Vetus M4.14 has no anode...

[Ryban]

While familiarizing myself with the Vetus M4.14 on my new-to-me Westsail 32, I was dumbfounded that I could not find any anode, or mention of any anode in the manual. It appears that in fact, there is no anode, which blows my mind for a marine conversion.

Notably, the engine was installed in 1987, and seems in pretty good shape for its age, and considering the journeys it has made (probably ~3000 hours), so it's not exactly clear to me how the engine has been spared severe corrosion after all this time.

Should I make an attempt to add an anode to the raw water loop somewhere?

[Sailmonkey]

If it ain’t broke…….

Our engine has an anode fitted and it’s been the sole source of heat exchanger clogging for the last 2k hours. Once I run out of anodes I’m done changing them.

[Lepke]

The salt water system has several different metals in contact with the water. When I run into an engine w/o a zinc, I add a tee so I can add a zinc. Or I drill and tap some part of the salt water system. Sometimes having a white powder or crystals at a connections means no zinc or sections of the salt water path are not bonded. All metals in a salt water cooling system need a metal to metal contact or a bonding wire. The white can show up anywhere, not just a connection of 2 dissimilar metals.

[Compass790]

Originally Posted by Lepke

The salt water system has several different metals in contact with the water. When I run into an engine w/o a zinc, I add a tee so I can add a zinc. Or I drill and tap some part of the salt water system. Sometimes having a white powder or crystals at a connections means no zinc or sections of the salt water path are not bonded. All metals in a salt water cooling system need a metal to metal contact or a bonding wire. The white can show up anywhere, not just a connection of 2 dissimilar metals.

Whilst I'm no corrosion engineer what Lepke said sounds logical to me.
I'd follow his advice.