Brooke, I have a 1970 27 Express Cruiser with a single small block Chrysler. When I got it, it had factory cast iron manifolds that were fresh water cooled (engine coolant in the manifolds, raw water in the risers). I replaced them twice and then got sick of it. I went to stainless headers that are also fresh water cooled. I had no trouble with overheating with either system. To the contrary, I went to a 180 degree thermostat and I still can't get the engine temperature above about 145 degrees. Of course, my raw water pump is in great shape, I have a high flow coolant pump and I run in 40 degree water year round. I also have a big block heat exchanger because I bored and stroked my small block to 410 cubic inches and I raised the compression ratio up to 10.5 to 1. I have a red dot heater plumbed into each side. The starboard manifold heats the cabin and the port manifold heats the wheelhouse and keeps the windshield clear on rainy days (most of the time in SE Alaska). If you're keeping the engines cool with a raw water system you shouldn't have any trouble with a fresh water system. The only difference is the plumbing, the fresh water cooled system has more hoses and the factory mainifolds are slightly different. You want to make sure your coolant pump and raw water pump are both in good shape, your system would have a lot more coolant in it. The only possible problem I can see would be if you're running in a place with real warm raw water (like the Gulf of Mexico) and you're running your engines real hard.
John --- On Wed, 3/4/09, Brooke <[email protected]> wrote: From: Brooke <[email protected]> Subject: [UnifliteWorld] Re: raw water cooling To: "UnifliteWorld" <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 3:11 AM Gene, I have a 1970, 36 foot SS with twin 440's still set up with the original half system. What all is required to convert to a full system? I was under thie impression that the main heat exchangers would need to be bigger. Brooke On Mar 2, 7:15 pm, gene <[email protected]> wrote: > John: > > What engines are you running with the half system? Most but not all > are convertible to a full system. > > Gene --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UnifliteWorld" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/UnifliteWorld?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
