Dripless Shaft Seal

Russ Calasant

Russ Calasant

Active Member
Dec 9, 2009
2,128
East Greenwich, RI
Boat Info
2001 480 DB
Engines
CAT 3196
What do you all do with them for winter? Should they be disconnected from motor side and capped? What about the cross over? Before or after running antifreeze? And if after why disconnect? Thanks for any info/advice-
 
Russ Calasant said:
What do you all do with them for winter? Should they be disconnected from motor side and capped? What about the cross over? Before or after running antifreeze? And if after why disconnect? Thanks for any info/advice-
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I’ve never done anything with them. Why would you?
 
Never done anything with them. Pink comes out the bottom of the boat when wintering and they self drain anyway. If in the water maybe disconnect them. Not sure.
 
rcknecht said:
I just run pink through my engines and some drains out the dripless seals. So there is no need to do anything with the hoses...
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That’s what I do.
Just did mine today and made sure pink came out the exhaust and shafts.
 
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I’ll tell you what I noticed with mine. I pulled both strainer drain plugs. When one engine runs it will push water out of the off engine strainer drain. Therefore, it seems you need to flush and drain both engines, then run AF through each one. Otherwise, if you already ran AF in one, then try to flush the other, it will pump water through the engine that has AF. I suppose that is why some will pinch off the crossover.
 
I pinch off the water line from the engine to the seal with a vise grip. I was amazed how much pink was wasted through the shaft seals the first time I winterized a dripless seal boat. When I have finished, I remove the vise grip and all the pink in the entire motor except for about a quart that is in the bottom of the aftercooler runs out the shaft seals (both because of the cross over) Your motors may be different, the components plumbed differently, etc, which is why I always hesitate to give winterizing advice. But to your questions, I pinch them off so pink is not wasted. Tides seals do not need to be winterized, they self drain but when I remove the vise grips, they get winterized. I would have to cap them off or leave the vise grips on all winter if I wanted the pink to stay in the raw water components. I don’t care if there is no pink in the raw water side after it has pushed out all the water.
 
Interesting. I did neglect one important piece- my boat stays in the water for winter. This makes a big difference. I removed the seal feed from the port motor and pink shot from the motor, I plugged it. The other end had nothing, air in the line, when pressurizing I could hear gurgling and after release it sounded like it was backfilling. I disconnected the starboard from the motor and no flow from the motor side although what I could see looked clear. The seal side had a light flow of sea water, I capped them both. I had winterized both motors earlier. I’m a bit concerned that by not capping them earlier the raw water pressure on the starboard feed blocked or diluted the antifreeze. Unless I lose power the engine room doesn’t see below 60 degrees with, cameras, mechanical and electronic temp and humidity sensors with remote live monitoring, block heaters, bilge heater and lazzarete heaters all on different feeds. I stay on the board a lot.
 
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