Gozzard 44 Question

[svprovidence]

Would love to get in touch with other Gozzard 44 owners. I have been working on mine now for 4 years and sure could use some advice. Right now I am trying to break the airlock in the cooling system and nothings seems to work. Seems the airlock occurs in the hot water heater look coming off and returning to the heat exchanger. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by svprovidence

Would love to get in touch with other Gozzard 44 owners. I have been working on mine now for 4 years and sure could use some advice. Right now I am trying to break the airlock in the cooling system and nothings seems to work. Seems the airlock occurs in the hot water heater look coming off and returning to the heat exchanger. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Wouldn't think that's a Gozzard specific problem...is the water heater higher than the engine?

[svprovidence]

Thank you for your reply. Yes the water heater is higher than the engine. Here is how it is set up and what I have tried . . . 1" hose comes off heat exchanger acting as the feeder line up to an expansion tank located in the cockpit. From there another hose comes off the expansion tank which is the return hose going to the hot water heater and then back down to the return side of the heat exchanger. It took me 5 times to flush the engine before I could get out all of the old coolant. I have no idea why the system would not drain all the way particularly since I had the radiator cap off the expansion tank and the manifold and removed the return side of the heater hose from the exchanger. When the filled the system with new coolant, I was only able to get it to take 3 of the 5 gallons. The procedure I used to fill the coolant was as follows: I used the expansion tank as the fill point since it was the highest point. I removed the hose from the heat exchanger on the return side and plugged it. I then began filling the coolant from the expansion tank until it came out the barbed side of the heat exchanger where I had removed the hose. I then plugged that side and unplugged the return hose until coolant ran freely from that point. Once I knew the coolant was running freely on both sides, I re-installed the hose. I then opened the petcock on the heat exchanger to purge it of air. Then I opened the pet cock on the thermostat housing to bleed it from that point. The lever in the reservoir still does not go down. I tried using a Stant coolant pressure tester to pressurize the system from the radiator cap on the manifold but all that did was backglow. I then tried to pressurize the system from the reservoir using the same procedure and that did not work. Then I went out and bought a fluid transfer hand pump and placed a hose on the return side of the expansion tank and put the other end of the hose in the coolant container and began pumping. I was able to get a little more coolant in the system but I am still 2 gallons away from filling it. I am stumped. I have been at this for 4 days now and nothing seems to work. Please help.

[Kevin84]

Very silly question, but are you sure your system holds 5 gallons?

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[ronbo1]

Have you contacted Westerbeke? Their website reveals the coolant capacity is 13 quarts. It also gives troubleshooting help.
How many hours on the engine? It might be a good time to clean the heat exchanger.

Ronbo

[svprovidence]

Thank you Kevin84 and Ronbo1. Kevin84: Yes I am sure. The engine capacity is 3.89 gallons and then I have approx. 50 ft. of 1 inch heater hose going to and from the heat exchanger and then I have a 2 qt. reservoir. Ronbo1: Yes I have contacted Westerbeke. I actually know the person who outfits the Gozzard with the Westerbeke engine. Engine hours are 2000. And I agree, the heat exchanger should be cleaned but I have no access unless I remove the entire housing which I think may be out of my league. Any suggestions?

[svprovidence]

Update: Got some wonderful advice from Gozzard. Apparently, the hose routed to and from the heat exchanger gets airlocked and the only way to break the lock is to use a pump in the expansion tank. Still working on it though . . . Thanks so much to everyone for their advice. Really appreciate it. If you have any other thoughts, I would love to hear from you.

[ronbo1]

Yes, Mike Gozzard is very responsive to owners.
I've changed my antifreeze and haven't had any real problem with an air lock but maybe I'm lucky. Have you tried to run the engine with the coolant in it now. I've found its difficult to completely drain the engine.

Ronbo

[svprovidence]

Yes. Tried running the engine. And, yes, it is very difficult to purge the coolant system. It took me 5 tries before I got all of the old antifreeze out. Also, I have learned that you should only use a low silicate antifreeze in a diesel engine. Now I have pretty purple antifreeze instead of ugly yellow lol!

[svprovidence]

Next, I am going to try disconnecting the hose going from and to the heat exchanger. If that doesn't work, then I am going to remove the thermostat so everything free flows. We'll see . . . I have been at this for 4 days now . . . who would guess. You must be lucky!