We have had installed a 38hp Beta marine engine with transmission.
It replaced a Perkins 4-108 50 hp
We have a 36 ft Islander Freeport sail boat
Our water heater is higher than the engine. It had a small stainless steel water tank for filling the engine with fluid. Worked good for 32 years with the Perkins.
The Beta installer said it should be removed and the water heater put lower so it is not higher than the engine then he would hook the water heater to the engine. That he thought it was a real bad idea to have it higher.
IT may not be the best of ideas to have the hot water heater (HWH) higher than the engine I admit. It can cause a air lock and engine could over heat I am told.
We have tried everything we can think of to find space for a 6 gallon water heater below decks. No space will fit any of the heaters we have looked at. We are at a loss. We are not willing to reduce the size of the heater in gallons.
We know of a dock mate who has a new larger Beta motor in his Gulf Star CC and who has his water tank even higher than ours, no problem as he said.
While it is possible to get all the air out of the system with the water heater higher than the engine as you describe, I personally dont like it as it can lead to problems. Not to put to fine a point on it, you cant pour water uphill and the fill point for the cooling system needs to be the highest point in the cooling system.
I have attached a photo of a coolant pressure tank that we supply and recommend that this be plumbed in to the hose that goes from the heater to the bottom of the heat exchanger tank. This needs to be the highest point in the cooling system, above the hot water heater coils. The pressure cap on this tank needs to be 13 lbs and fit a coolant recovery tank on the pressure cap on the heat exchanger. This will keep the bilge clean. If your stainless tank will do this, I recommend re-using it if it is in good condition.
Interesting. I have an Atlantic T6C hot water tank that was *not* plumbed in to the Westerbeke W-52 that my new Beta 60 is replacing, but just worked from shore power/AC, but as I recall, it was slightly higher in the engine bay than the header tank, and so presumably would have been problematic.
I have room to put it lower and level with the heat exchanger, which strikes me as a good idea. I have loads of room and few restrictions on placement as it's a custom steel boat I have. I will go some way to avoid the syphoning issues I've had with previous set-ups as it's driven me nuts to run 10 gallons of kerosene through the previous diesel because a little spring plunger vent on the loop failed.
In a related question, and in an effort to simplify my set-up, do you have any objection to that plunger vent being replaced by a length of hose to the outside of the boat, and how high above the engine makes sense, assuming I have a Vetus waterlock setup?
