Forum:
Hi all. I have a fishing boat with two fourtrak engines (2.8tdx) marinised in the vessel. It's a question or advice about cooling. We have a heat exchange tank full of coolant for the engine which in turn is cooled by sea water being pumped round it. We currently have no thermostats in the engines and when they are under load they only reach around 40-50 degrees due to the amount of cold sea water cooling the coolant. Would running at such a low temperature cause poor fuel economy. We had a thermostat in one engine but it over heated and could hear the engine tightening. Could of been a faulty stat I presume. Is there a stat available that opens at a lower temperature? Any advice would be greatful as this is a first for a fourtrak to be powering commercial fishing boats. Thanks in advance.
Mark
Heat Exchanger
Hi,
are you using a proprietary heat exchanger or one made up specially for the job? Given a decent raw water circulation I wouldn't have thought that anything other than a faulty thermostat was the problem with the overheating. The nearer you can have the engine to the designed operating temperature the more efficient it would be so I'd stick with the standard stat. I'd be interested to know what size and type of hull you are driving and in learning a bit more about the marinisation.