Messages

Reseal your aft Beckson port.

Many reviews of questions of this nature end up with not unreasonable praise for the choices the reviewers themselves have made. 

There are basically two choices:  add a halyard restrainer or buy a system with one built in. 

Only ProFurl offers a system that has a halyard restrainer built in to the top of the foil above the top swivel.  All other other systems IIRC require a halyard restrainer, unless the top swivel is placed very high on the forestay.

I have a 2003 ProFurl and am very happy with it.

I have had a few ask me to update the project.

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Thanks for the update.  But for some of us, update for what?  One should either continue the original post or at least provide a link to the earlier thread.  It makes more sense for all of us and a better record for you, too.   

Canadian Chart Book 3313 (or 3312?) - it's on the boat, sorry.  Gulf Islands.  Canada has stopped printing paper charts and may have stopped this one, too, but you might find it online / used.

While anchored I took the spare time and cleaned more on the intake system of the HX. I thought I had done a good job but more scale came out, and the engine ran cooler (170F vs 185-190). I'm letting lime away soak in there now via the inlet hose. I hope it doesn't eat my hose! The 2inch HX only has one end that opens, making cleaning more difficult. I guess a radiator shop will be the best bet.

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I had a 2" HX on my M25 when I bought my boat in 1998.  The PO told us the engine overheated if pushed to WOT for extended periods.  He said "it was normal."  He also gave me ALL of the back issues of Mainsheet magazine back to 1987 when tech articles began to appear that included the C34 (although the M25 engine appeared in C30s and C36s back then, too).  So I read all those back issues, and as some of the sticky topics explain, on Xmas Day 1998 I started the Tech Notes Index and the Association built the Tech Notes Online from that.  Included in that effort was a lot of information about those old smaller HXs.  I finally took mine off the engine completely.  And when I shook it it sounded like a mariachi band!:D  Lots of pieces of zinc fell out when I removed the single end cap.  But the REAL CULPRIT for the overheating was the buildup of salt on the inlet port.  This is where the salt deposits itself from the cold rw from the rw pump when it hits the hot HX.  Once I cleared that blockage out (more than half of the port was blocked) the engine ran cool even at WOT.  Years later I got the boat bucks together for a 3" HX.  You really need to remove it from the engine to clean it.  I don't believe a radiator shop is necessary.  Lots of folks talk about the tubes needing to be cleaned, but as a mechanical engineer, I note that the tubes is where the water moves the fastest and the tubes should be just fine.  It's the floating pieces of zinc, impeller pieces and salt in the inlet port that are the real issues.

The point is that what the tech notes since 1987 say is true: the 2" HX is marginal but OK for that engine if it is free and clean.  The M25XP engine is two more HP and it includes a 3" HX and the corrected alternator bracket.  I did both to my M25.

I sure hope you've done the alternator bracket.

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I know I am going to get a lot of  grief for asking this question but what the heck I don't get how the galley sink drains going directly to a thru hull. Wouldn't the outside water come up the drain? I get the sink is above the water line but then how does it drain.

No grief at all.  It is basic fluid mechanics.  Yes the outside water comes up the drain.  But only TO the waterline.  The weight of the water above it forces it down when the sink fills with water.  That's pretty much all.

You can play all sorts of fun & games with clear plastic tubing and your dinghy if you want to see how it works.  Give it a try, it's fun. 

1200 rpm will get you nowhere.  You need to get to cruising rpm for at least 5 minutes.  My temp gets up to 180 (with a 180 thermostat) only after i've left the slip and am moving away.

HXs are considered consumable items that, with care, can last for a long time, but not forever.  There are good sources for replacement.  Often lack of zinc replacement is an issue.
Heat Exchangers 101:  Sources for replacement  Good Guys at Sendure
http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6920.0.html

Most likely cost would be considered in better materials.  Also, physical arrangement to fit in OEM replacement position without redoing the coolant and rw hoses might be considered.  Although if one is going to relocate the HX off the engine, that's not an issue.

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I thought the threads went dead after a few days, but I will just add on...would be much easier.

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They don't.  You can read ALL of them all the way back to when we started this forum in 2001.  That's why its search engine is so valuable.

It is also why we use LINKS so often and why the Critical Upgrades and 101 Topics and others are built around those links.

What is a Stay Cool repair kit?  Is there some reason you didn't just use Oberdorfer parts and gaskets. 

[As an aside: you keep opening new threads for your recurring rw coolant issues, might you consider keeping this all in one place?  Like your HX thread?]

Did you read reply #9?  Pumps don't "get weak."

Ron,

I replaced my control levers after the original plastic lever broke off with the Edson S/S levers. I've got a full range shifting through F-N-R and have the standard pedestal setup that came with the boat. It's been working fine for 30+ years so at least in my case Edson didn't screw up.

Me, too, since 1998.

Strainer - good idea.

Take off the hose from the thru hull/strainer to the rw pump at the pump, use a dinghy foot pump to BLOW BACK through the hose, will clear out the thru hull (usually); diver should, too.    Depending on your strainer arrangement you could also do this under the head sink.

After that, SUCK on the hose to get water through it, it's the best way to prove it, because yes even though the pump is below the waterline the tight fit of the pump faceplate does not allow water to flow, even "downhill"; it's a reality, and the HX is uphill, too.

Noah,

The mkII boats have some fixtures molded into the headliner with wires to the mounting locations overhead.  As you say, the mkI boats have all the wiring accessible.

Alex is right.  The C34 MkII brochure https://www.catalinayachts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Cat-34-MKII-Brochure-2004.pdf  shows two in the saloon (just where I put my two in 1998!!!) and two in the aft cabin. 

Still don't see anyway to add something, though, KG.

Yes, Jim, I cut mine in half, fore to aft.  I sometimes leave the starboard side part way out and still don't have any issues with the cushions.  I, too, sleep in the V berth but on our six week trip from SF to BC I slept aft while my son was up front.  Never an issue even when part way out.  What I suggest though is to add a fingerhole to the section you lift most, I didn't and keep reminding myself to do it someday!

I also cut my V berth boards and the section over the thru hulls and macerator pump.