I had just finished dinner and was taking up the engine covers when my good friend Dave (another sailing buddy) paid me a visit. Dave and I have sailed many miles together in his GP14 and we are known as the heavy weather guys as the stronger the wind the better we like it.
We discussed several possible scenarios where the leak may be coming from and prepared to start removing the bulkhead frame surrounding the engine when a chance movement enabled Dave to spot the most likely cause. The hose by the end of the cylinder head casing ( see red arrow in photo) is connected to the block by a 90 degree elbow connector. I believe it goes to the calorifier.
As Dave was feeling around the area the hose moved as the elbow connector swivelled when his hand brushed past it. We discovered that the joint nuts were slightly loose on the connector and where the hose connects to it the hose was wet underneath. Running the engine revealed water weeping out very slowly that stopped when the engine was turned off. The escaping coolant dropped down a small gap between the engine block and the fuel filter into the engine bed and that was why we could not trace the leak originally.
We are planning a 4 day cruise over the weekend so now everything has been tightened up we'll see if we have finally cured the coolant loss.
1 comment:
Let's hope that's fixed it. It's a good feeling when you can find a fault and sort it out.
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