have done recently). If I need to drain the skin tank then a pela pump does it (eventually!), but as others have noted other pumps will do it well. 

[luggsy]

We have a Barrus Shiers 45 I was like you I had doubts about doing it was worried about getting air locks in the system, I had the antifreeze for nearly 2 years before I got round to doing it , all that panic was for nothing piss easy to do , hardest thing was getting the coolant out off the engine bay , not any more though. After I drained the system I modified the pipe work buy fitting a drain off and adding a pump to the outlet, I  flushed the system out five times just pumped it straight into 25ltr drums , I used 5 year antifreeze but the next time i do it will be even easier now I will put a picture on tomorrow how I altered the pipe work 

[MickH]

Some really helpful hints thank you, luggsy you were going to put a picture of the drain off and pump you have done to make life easier in the future, which would be really helpfull

[nicknorman]

There’s mention of red and blue antifreeze above, just be aware that if you mix the two, sludge can form. Therefore if you are planning to replace blue with red, heed the advice about flushing out.

 

On the draining subject, the bottom of our skin tank is really hard to get to (it’s at the bottom of a wardrobe) and is below the level of the engine. Therefore, having drained the engine area, I pushed a garden hose well along the bottom skin tank pipe from the engine end, and used a whale gulper to suck the coolant out. It worked really well!

[luggsy]

1 hour ago, MickH said:

Some really helpful hints thank you, luggsy you were going to put a picture of the drain off and pump you have done to make life easier in the future, which would be really helpfull

 

[MickH]

thank you for the picture really helpful, your link to the pump on Ebay shows nothing perhaps they do not sell them any more

To the left of your picture does te blue pipe go to the bottom of the skin tank, only my hose to the skin tank is bigger

[luggsy]

Hi mick link to similar pump I use https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393659079037?hash=item5ba7e8d97d:g:8usAAOSwA-NhTZRc

Yes blue pipe goes to the bottom skin tank outlet