Exhaust Temp High alarm

[quinsky]

Today while cruising down the ICW at low tide we were trying to assist another vessel that ran aground and ended up aground ourselves. Once we were floating again I immediately cleaned out the raw water strainer. We got running again and got an "Exhaust Temp High" alarm on our Volvo Penta D4260. Engine temp was normal at 185. We anchored and shut down the engine. As usual, in the the manual under Emergency Situations it said "Stop engine and contact a Volvo Penta technician". I put in a call to a local VP shop but the mechanic never returned my call. So I proceeded to drain the raw water system per the maintenance instructions in the manual. Stopcock #1 was easy enough to find and drain. I found stopcock #2 but could barely touch it with my fingers and it was too tight to open. I could not find stopcock #3. I also drained the muffler. The water that drained from both places was clear. We got underway again and no alarm. So my questions are; Did I do the right thing? How do you get to stopcock #2? Is there a stopcock #3?

 

[Andrew Custis]

Exhaust high temperature is usually caused by a restricted water flow through your seawater cooling side. My first thing I would have done is remove the strainer lid with the seacock closed, emptied the bowl and opened it up with the lid off to see how fast water was incoming. If it was slow, it would be time to figure out how to unclog the strainer from the bottom or by blowing air or forcing water back through the intake.

 

[TexasEye]

Exhaust high temperature is usually caused by a restricted water flow through your seawater cooling side. My first thing I would have done is remove the strainer lid with the seacock closed, emptied the bowl and opened it up with the lid off to see how fast water was incoming. If it was slow, it would be time to figure out how to unclog the strainer from the bottom or by blowing air or forcing water back through the intake.

With the seacock closed can you use the raw water hose in the cockpit to back flush the intake? Or maybe a plunger?

 

[crowleykirk]

Sounds like you got it but what you do is remove the engine RW sea trainer, open sea cock into bulge to make sure your restriction is not outside the hull. You may or may not be able to remove the blockage from inside the engine room. If not, it could be cold swim time🙂

Keeping some wood dowels handy is also a good idea. You may be able to force a clogged situation out with the dowel.
You'd need some good air or water pressure to be able to unclog from the inside.

Ypu situation arises from a grounding.... so pretty sure that just a clogged RW inlet. There is a small screen outside of the hull, or should be... they can become plugged.

Never fun. But that was might once of you to try and help.

 

[quinsky]

Andrew, I did open the seacock with the strainer cover off to flush out all shell debris in the bowl. I had great flow. In retrospect I'm wondering if I had an airlock in the system and some how vented it with the draining.
Thanks

 

[RowGirl]

Hi Everyone -
I had this issue happen this past week. Someone DID end up jumping in the water, but I did find a way to blow the obstruction out from the inside. With some good ideas and help, I used a gadget called a "Drain King" It essentially slips into the input water side of the sea strainer and creates a pressure seal. It was enough to dislodge a rather lodged obstruction (believe it was a plastic bag.). For a ~ $12 gadget, that will find a place on my boat....

~ Jennifer

 

[knotflying]

Hi Everyone -
I had this issue happen this past week. Someone DID end up jumping in the water, but I did find a way to blow the obstruction out from the inside. With some good ideas and help, I used a gadget called a "Drain King" It essentially slips into the input water side of the sea strainer and creates a pressure seal. It was enough to dislodge a rather lodged obstruction (believe it was a plastic bag.). For a ~ $12 gadget, that will find a place on my boat....

~ Jennifer

You need a water supply source for the drain king, where did you get your water supply from. On most of our boats the raw water wash gets the water from the same spot. So if your intake is plugged the raw water wash won't work either.

 

[BB marine]

You need a water supply source for the drain king, where did you get your water supply from. On most of our boats the raw water wash gets the water from the same spot. So if your intake is plugged the raw water wash won't work either.

The Tugs and Cuts with D4 and D6 have the proper sized engine strainer and intake. It is has higher flow strainer 1 1/2 intake. The strainer installed for D3 Volvo or 150hp and 180 hp Yanmar( 1") is only used for the head and wash down on the D4 ,D6 models. Raw water would still be available.

 

[RowGirl]

I was lucky enough to be able to get back to a dock and had a water hose available. Good to know though for the future had I anchored instead.