Beta fresh water flush re-visited - working! - 2014

The first way I installed it 😕
End of October 2014 -Currently in Paradise Village Marina in Banderas Bay Mexico

Using our Groco sea strainer. Screen part number is BS-2 3\4 inch.

The valve we installed on the sea strainer looked good and the handle worked good. The only problem was I installed the value the way I wanted it to sit not the way it is meant to work. So of course it did not work correctly. The salt water cooling water worked fine but not the fresh water. The valve takes it's source water from the inlet directly across from the handle. So we removed the valve and I chased down a vice to bend the handle only the dock workers moved it some place so I got Jorge at SYS chandlery to bend it for me. Then we re-installed the fittings differently and put it back on the sea strainer. Took a little hose cutting and then wala it worked! Next we tested the fresh water flush out by starting the Beta 38 hp diesel engine with the valve on salt water. We let it run for about 5 min and the changed the valve to fresh water. Our water tanks were full (55 gals in two tanks). After about ten minutes of run time you can see by the sight gauge how much fresh water it used. We do not have a gallon measurement but it is a manageable amount even when cruising and using the water maker. The goal here was to make the heat riser, impeller, heat ex-changer stack tube and other engine parts last longer. We like to run our engine once a week when tied up for hurricane season.

To make it work we had to re-plumb it and bend the handle.

We used the liquid instead of the tape for the joints this time.

We cleaned up the valve after the mess I made with the liquid joint sealer, not shown the cleaned up look :)

Now there are reasons why this system might not have worked.

None of the hoses and fittings to the fresh water tank are the 3\4 size as is the sea water side is. On the sea water side all fittings and hoses from the engine to he sea strainer are 3\4. The through hull valve is 1 1\4 inch reduced to 3\4 to the strainer. On the fresh water side the first elbow off the valve is 1\2" (so the valve would clear the floor board ) then to a 5\8" hose then to all 1\2" fittings and pipe. So w were worried that there would be too much constriction and the engine would over heat on fresh water. That was not the case and the engine ran fine.

 We were also worried the engine would use way too much fresh water. Not the case!

The red bob shows how much water went down from running the engine foe ten minuets. We run the engine at the dock at idle for ten minuets then in gear for 20 min upping the rpm. We will have plenty of water for that. Here at Paradise Village Marina the water is drinkable so no problem adding some as the engine is running if need be.