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Hi again! Sorry to bombard with questions but I'm doing a major supply shop in Fort Lauderdale and need help...getting conflicting advice!

On our fuel system, we currently have a 10 micron primary filter on our Racor. And we have a 2 micron filter on our actual engine (secondary).

Someone recommended we use a 30 micron primary and 10 micron secondary because of frequent clogging...

Can anyone comment on that or offer a recommendation?

Thanks,

Tasha
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Hello helpful Catalina owners!

We have a Universal M-25 and I've just discovered the existence of the transmission dipstick and have managed to extract it. But I can't find any instructions on the fluid in our manual. If you don't mind, I have a few questions:

1) There is a line at the bottom of the dipstick and the fluid level is current halfway between the bottom of the stick and the line. Where should the fluid level be? (Someone warned me not to put too much transmission fluid in).

2) I've read on the pages here on C34 that some people prefer to change their transmission fluid by sucking it out of the dipstick area. Others use the drain on the bottom. Is there a reason why I wouldn't use the drain on the bottom?

3) What is the amount of fluid I should put back in after draining?

4) How often should I be changing the transmission fluid?

5) What transmission fluid is recommended?

Thanks so much for your help!

As always, I really appreciate all your expertise!

Sincerely,

Tasha (Turf to Surf)
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Aha. I thought the Napa was the replacement for Facet...if the Facet pumps still exist, does anyone know which model is the best replacement?

Hi Catalina Owners,

We're currently in George Town, Bahamas and have decided not to take our boat back to Fort Lauderdale for the hurricane as originally planned and are, instead, carrying on towards Grenada.

But that decision has meant we are tracking down a number of spares to make sure we get there in maximum comfort and safety.

And recently we've been noticing our fuel lift pump has been making an odd sound. So we wanted to have a spare on hand in case it ever goes, or if we want to replace it before it goes.

We have a Universal M-25 diesel engine, and the current lift pump we have is a Facet. As far as I can tell, these have been replaced in later years by Napa fuel pumps.

I've tracked down a Napa dealer in Fort Lauderdale who can give me either a Napa 6101-1076 lift pump or a Napa -6101-1074. The only difference is the 1076 is 6-8 psi and the 1074 is 4.5-5 psi. And they both do 30 gallons an hour (I think that's what the dealer said).

Does anyone know which one would be the preferred pump, or do you have any other tidbits of info or recommendations about replacing our fuel lift pump?

Thanks for your help,

Tasha (Turf to Surf)
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Tasha : Go on our web site to the Seaward check list I posted on checking the fuel guage system.

There is a 99% probability it is the fuel float in the fuel tank.  There have been many posts and articles (Projects/WiKi) on how to change out the float sending unit.  

Your problem is being in the Bahamas and getting a replacement.  In the mean time use a fuel consumption of .5 gal/hour and you can't go wrong - until you get back to the States and get the part.  

A few thoughts

Hi Ron,

Thanks for your help. If we know the part, we can probably have it FedExed to Nassau since we'll be there in a week.

With regard to the Seaward Checklist, can you give a link to it?

Thanks again!

Tasha

Hi all,

My fuel gauge is not working and I can't work out whether it's the gauge itself or the mechanism in the fuel tank that's not working. Before I go tearing both apart, does anyone know of a way to work out which one it is that's broken?

Thanks for your help, as always!

Tasha (Turf to Surf)

Hey Everyone! The job is DONE! New heat exchanger installed... system "burped" - thanks very much for that link. It looks like we're all good! Thanks so much for your help... now we can head on out for the Exumas!

Sincerely,

Tasha (Turf to Surf)

1.  Heat exchanger source:

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6920.0.html

It includes the selection of the 3 inch HX.

2.  Salt water in coolant:  drain the coolant, run fresh water through it, drain again, fresh water again, drain, new coolant.  Use distilled water with the coolant, your choice of using distilled for the second flush.  Don't use the engine petcocks to drain; you'll have to have disconnected the coolant hoses to remove the old HX anyway, right?   Just do it again. Check out the "Burping" link, like this:

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,4518.msg26462.html#msg26462

This is also in the "101 Topics" sticky.

The flushes should get rid of the coolant in the run of hose to the hot water heater.

Good luck, keep us posted.

Hi there Stu,

This may be a dumb question, but how do you run fresh water through the engine without turning the engine on? Do I just bring a water hose into the engine compartment and attach it to a hose?

Thanks again,

Tasha

Hey Everyone,

Thanks again for all the help! In the end we were able to track down a 2" heat exchanger from Jerry's Marine in Fort Lauderdale and he was able to get it to us same day using a little known Bahamian airline for cargo - it only cost us $25 for shipping and we had the heat exchanger in our hands same day! Crazy!

Anyway, so I'm on to the process of installing the new heat exchanger. Thanks for the advice to upgrade to a 3" but as the 2" was readily available, we went with that. We've never had overheating problems with our engine, even in 80-degree waters, so this should be fine as a replacement.

I'm not on to the flushing part. I was the post about burping and will work through the steps. Should I be overly worried about the fresh water flushing of the salt water out of the cooling system? If I simply drain the system, then install the new heat exchanger, then put in coolant mixed with distilled water, "burp" it, then run the engine, should that be sufficient to wash the salt water out (since it never mixed with our oil)?

Any other tidbits of advice here?

Thanks again!

Tasha

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for this help... I've called the company in Fort Lauderdale and they're looking into making the part anew for us - it turns out these don't exist on shelves anymore?

In reading your replies regarding distilled water mixed with coolant, we've always just used tap water - is this bad?  What is the theory that goes with using distilled water?

Also, we have a concern about upgrading to a 3-inch and finding that the pipes don't fit the heat exchanger and then we find we'll need to replace the hoses. Our 2-inch has never had any problems and our engine has always run cool. So we were thinking the easiest thing would be to do a like-for-like replacement for ease and to know it will be just "plug and play."

Any thoughts on this? For those of you who upgraded to the 3-inch, did you find that you could use your old clamps and hoses or did you need to replace other parts to upgrade?

And if we've never had a problem cooling with the 2-inch, would it not be okay to replace it with another 2-inch?

Thanks again for your help. My prior mechanical experience involves only growing up working on my '73 Triumph Spitfire engine, so working with diesel engines is a learning experience.

I'm grateful for the resources and advice here :-)

Tasha

Howdy fellow Catalina owners!

I need some help with an engine problem. My husband and I have discovered, just as we've reached Bimini, Bahamas, that our engine's heat exchanger is bad. We've not replaced this before and we're wondering if you might be able to help us with some resources to track down a new heat exchanger for a Universal M-25 diesel engine? I have no idea where to begin searching for one and we won't be able to move on from Bimini until we can get someone to FedEx us this part.

And another, related question: As our heat exchanger is now mixing salt water with the coolant and the salt water has made its way through the engine, do you know the best way to flush out the salt water properly once we install a new heat exchanger?

Your help is very much appreciated. Standing by for any and all suggestions...

Tasha (Turf to Surf)
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