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Overwinter Coolant Drop


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Our boat has been tucked up on its moorings until yesterday when we returned to get it ready for the new season. 
 

The engine is a Beta 38. Before I started her up I checked everything over including the coolant level and was shocked at how much it had dropped. I could actually see the bottom of the header tank on top of the engine.
 

There was no evidence of a leak anywhere in the bilge area including the bunded area immediately beneath the engine everything was bone dry. Similarly the calorifier pipe showed no signs of leaks along it’s length. My antifreeze was at 50% concentration so hopefully no real danger of freeze damage to the block and the oil, which I had changed immediately before the winter, was still perfectly clean and at the correct level with no sign of water contamination . 
 

Anyway I topped up with over two litres of coolant and ran the engine for one and a half hours, monitoring everything carefully during that time. No sign of leaks and once cool I checked the level again. It was fine and it hadn’t lost a drop. 
 

This all strikes me as strange. I’m glad that on the face of things everything seems ok, but it bothers me how it could have happened. The only thought is that there has been an air pocket in the system somewhere and with the engine not been run for quite a while it’s resolved itself and the corresponding level in the header tank has dropped. I shouldn’t mention that that I visited the boat in January and ran the engine then for half an hour. I noticed then that the coolant was a little down on normal but not excessively so.

 

Any thoughts on this? Has anyone else had anything similar happen after a winter lay up?
 

 

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Just to be sure have a very careful look at the area beneath the top engine pump pulley for rusty or antifreeze coloured stains. Water pumps have a habit of being very erratic when they start to leak, so they may leak when stationary, may leak when running or may leak when they think they will.

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1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

Just to be sure have a very careful look at the area beneath the top engine pump pulley for rusty or antifreeze coloured stains. Water pumps have a habit of being very erratic when they start to leak, so they may leak when stationary, may leak when running or may leak when they think they will.

Thanks Tony, That’s a good suggestion. I’ve just been and had another good look paying particular attention to the water pump area. It’s bone dry. The previous owner was a marine engineer and always kept a container under the pump so he could spot any leaks early. A practice I’ve continued and that’s dry and clean.  I’m currently running the engine up to temperature again to double check all’s still ok today.
 

I spoke to a chap on our Marina today who has a fair amount of experience and he immediately said ‘air in the system’ which was my thought. Odd that it should show up now though, I hardly had to top up last season. 

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Its likely to have adsorbed an air lock and its cooler than when it was used in te warmer weather. I case of monitor and check. Remember that it may naturally loose water if it is overfilled above the up to temperature level due to approx 5% expansion from cold to hot.

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