Testing Engine on the hard

[Mike McDonald]

Hi everyone,
I would like to test my engine prior to launch, and am looking for suggestions on supplying water to the engine from the hose on the dock.  Is it better to run water into a bucket and let the engine draw from the bucket or is it ok to connect the water supply hose directly to the engine supply hose?  Any thoughts? Thanks.
Mike....

[Ted Pounds]

I think it's better to let it draw from a bucket.  Connecting directly to the hose may cause too much water to flow and back up into the engine.  It's a little more work to keep water in the bucket without it overflowing, but probably much safer.  Just my $.02...

Ted

[Kevin Henderson]

I would back up what Ted is saying.  If you can have someone throtteling the water valve to either increase or decrease the flow into the bucket, that would help. 
From what I understand, hooking up a hose directly to feed water to the engine is an absolute NO NO.
I'm certain someone with even more experience and who has done this before will chime in.   

[Jim Hardesty]

Mike,
I use a bucket.  I made a "plumbing special" for winterizing.  It's a bucket, pipe flange, plastic ball valve, and other plumbing stuff that screw to a "T" that I added to the output side of the engine strainer (normaly a brass pipe plug is in the "T").  Winterizing is clean, quick and easy.  For me it was worth the few $ and the little time.
Jim

[Footloose]

I winterize my engine by removing the hose from the through hull fitting and placing the end in a bucket.  I then fill the bucket with antifreeze.  At idle it will run for about a minute before emptying a two gallon bucket.  If you are looking to see if it starts, that should be long enough.  If you need longer, fill with a hose.

[Mike McDonald]

Hi all,
Thanks for the quick responses everyone.  That makes sense.  I'll go with the bucket approach and will add the "T" to the water intake line to make things easier in the future.  I appreciate the suggestions.
Mike......

[Stu Jackson]

Here's a video

http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=136339&highlight=bucket

[Ron Hill]

Mike : All are in agreement - use a bucket.
 
Don't know why you want to start the engine, but usually an old dry wall bucket has enough water to do the job if you just want to make sure the engine will run.

Remember if the engine has just been sitting for a number of months to get oil up into the upper unit before you have "ignition".  There are a couple of ways to do that:
1. With your M25XP, open the decompression lever, hit the starter for 10-15 seconds so the engine spins without compression and the oil pump pumps.   
2. You can also turn over the engine with the starter and the fuel cut off pulled. 
3. Or you can turn over the engine by a socket on the drive pulley nut quite a number of times. 

Personally I'd use the decompression lever. That way you know everything is oiled before you kick it in the A__ for real!!

A few thoughts

[Indian Falls]

Since this is the place for us to put in "our 2 cents"...

I'll assume a few things: 
1.) you have water pressure available by garden hose when on the hard.
2.) you want to do this repeatedly, as in each year. 
3.) you want this to be a clean, no spill event that is easy to commence with and helps in winterizing.

I would add a tee in the line right after the seacock for the engine raw water.  In that tee put a ball valve, in the end of the ball valve would be a female hose adapter.  you can find all of this at any hardware store.

To employ:  open seacock, make connection with garden hose.  Turn the water on.  Because this line is suction, I would not pressurize with municipal water pressure, however you can close the seacock some if you need more water going to your impeller.  Run your engine all day if you want to, there's more than enough cooling for the HX with even a few gpm out of the hose... because you won't and shouldn't be running more than idle speed or a few brief rev's. 

After all this you can make a nice short hose that goes from the tee to a bucket for winterizing.

This idea has been on my to do list for a while, there have just been higher priorities, I'm sure the pro's and con's will follow immediately...

Best of luck.

[cmainprize]

I take the cover off my raw water strainer and put the hose into the strainer.  Works slick and if any spills it gets me a reason to clean the bilge.

[Bobg]

I just stick the end of the hose (after the strainer) all the way to the bottom of the gallon jug the pink antifreeze comes in and start the engine, before the gallon is empty I usually see the pink stuff come out the exhaust, then I do it again with the 100 below stuff so I can sleep all winter without wondering??  I do like Ron's plan to get the oil to the upper part of the engine, I never thought of that.  Thanks again Ron

[Mike McDonald]

Thanks everyone for the great idea's.  I really appreciate the input.
Mike....

[Roc]

Whatever you do, don't put the transmission in gear.  Make sure it stays in neutral. When the boat is on jackstands, the hull puts stresses on the shaft, which is why you don't want it spinning. Actually, your coupling should be disconnected from the shaft to alleviate the bending stress put on the shaft.

[Ron Hill]

Guys : I'm not too sure of the stress on the shaft if it remains connected on the hard??  My connected  shaft easily turns by hand.

I wouldn't run the engine in gear on land, because the water cools and lubricates the cutless bearing when the boat is in the water!!
Also the shaft (on land) may not be aligned into the cutless bearing (as it is in the water) from the slight hull warp cause by the jack stands.  

A few thoughts.

[Mike McDonald]

Thanks for all of the idea's. I changed my Oberdorfer Impeller and ran the engine on the hard today.  I disconnected the hose above the sea water strainer, put an extension tube on it and put it in a 5 gallon bucket filled with water.  I also put a fresh water supply hose in the bucket to add water once the engine was running.  It worked quite well and was very easy to do by myself.  I had plenty of time to turn the water valve on in the bucket, after starting the engine.  Water flowed out of the stern exhaust as it should. Since I am launching the boat on Saturday, it was a relief to know the engine started easily after a long winter on the hard.  Thanks again for the great support.  I love this forum!
Mike.....