[C320-list] White Smoke and Overheating Diagnosis (A Lesson)

[RONALD HODEL]

Thanks for your story. It’s always good to have these stories lurking around in the back of the mind, hopefully able to be recalled at the proper time.

Ron Hodel
Lokomaikai #1070

Sent from my iPad

> On Jun 1, 2021, at 7:28 AM, Christian <ccaper at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> This list has taught me so much, other's stories have helped me, so I
> thought I'd share an experience I had on Sunday, so others might learn.
> 
> I sail in Chicago, where we are on the hard for 7.5 months of the year.
> Sunday, we launched, and launch day, though cathartic, is always a nerve
> wracking shake down cruise for me of what's gonna go wrong now after being
> on the hard.  My yard is on a river, about mile-ish off Lake Michigan.
> 
> Before leaving the yard dock, was idling engine for about an hour, checking
> engine temp (fine), exhaust flow (seemed a hair low, but wasn't terribly
> concerned, just a mental note).  After casting off, I had to wait for 2
> bridges to be raised, requiring circling for about 45 mins with light load
> on the engine.  After we passed the second bridge, now revving to higher
> RPM (about 25) I checked exhaust again, and noticed some light white smoke
> from exhaust, steady stream.  Started monitoring engine temp, and began
> seeing the engine temp creep up slowly, going higher than normal (180), and
> ticking up to about 190, still steady light white smoke.  We went on to our
> harbor, able to raise sails soon.
> 
> Got to mooring safely.  Concerned I had coolant mixing with oil and was
> burning coolant, once the engine cooled I checked oil color for milkiness.
> Clean, and no oil burned.  Checked coolant level, same level.  Reading up
> that night on white smoke, I read it's often steam or unburnt diesel.
> Could be cooling problem, or could be a valve, timing, or injector pump
> problem, crossed fingers it was cooling.  Since I wasn't blowing white
> smoke on cold engine start, only when engine got hot, this was likely
> steam, and an overheating problem.
> 
> Monday, I went back to the boat to dive into problem.  I'd replaced my
> fresh water pump, thermostat, and mixing elbow 4 years ago, so eliminated
> those as likely culprits.  I'd just replaced impeller, so knew that wasn't
> a likely culprit either.  I took off the raw water strainer, clean.  With
> the bowl off, I opened raw water thru hull to inspect flow, just a
> trickle.  Interesting.  So I took the hose off the sea cock, opened thru
> hull again, barely a trickle.  Felt into sea cock with pinky, felt squishy
> stuff.  Flash light showed white plastic shopping back pieces.
> 
> Luckily I keep a coat hanger on board for random needs like this.  Bent an
> end 90 degrees, went on a fishing expedition.  Over the next 2 hours, I
> worked out a complete plastic shopping bag that had been sucked into, and
> deepy jammed, in the valve on my seacock.  It was so jammed, at one point I
> thought I would have to rebuild the seacock to free it, but eventually got
> the entire bag out.  Most of the time I had to rock the seacock lever back
> and forth to inch the bag through the valve. Now seacock flowed perfect.  I
> think I picked up the plastic bag in the river, on our last Fall return to
> yard, is my guess.
> 
> Hope this story helps others diagnose overheating problems, and the
> importance of monitoring your exhaust, every sail.  This random mishap
> could have become a costly repair if I wasn't closely monitoring my exhaust
> and engine temp. And happy 2021 sailing season for us Great Lake sailors!
> 
> -Christian Caperton
> 1994 C320 #138 "Canuck" Monroe Harbor, Chicago, IL