Supplementary air cooling

[Northstar]

Has anyone considered or had experience of installing a fan assisted radiator to supplement engine cooling where the skin tank is undersized.

I've taken several steps to try and get my boat to run cooler but to little avail.

[bizzard]

[bizzard]

Years ago when money was short and folk were more practical than they are today and had to make do and mend to get afloat and went in for  say, an old ex ships lifeboat, many folk used and converted vehicle engines from breakers yards, they often converted and used vehicle gearbox too, including the radiator, in fact most of the stuff from a car. Yes, to use a car radiator to back up a skin cooling tank is quite feasable, with a good supply of ducted cooling air and an 12v electric cooling fan, Kenlow or one from a car. Hot water from the top of the engine into the top port of the rad, outlet at its bottom port. Most modern radiators have a thermostatic switch at the bottom tank of the rad to control the fan.

Edited August 14, 2017 by bizzard

[Robbo]

3 hours ago, Northstar said:

Has anyone considered or had experience of installing a fan assisted radiator to supplement engine cooling where the skin tank is undersized.

I've taken several steps to try and get my boat to run cooler but to little avail.

As well as the car radiator method, if you have radiators on a central heating system you could use a heat exchanger to heat up your boat.  Not much good in summer as you wouldn’t want to turn it on.   IMHO if you have room for another skin tank I would go down that route.   Another method would be to use raw water and heat exchanger expelling the heated water overboard.

[Neil2]

The problem with fitting an extra skin tank on a lot of boats these days is lack of space in the engine bay.  It just might not be practical but even if it is, removing the engine and ancillaries might be enough to put someone off.  I like the system that Streethay use which is fitting and external cooling pipe around the swim but again there's a bit more work involved than adding a radiator.

I've heard of radiators being employed in fact I'm sure there was a feature in PBO some time ago on how to go about it though this was really intended as a way of getting warm air into the cabin as much as cooling the engine.  But if you were going down this route it seems a shame to waste the heat, why not have an arrangement where you could switch the blown air into the cabin or outside depending on the time of year.

[WotEver]

2 minutes ago, Neil2 said:

why not have an arrangement where you could switch the blown air into the cabin or outside depending on the time of year.

WotEver likes this

[Robbo]

1 minute ago, WotEver said:

WotEver likes this

I do as well, a water heater air matrix like the one below would be an easy fit and you can duct the heat overboard or internally.

https://www.butlertechnik.com/installation-accessories-c63/water-heater-matrices-c116/webasto-isotherm-10kw-air-heater-matrix-12-volt-6d01a1dh00000-p2005

[Northstar]

On 8/14/2017 at 18:13, Robbo said:

I do as well, a water heater air matrix like the one below would be an easy fit and you can duct the heat overboard or internally.

https://www.butlertechnik.com/installation-accessories-c63/water-heater-matrices-c116/webasto-isotherm-10kw-air-heater-matrix-12-volt-6d01a1dh00000-p2005

Yeah not sure if it would be more than i need at 10kw, I've been looking at a Webasto matrix that shifts 4.3kw of heat (£103 inc VAT) either of which i would be easily able to make it direct heat across my semi trad back deck in the cooler months and outboard in the summer.

That might be enough, i'm not sure, but given that I've already rearranged my CH flow and return to run direct to the calorifier to pick up the excess engine heated water before flowing to the upgraded CH rads gone from 7.6kw to 15.5kw now, before running back to the pump and boiler which i operate on "Pump Only" when running the boat.

My next option may be a second skin tank formed on the external face of the swim on the opposite side from the existing one, but I wonder how much that would affect steering (and wallet)?

 

[WotEver]

1 hour ago, Northstar said:

My next option may be a second skin tank formed on the external face of the swim on the opposite side from the existing one, but I wonder how much that would affect steering (and wallet)?

It's been posted here more than once by folk who've done this that it made no noticeable difference to the boat's handling, although I'd suspect that some boats might be more affected than others.