Boat Plans African Queen
For my main engine cooling Ive decided to use a keel cooling system. Engine cooling seems to be one area of operating a boat that tends to give boat operators a large percentage of their problems and it is for this reason Ive decided upon using the keel cooling method.
With a more conventional cooling system o
ne sees on production trawlers, the engine sucks water in to the cooling system from outside the boat, cools the engine, then pumps the water overboard. The problem with this is that screens get plugged, impellers go bad, engines overheat ( this can kill an engine in a moment), and maintenance for sure increases. Overall, the reliability of such a system is not very high and detracts from the boat as a whole in my opinion. The last thing I want to be dealing with on a night time passage is an overheating engine due to a Walmart baggie being sucked into the engine intake screen, or worse, loosing an engine due to a baggie that costs 1/10 of one penny.My main engine cooler consists of 60 of 5" channel welded to the hull. The water basically goes in one end of the channel cooler, runs its route through the channel, then returns back to the engine out the other end of the channel as cooled water. Ive seen other builders use split pipe on the hull, but for me the channel was easier to work with and Im pleased with its form. A young guy from our neighborhood was an engineering student at Utah State University ( Justine Gastrich), and needed a project during his senior year as a requirement for graduation. He calculated and designed the requirements for cooling my engine by using the 5" channel as a cooler. His report was very thorough and it was kind of neat seeing the boat build put to that use. The report that Justin developed was very much in line with all the rule of thumb designs other builders used, so I went with what Justin recommended.
I had to alter the engine a little to make the
keel cooler work better but this was not a big deal. Because of the large volume of coolant I needed an expansion tank to give the coolant a place to go as things up to operating temperature. I also will use this expansion tank as the fill point to add coolant and a way to get the air out of the system. My engine modification was basically removing the fill cap from the engine heat exchanger and moving it to the expansion tank, then connecting the expansion tank back to the engine heat exchanger. The expansion tank is at a slightly higher elevation than the engines heat exchanger so getting the air out should be easier. Im using extended life coolant that is premixed using distilled water and coolant. Im also thi
nking of adding coolant filters as part of my system. Coolant filters need to be compatible with ones coolant ( either organic or non organic).Ive had the engine running since Ive finished the keel cooler and all seems to be OK. I only had the engine running at a high idle but it did get up to operating temperature and stayed that way for the times I ran her. One good thing about the keel cooler is the ability to run the engine while on the hard.
I also decide to keel cool my air conditioners that Ill have on board. Im going to have two air conditioners ( one for the lower forward cabins, and one for the Salon and Wheelhouse). I think the lower AC unit will be around 12,000 btu, and the upper AC unit will be around 18,000 btu. I know of quite a few boats in our harbor that are always having problems with maintenance regarding their air conditioner from junk getting sucked up into the units. Keel cooling these air conditioners, while much more expensive, will eliminate most problems associated with a
marine type air conditioner. While traveling down and aroun various harbors, Im amazed at the number of boaters that leave their air condtioners running while away from their boats for extended periods of time. I know of one boat that has been sunk due to the marine air conditioning unit failing and pumping water into the boat. While I dont think Ill leave the air conditioners runnig while Im not on the boat, with keel cooling I will have the ability to leave boat and not have to worry about the air conditioners. For the air conditoner coolers I used 2" sch. 40 pipe split in half and welded to the keel. Becuase the air conditioners will be used while the boat is sitting still I wanted to get the coolers as low in the water as I could. There is a cooler on each side of the hull for each air conditioner. The cooler for the forward cabins enters and leaves the hull amid ship, and the cooler for the upper areas of the boat enter and leave the hull more aft.Again, the hardest part of building these coolers was air testing my welds. I air tested all the coolers to 10 psi. Tacking the coolers to the hull went relatively quickly with me having only a few hours in the fitting and tacking. Air testing on the other hand found me spending at least a full day fixing leaks for each cooler.
While these types of coolers might seem a little labor intensive in some folks eyes, the robust nature of the cooling systems adds to the boat as a whole in regards to function and safety. That robustness will also translate into lower operating costs in the future witch, in my opinion, will easily off set the cost of my labor to build these devices.
Conall
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t just seems to fit. Sticks and weeds baby...sticks and weeds. I think Steve Earle covered this phrase in a song... or maybe Im thinking of seeds and weeds.
adhesive, put the board back on to the frame, put on washers and nuts, then use my air ratchet to tighten the nuts. I pretty much use air tools exclusively as I just like them better. Air tools are less expensive, dont break when you drop them, and last longer. I have a nice compact right angle drill that works extremely well for drilling the bolt holes in the lumber. This right angle drill has for sure been my tool of choice for most of my drilling jobs on the boat. For the hull side frames located towards the center of the boat ( station 9, 10, @ 11) I was able to just bolt a 2x3 to the frame without any custom ripping as there was not much curvature of the hull in these areas. As I move forward and the curvature of the hull increased, I had to give each board a custom angle rip to keep the face of the board parallel with the hull sheathing. The frames are not square to the hull sheathing but the face of the lumber must be parallel to the hull to allow my finish hull liner to go on nice and fair. Using a bevel gauge, Id come up with an average angle as measured in a few locations on the particular frame. Id then climb off of the boat, head down to the shop floor, transfer the angle to the table saw and make the rip. All the lumber was held about 1/4" - 3/8" proud of the frame to allow for some insulation to cover the frame flange. Once the boat is insulated no metal will be seen and the only lumber you will see is the face of the board that the hull liner will be screwed to. The cabin roof was a little different than the hull sides as it has a camber to it vs the straight line of the hull side. Bolting the firing to the cabin ceiling would have been a little easier if I ignored the camber and just bolted a straight board to the frame. I like the camber look of the cabin roof, and since Im fighting for every square inch of space I kept the camber in my framing. Because of the camber of the cabin roof I had to use a 2x4 vs a 2x3 for the cabin roof. I just had to clamp the 2x4 to the frame, mark the cut line, then use my band saw to make the cut leaving the line. Id then re clamp the board making sure the board face was held proud, drill the holes, install the bolts, apply adhesive, run the nuts home with the air ratchet. I had some conduit runs in the cabin roof frames that I had to transfer to the lumber, but for the most part it was straight forward.
the insulation yet are needed for attaching finished lumber, frame all the partitions so I know all cleats and nailers relating to partitions work prior to insulation. I also plan on installing some of the waste and water piping, conduit runs, and electric wires. Once the insulation is installed it will be a huge pain in the ass to add cleats/nailers to the hull so I want to get as much of this work done now. Ive never built a boat before, but having built some houses helps me regarding stragegic placement of some sticks. Since I just got done preaching on how much time it took for my firing, Id be afraid to guess how much time one would spend attaching even the smallest pieces of lumber once the insulation is completed.
