volume of coolant in Beta 43?

[umpire111]

need to change the coolant but I have no idea how much to buy. Im aware it depends on the size of the tanks but can someone give me a guesstimate. Its a 58ft NB

[nicknorman]

19 minutes ago, umpire111 said:

need to change the coolant but I have no idea how much to buy. Im aware it depends on the size of the tanks but can someone give me a guesstimate. Its a 58ft NB

The manual says 7.4 litres for the engine, plus the pipework through the calorifier and the skin tank. Maybe same again for that lot ie  15 litres. Depends a lot on the skin tank as some I’ve seen are really fat, others like ours are pretty thin. So I’d guess 5 litres of antifreeze will probably be enough, and that assumes you manage to get all the old coolant out of the skin tank etc. 

[umpire111]

12 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

The manual says 7.4 litres for the engine, plus the pipework through the calorifier and the skin tank. Maybe same again for that lot ie  15 litres. Depends a lot on the skin tank as some I’ve seen are really fat, others like ours are pretty thin. So I’d guess 5 litres of antifreeze will probably be enough, and that assumes you manage to get all the old coolant out of the skin tank etc. 

tx, I couldnt find a volume in the engine manual

1 minute ago, umpire111 said:

tx, I couldnt find a volume in the engine manual

I assume you just turn the drain tap on and drain it into a container...no pumping etc?

 

[nicknorman]

2 minutes ago, umpire111 said:

tx, I couldnt find a volume in the engine manual

I assume you just turn the drain tap on and drain it into a container...no pumping etc?

 

Well it depends. On our boat, a good proportion of the skin tank is below the level of the engine coolant drain tap. I suspect most boats are like that. What I did was, having drained what came out by gravity, I disconnected the pipe to the bottom of the skin tank at the engine end, then pushed some garden hose pipe into the pipe until it reached the bottom skin tank connector. Then pumped it out with a spare whale gulper we have.

 

Whether it’s worth all that kerfuffle depends on how much skin tank there is below the engine level.

[cuthound]

My 60 foot boat with a skin tank cooled Beta 43 rook 45 litres of coolant when I changed it.

[nicknorman]

Just now, cuthound said:

My 60 foot boat with a skin tank cooled Beta 43 rook 45 litres of coolant when I changed it.

Blimey you must have an enormous …

…

skin tank. 
 

[PeterF]

1sq.m (10sq.ft) of skin tank 2.5cm (1" ) wide is 25 litres, it soon adds up.

[nicknorman]

35 minutes ago, PeterF said:

1sq.m (10sq.ft) of skin tank 2.5cm (1" ) wide is 25 litres, it soon adds up.

Pretty sure I just got 3 bucketfuls out of ours (= 15 litres). However I could be misremembering because your figure seems reasonable. So 33 litres = 10 litres antifreeze. Hmm, maybe drain it first and then buy the antifreeze?

 

Edit: hmmmm, just checked how much a bucket holds, I was thinking 5 litres but actually it seems to be 15 litres. Although they were not totally full. Ooops! So sounds like 40 -odd litres is the figure. 10 - 15 litres of antifreeze as the starting point. Sorry for the confusion!

Edited July 11, 2023 by nicknorman

[Sea Dog]

My Beta 43 plus skin tank takes about 37 litres iirc. I say iirc, cos it's only every 5 years with red and I don't have my logbook here. More than you bargained for though, eh? 

[pearley]

11 hours ago, cuthound said:

My 60 foot boat with a skin tank cooled Beta 43 rook 45 litres of coolant when I changed it.

On our previous boat the skin tanks formed the engine beds. I measured them and calculated it at 80.24 litres plus the 7.4 litres of the B43 ordered 45 litres if antifreeze. It wasn't enough!

[cuthound]

12 hours ago, nicknorman said:

Blimey you must have an enormous …

…

skin tank. 
 

 

Definitely 45 litres because when I refilled it I put in a litre of deionised water followed by a litre of Ford Premium 10 year antifreeze and counted until it was full.

 

I did similar for the Webasto central heating system and that took 25 litres.

[rusty69]

12 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

Definitely 45 litres because when I refilled it I put in a litre of deionised water followed by a litre of Ford Premium 10 year antifreeze and counted until it was full.

 

I did similar for the Webasto central heating system and that took 25 litres.

 

I took 77 litres out of mine. I am now a bit worried that some of it was just canal water.

Edited July 12, 2023 by rusty69

[cuthound]

1 minute ago, rusty69 said:

 

I took 77 litres out of mine. I am now a bit worried that some of it wasn't just canal water.

 You use canal water as your coolant in a keel cooled system?

 

Hopefully it is a typo...

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, cuthound said:

10 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

 

 You use canal water as your coolant in a keel cooled system?

I hope not, but that is why I am now worried, 77 litres seems a lot.

[TheBiscuits]

58 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

I hope not, but that is why I am now worried, 77 litres seems a lot.

 If it's not filled up again you'll be ok!

[Wizzer]

So 40,50,70 litres whatever the amount is. How do you dispose of it (legally and responsibly)? And is it worth the hassle to change it?

[nicknorman]

21 minutes ago, Wizzer said:

So 40,50,70 litres whatever the amount is. How do you dispose of it (legally and responsibly)? And is it worth the hassle to change it?

The hassle of changing it is not about its antifreeze properties, which remain unaffected by age. It’s about the anti-corrosive additives that stop your engine eating itself from the inside out. Standard blue antifreeze only has an anti-corrosive life of a few years.

[system 4-50]

You take it to your local tip and ask them where to put it, and they say "in the waste oil tank".

Link referring to capacities

[Hudds Lad]

10 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

You take it to your local tip and ask them where to put it, and they say "in the waste oil tank".

Link referring to capacities

Sadly made much harder these days by new rules, like no walk-ins, only locally registered vehicles, no vans or trailers etc, shorter opening hours etc.  

[GUMPY]

4 hours ago, Wizzer said:

So 40,50,70 litres whatever the amount is. How do you dispose of it (legally and responsibly)? And is it worth the hassle to change it?

My last lot went in the tank that holds the effluent at the marina😱

[ditchcrawler]

4 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

Sadly made much harder these days by new rules, like no walk-ins, only locally registered vehicles, no vans or trailers etc, shorter opening hours etc.  

And lots wont accept antifeeze

[rusty69]

5 hours ago, system 4-50 said:

You take it to your local tip and ask them where to put it, and they say "in the waste oil tank".

Link referring to capacities

My local one didn't when I asked them.They said they couldn't (wouldn't) take it. When I asked them where I should take it, they said they didn't know, and it wasn't their problem.

[churchward]

On 11/07/2023 at 16:56, umpire111 said:

need to change the coolant but I have no idea how much to buy. Im aware it depends on the size of the tanks but can someone give me a guesstimate. Its a 58ft NB

The size of the skin tank is the big variable. On our boat, the engine is a Beta B38 with a good-sized tank and the volume I measured when emptying was 23 litres in total.

[Tracy D'arth]

This question is very like" how much water is there in a lock",  depends on many factors.

 

Mine takes 27 litres of antifreeze and 65 litres of water. But then the skin tank is triangular not flat.

[Slim]

Apart from total volume the thing to watch out for is what antifreeze you're buying. Not only OAT or traditional but dilution rate. An absolute minefield.