u079721
Contributing Partner
Here's the background.
Every year I winterize my water system on my 1989 E-38 by disconnecting the water from, and bypassing, the water heater tank. Then every spring I hook it back up again. We typically never use the hot water aboard, so after a while of constantly being heated by running the engine, the tank begins to smell foul (that sulfur odor). Cleaning with bleach gets rid of the odor, but it will come back next season.
The last couple of seasons I have decided not to hook the water up to the heater until right before our cruise. So for a couple of months I am running the engine without water in the tank.
So what's the big deal? Well, in the manual it states: "DO NOT....RUN THE ENGINE UNTIL [the tank] HAS BEEN FILLED. THE....ENGINE WILL OVERHEAT IF THE TANK IS DRY."
Now I can tell you that my engine always runs about 170 degrees, whether or not the tank is filled. And frankly, since there is a heat enchanger on the cooling system, I can't figure out why it should matter whether the water tank is full of water or not.
Since we don't even use the hot water on our cruise I was thinking of not hooking up the water to the tank at all this season. But I am a bit more reluctant to try that since our cruise usually involves a 25 hour motor at each end, which might stress the system a bit more than my typical pre-cruise 30 min of motoring each way for my day sails.
Does this warning make sense to anyone? Anybody know if it matters?
Every year I winterize my water system on my 1989 E-38 by disconnecting the water from, and bypassing, the water heater tank. Then every spring I hook it back up again. We typically never use the hot water aboard, so after a while of constantly being heated by running the engine, the tank begins to smell foul (that sulfur odor). Cleaning with bleach gets rid of the odor, but it will come back next season.
The last couple of seasons I have decided not to hook the water up to the heater until right before our cruise. So for a couple of months I am running the engine without water in the tank.
So what's the big deal? Well, in the manual it states: "DO NOT....RUN THE ENGINE UNTIL [the tank] HAS BEEN FILLED. THE....ENGINE WILL OVERHEAT IF THE TANK IS DRY."
Now I can tell you that my engine always runs about 170 degrees, whether or not the tank is filled. And frankly, since there is a heat enchanger on the cooling system, I can't figure out why it should matter whether the water tank is full of water or not.
Since we don't even use the hot water on our cruise I was thinking of not hooking up the water to the tank at all this season. But I am a bit more reluctant to try that since our cruise usually involves a 25 hour motor at each end, which might stress the system a bit more than my typical pre-cruise 30 min of motoring each way for my day sails.
Does this warning make sense to anyone? Anybody know if it matters?