puffcard wrote:
I took my Beta 35 vented loop to the bottom of the cockpit floor, with drain hose to bilge. Been in some salty following seas, like +10ft, blowing 30 across the deck for two days. No problems so far. I also have high rise manifold and Vernalift muffler. The new exhaust hose, I ran it as high as I could get in the port side cockpit coming, mounting to the bulkhead. I had heard of one Beta back flooded.
FWIW: the vented loop is not to protect your engine from following seas. Installation of the exhaust line high into the coaming on the way to the stern fitting is supposed to take care of following seas. If you are doing the installation yourself (or under the “professionals” I see at some of the boat yards) you need to ensure that you get that exhaust hose high in the coaming—very high— as Tartan did with with the Westerbeast—that is the only thing protecting you from following seas filling your exhaust system if the engine is not running. The vent discussed here is to break a potential siphon because the raw water engine intake and output could be under water at that same time and a siphon could be created that would fill the engine from the exhaust loop backward into the cylinders. The actual engine location in these boats is mostly below the waterline outside. Seems like the Beta location is a bit of overkill—but I have a Yanmar installation and it is possible that the Beta “high rise” exhaust actually raises the water level high enough to threaten your engine. I do not like salt water that close to the innards of my engine if that is the case. Yikes. If someone has the diagram of the recommended Beta installation, that would be interesting to see their design and rationale. As I have said before, the biggest problems I have seen with small marine diesel engines is the design and maintenance of the raw water systems and coolant process—the engine blocks and running gear are more or less common among all of the small diesels. But this is not a small matter when it comes to longevity in a salt water environment IMHO. I always thought the W50 was a fine old diesel, it was just the Westerbeke cobbled a poorly designed, maintenance-intense raw water and cooling system on a decent block and made a maintenance and reliability nightmare out of it. I fear this could be happening again with Beta. I realize there are a lot of Beta supporters out there. And I agree that Yanmar support for DIY folks from Mack Boring sucks which is costing Yanmar the small end of their business with a superiorly engineered product. Your turn.
Ray