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Wet elbow clogged

bluesbyrd

bluesbyrd

Chris Langton
The “wet elbow” on my Yanmar 3QM30 has corroded shut - as in: water is not passing through into the exhaust gases.

It’s the fresh-water engine, but this part of the cooling circuit involves salt water.

I discovered this because my raw water pump was spouting water ... *not* because it had degraded seals, but because there was too much resistance to pushing water through the system.

Working downstream of the pump, I found that the blockage is in the wet-elbow.

So ....

Question:

can this corrosion in the wet-elbow be cleaned out? If so, how?

Or will I have to replace the elbow?

Chris
 
You're in a complicated area here Chris. The elbow is one item but it is probably pluged because of corrosion inside your manifold. To answer your specific question yes the elbow can be cleaned. The last time I checked on the cost of the manifold it was 900+ dollars, and there were about a total of 12 in the world. A number of years ago when I changed out the elbow I also replaced the manIfold.
 
Chris

I think you are talking about the mixing elbow where the salt water enters the exhaust and goes to the muffler? If so, I replaced mine a year ago. The original one was rusted shut and could not be salvaged. I found a guy on line that makes the elbows in stainless steel. Gave him the Yanmar 3QM30 number and he had a replacement right off the shelf. His name is Ben. His web site is: exhaustelbow.com. Check it out.

Jim
 
Chris
I was at the boat today. Here is a photo of the stainless steel exhaust elbow from exhaust
 

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Jim,
You are such a wonderful resource for many of us. I have no need for an exhaust elbow but thought you deserved a kudos for your willingness to share your knowledge.
Thanks
 
Tommy
Thanks for the thought. When you find something that works well, it's a pleasure to spread the word about it. How is your new engine performing? Did that last hurricane come close to you? I recently read Nigel Calder's latest book, Shakedown Cruise. It's about him and his family taking their first cruise to the Caribbean from Lake Pontchartrain. Did you know they sailed out of Mandeville?

Jim
 
The new engine is great. I have hardly used my boat this year. I retired from my job of 38 years and started working for another company. The new job truly has me hooked up. These after retirement jobs are supposed to be a breeze but that’s not happening yet.

I knew that Nigel started out here but he was gone before I got my boat. His son brought his boat to our marina a couple of years ago for a hurricane that was headed our way. We are a bit safer than the marinas on the south shore of the lake
We’ve been lucky and haven’t had any bad storms in several years. Knocking on wood.
Take care and say hello to Bonnie.
 
Tommy
I thought retiring meant no more work! A shame you are back in the make money mode instead of sailing off with Mary to someplace warm and cozy.

Nigel's book was good. We had seen him at a Seven Seas Cruising Assn gam a few years ago. He was relating all the mistakes they made in their cruising career. He was very well spoken and funny. The best speaker I've ever heard.

When are you guys going to visit New York?

Jim
 
Dick and Jim

Thanks for the info ...

Here’s a pic of my wet elbow:

upload_2018-11-8_18-3-1.jpeg

I have not been able to remove it from the exhaust manifold - broke a bolt in the attempt - so I am removing the exhaust manifold itself, which turns out to be fairly easy.

There is little or no blockage of water passing through the manifold itself, but I will clean it out as well.

I’ll take the whole assembly to the local Yanmar folks to have it all put to rights.

C
 
Chris
Be very careful working with the exhaust manifold. There no longer is a replacement available ANYWHERE for the 3QM30. Be sure that who ever you take it to knows that. The pipe that is covered with asbestos wrapping is threaded into the manifold flange. If you remove the wapping, could you unthread the pipe and screw in a new exhaust elbow without touching the manifold?? If you look at the photo of the SS exhaust elbow, you'll see what I am speaking of.

Jim
 
Jim

Good advice ...

I have taken the whole assembly (wet-elbow and manifold) to List Marine, who have been the local Yanmar mechanics here in Sausalito for time out of mind ...

They did tell me that there were no more manifolds available for this engine.

But they also said that Yanmar could, in fact, fabricate a replacement manifold for something like $2K. So, if someone were *really* desperate, there is a solution.

But, at that price, you’d want to be pretty confident that the engine is otherwise in good shape.

C
 
Chris

It sounds like your mechanic knows what the deal is with the manifold. On Dana's 40+ year old engine, although she is running well, I don't think it would be worth investing $2K in replacing a part. Good luck with the project. Let us know the results.

Jim
 
The elbow that you have seems to be identical to my original elbow. The elbow I received when I replaced the manifold was much straighter in direction. It therefore should not have a problem of clogging up because of the right angle turn like the original elbow had. I had cleaned out my original elbow one or two times prior to replacing everything. As Jim said good luck and let us know what you find out.
 
Long ago I had a Sabre 28 with a VOLVO M d 7 A engine . The Elbow blow out ! Volvo wanted almost 500 dollars for a SS one. At the time i did not own the 500 !
So I went to Home depot . At the time they sold black iron pipe. I made a squared off version of the elbow out of pipe sections. ! I took the whole deal to a guy who ceramic coated all the insides . ! I bolted the make shift elbow in place and wrapped auto store muffler cloth around it . It held some 7 years when i sold the boat to buy the morgan . !
 
The 3QM30 Exhaust manifold if you need one were still available as of March of this year. Who knows now. Paid $1,800 for mine from local dealer who found one with a Yamar dealer in Atlanta. My old one was almost completely clogged with rust. How it push out any water was a miracle. It came packaged as if it was made of gold. Nice packaging by Yanmar I give them that but it had been quoted the prior year in 2017 for $800 so they had me bend over for them, pardon the phrase, to purchase the new one. But I think it is possible to clean an old exhaust manifold by boiling it out, power washing etc. The Elbow riser on my boat was good and not clogged.
 
Done!

Manifold/elbow assembly rebuilt:

upload_2018-11-14_17-17-28.jpeg

A new mixing elbow and a cleaned-out and repainted manifold ...

Broken-bolts extracted and threads in bolt-holes chased...

Mating surfaces between manifold and elbow mounting plate re-faced...

All ready to reinstall.

Cost: ~$800

Well worth it!

List Marine does good, quality work... a family outfit, now into the 2nd generation.

Hats off!

C
 
I am also going to replace the exhaust hose.

Any recommendations?

The current hose is wire-reinforced, and pretty munged at the ends..

C
 
Chris

Look in your area for a commercial hose supplier. You'll get the exact same hose at 1/2 the price that you would pay at the Marine stores. The hose I used for the 2" ID exhaust hose has the following numbers written on it: SAE J1527 USCG Type A-2 ).24 MPa W.P. SAE J2006R2. Haven't a clue as to what all that means but it is working fine.

Jim
 
Thanks Jim...

Noting your post about the muffler, I’ll check that out as well, while I’m back there...

C
 
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