Len is happy, but I've got questions. My
engine is the only one I know intimately and it doesn't have any zincs, so I know close to less than nothing.
Seems anodic protection would only be needed in the raw (salt) water side of the system - do any engines have anodes in the fresh water (coolant) part of the system?
If an engine has zincs and it is used in fresh water (lakes and rivers) are zincs still necessary? (Would you use
aluminum or magnesium anodes instead?)
For my engine the heat exchanger is the last part of the system before the mixing
elbow; the anode and its subsequent bits would reduce water flow in the tubestack until they dissolved, but, 1) being a sailboat we only use our engine for going in and out of the slip so no big, and 2) we know the zinc is in there reducing
cooling water flow so we keep our engine use to a min. Right?
Are there engines where the heat exchanger and its anode are before things like the
oil and
transmission coolers?
Correct, the zinc will not affect the copper tube stack, but if the heat exchanger has an
aluminum housing, as mine does, zinc contact with the aluminum housing would *not* be good, as the aluminum will protect the zinc, which may be why my heat exchanger does not have an anode.
Also, I assume a pencil zinc has some sort of SS or Chinese Mystery Metal on it to attach it to the heat exchanger, probably not a good idea to leave this in contact with ANY part of the heat exchanger.
DeepFrz - thank you for MaineCruising's link to the
Westerbeke heat exchanger - I hadn't looked at that before and ... yeah - remove the lost pencil zinc!