• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Oil consumption and running a diesel hard enough

Kenneth K

1985 32-3, Puget Sound
Blogs Author
.. is the little wingnut on top of the cylinder in the center of the pic just to bleed the cooling system?

In theory yes. It would work on a Kubota tractor. But most of these boats have a water heater which requires lines that run higher than this bleed valve and, thus, need a higher point in the system to bleed the lines.
 

Kevin A Wright

Member III
Thanks for the pic. That is how I thought it was constructed so went ahead with the drill out plan. No problem drilling out the stud from the top until I could see I'd broken through to the bolt into the housing. But was still frozen in place so continued to pour Kroil into the openings and soaked the gasket from the sides. Then started tapping with a hammer to try to unfreeze it.

Unfortunately the corrosion was stronger than the water flange casting it was attached to which broke off. (Now I can at least get the top part back to my shop and cut and drill the thermostat housing off, but not exactly the way I wanted to do it). Probably should have put an Oxyacetylene flame on it for a bit but was worried about bursting the thermostat inside and having all the wax/oil run down into the engine.

Found a new water flange on line for $75 with shipping, but now have realized I can't get to the bolts to replace it without pulling the head of the engine (which it bolts to). Either that or pulling the entire front gear cover off.

Thought I could just pull the alternator & bracket and the fresh water pump off and would be right there. There is only about 1/16" clearance between the back of the water pump housing and the heads of bolts that have to come out. Then noticed that the back of the water pump is actually an integral part of the front gear cover. What a silly arrangement. I sometimes wonder if engineers stay up late at night thinking up things like this, and mounting oil filters on the sides of engines.

Regardless, a simple thermostat replacement has ballooned into a major project I really didn't need right now.

Kevin Wright
E35 Hydro Therapy


drilled out M25 Thermostat housing.jpgdrilled out M25 Thermostat housing.jpgBroken M25 water flange.jpg
 

Kenneth K

1985 32-3, Puget Sound
Blogs Author
Found a new water flange on line for $75 with shipping, but now have realized I can't get to the bolts to replace it without pulling the head of the engine (which it bolts to). Either that or pulling the entire front gear cover off.

I had my FW pump off a few years ago, and it looks like you're right, the FW pump housing is integral to the gearcase and blocks access to the water flange:

Flange.jpg

The Universal M-25 Parts Manual has some fair (but not great) depictions of the area where you are working. I attached the relevant pages if you don't have the manual. The Cyl Head Group page shows the four bolt holes where I believe the flange attaches to.

The diagrams show that pulling the head is likely far preferable to pulling the gearcase.

You needed this to happen in November or December, not August. Well, nobody needs this....
 

Attachments

  • Water Flange Group.pdf
    53.5 KB · Views: 6
  • Gear Case Group.pdf
    71.4 KB · Views: 3
  • Cyl Head Group.pdf
    78.6 KB · Views: 4

Rocinante33

Contributing Partner
Thanks for the pic. That is how I thought it was constructed so went ahead with the drill out plan. No problem drilling out the stud from the top until I could see I'd broken through to the bolt into the housing. But was still frozen in place so continued to pour Kroil into the openings and soaked the gasket from the sides. Then started tapping with a hammer to try to unfreeze it.

Unfortunately the corrosion was stronger than the water flange casting it was attached to which broke off. (Now I can at least get the top part back to my shop and cut and drill the thermostat housing off, but not exactly the way I wanted to do it). Probably should have put an Oxyacetylene flame on it for a bit but was worried about bursting the thermostat inside and having all the wax/oil run down into the engine.

Found a new water flange on line for $75 with shipping, but now have realized I can't get to the bolts to replace it without pulling the head of the engine (which it bolts to). Either that or pulling the entire front gear cover off.

Thought I could just pull the alternator & bracket and the fresh water pump off and would be right there. There is only about 1/16" clearance between the back of the water pump housing and the heads of bolts that have to come out. Then noticed that the back of the water pump is actually an integral part of the front gear cover. What a silly arrangement. I sometimes wonder if engineers stay up late at night thinking up things like this, and mounting oil filters on the sides of engines.

Regardless, a simple thermostat replacement has ballooned into a major project I really didn't need right now.

Kevin Wright
E35 Hydro Therapy


View attachment 35016View attachment 35016View attachment 35017

I guess I’m a day late and a dollar short, but since the heads were off of the bolts, why didn’t you try to pry the cover up off of the flange by working a screwdriver tip in between them, then either twisting or prying the cover up? The old gasket and goop were probably holding it on at that point. The bolts might have been turned with vice grips if the cover had come off, I think. Sorry to be a Monday morning QB......
 

Kevin A Wright

Member III
I guess I’m a day late and a dollar short, but since the heads were off of the bolts, why didn’t you try to pry the cover up off of the flange by working a screwdriver tip in between them, then either twisting or prying the cover up? The old gasket and goop were probably holding it on at that point. The bolts might have been turned with vice grips if the cover had come off, I think. Sorry to be a Monday morning QB......

Keith,
That's actually what I was trying to do when I broke it. Was trying to get a large screwdriver into that joint, but wasn't having any luck. The housing hung over the flange just a tiny bit at one point so tried tapping up on the housing with a screwdriver. Didn't take too much.

I think its also being held by the length of stud that's still inside the housing cemented in with 30 years of crust. Would have to have drilled down the entire length of the stud which is problematic. Oh well, now I can just drill it out from the bottom!

Kevin Wright
E35 Hydro Therapy
 

Kevin A Wright

Member III
Got the broken off housing back to my shop and drilled out the threaded portion of the bolts from the bottom (much easier to do this once you've broken it off the engine!). Was then able to pry the housing off the flange but still had the bolt shafts solidly embedded in the housing. Had to put an oxyacetylene torch on it to finally be able to pound out the bolt shafts with a long punch. Based on how hard it was to get those out even with no threads and a lot of heat, there is no way I was getting this thing off in place on the engine.

New Kubota water flange just arrived so now just have to pull the head and replace it.

Kevin Wright
E35 Hydro Therapy
 
Top