Cold Engine and Dried Caulk

[Rob Richardson]

I am in the final stages of a two year project on Whale. Soon I hope to be posting my before and after photos for everyone to critique but for now I need help. I have been rebeding using 3M's 4200. What a mess! There are areas on my nice new painted deck (Brightside with nonskid particles) and all over my hands. I'm a dentist and my hands look like I have a horrible skin disorder. I used mineral sprits but it looks as if the mess will just have to wear off my hands but what about my beautiful deck. Any suggestions. My other concern is my SB12. After a long period of being laid up she is now running and sounds great pushing my boat around 6kts. My concern is that she runs so cold around 100f. As part of my restoration project I replaced the heat exchanger, the thermostat, and and all hoses. Does the SB12 just run cold? I have never worked with such a small diesel at what temp should she run. I have learned so much from this group thanks for all the great information.
Rob Richardson "Whale" Bristol 29.9

[Tim]

One thing most everyone learns the hard way is that attempts to clean uncured bedding compound makes a mess on any relatively porous surface, such as skin, wood, and nonskid decks. The solvent tends to thin the sealant into a film that coats everything in sight, and which doesn't come off easily--if at all. Sealant spread around like this will permanently stain untreated wood, if you're unlucky enough to attempt this..

For your skin, it seems that only time will take the sealant away. It gets right into your fingerprints and stays there tenaciously, and the thinner only spreads it around and seems to force it in further. You might try a pumice-type hand cleaner like Go-Jo or Lava soap or some such, but don't expect miracles. It will come off, though. Eventually. You could try wearing latex or nitrile gloves, but often they are more of a pain than they're worth.

In the future, the best way to avoid caulking mess on your deck or whatever the adjacent surface may be is to mask off the areas before sealing. Then, let the squeeze out cure before you try to remove it. Once it cures, it peels off very easily without a trace, and the tape protects the surface in any event.

I'm often too impatient to wait several days or a week for the sealant to cure, so I mask off a wide area and, after caulking, use a plastic squeegee to remove the bulk of the squeezeout, and then clean up with thinner. The tape still protects the deck. After removing the tape, I use a clean cotton rag (usually a T-shirt in my shop) with clean thinner to do a final cleanup.

I'd advise leaving the mess on your deck alone for the moment and let the sealant cure. When it becomes rubbery, you may be able to get it off your nonskid with some rubbing with a dry rag, or possibly solvent. The thin film ought to cure fairly quickly, but beware of getting into the edges of your hardware seal, as you may easily pull the still-uncured sealant out of the joint and begin spreading it around again.

100? is far too cold for your engine, especially when under load. Raw water-cooled diesels should be in the 160? range, and fresh water-cooled diesels should be about 180?. Are you sure you have the correct thermostat installed, and/or that it is working properly? Most other cooling system problems would tend to lead to a temperature that is too warm rather than too cool.

[Duncan]

After a long period of being laid up she is now running and sounds great pushing my boat around 6kts. My concern is that she runs so cold around 100f. As part of my restoration project I replaced the heat exchanger, the thermostat, and and all hoses

If the engine appears to be running properly, I'd be inclined to distrust the readout. I have to say this, just in case - could the readout be in Celsius?

[bcooke]

Even with the thermostat completely removed I would expect the temps to be higher than 100f so I agree that the indication system might be suspect. The only other issue I can think of is if there is a total blockage or an empty system and no water is flowing through the system. In that case the temperature sending unit is in stagnant fluid or air and is not sampling what is going through the system.

Just my penny's worth...

-Britton

[Rob Richardson]

Thanks for the advice. I ran my engine for about an hour under load and checked by physically touching the head of the engine. Certainly hotter than the gauge reads. I could touch but for no more than a second. I could however touch the sending unit on the port side of the engine and it felt only warm. I agree that I suspect the sending unit is not working properly. History on the sending unit is that the engine only had idiot lights so using a bronze tee bought from an auto supply I came off the port where the idiot light sending unit was and now have both the idiot light sending unit and gauge sending unit working from the same port. I used teflon tape on the tee and the sending units, my initial thought is that maybe the tape is covering the opening into the tee. I will check this first. If the port is clear then can I slowly unscrew the gauges sending unit while the engine is running to see if coolent comes out? I am wondering also if I have an air lock in the bronze tee. Agin thanks for everyones help- Rob Richardson "Whale" Bristol 29.9

[Steve Laume]

Haven't any of you guys heard of glove coat? It is a creamy liquid you pour on your hands and then rub it in all the little nooks and cranies around your finger nails and cuticals. You then let it dry for a bit and go to work. when you are all done and you find your hands covered with all sorts of nasty stuff you just was it off with soap and water. You can find it at varrious locations. It works good for grease, paint, caulk and even epoxy. It is what I would want my dentist to use,

[bcooke]

Haven't any of you guys heard of glove coat?

Yes, Glove Coat and a few others. They work pretty good. Not as good as latex or rubber gloves for keeping the bad stuff off but much better than nada.

An air lock could certainly be the problem. I would think a temp probe would work better if it was in the flow stream rather than off a dead end but I really don't know. On the dead end there isn't any flow so I imagine even if the port was taped off the heat would get passed to the probe eventually. Typically, the probe is on the inlet side of the engine coolant system so that you know how well the cooling system is working (bringing the variable -usually high- temps down to the specified operating temps)

-Britton