- Oct 4, 2006
- 2,335
- Boat Info
- 2003 280DA and 1995 Sea Ray 175
- Engines
- Twin 4.3l and 3.0l, all w/ AlphaI GenII drives
There are a lot of threads I found on this generator and varying issues with shutdown. In reading those, I think I have an airlock issue. And if so, I haven't yet been able to purge all of the air from the system...
My Kohler 5E ran fine all last fall. For spring maintenance, I replaced oil, oil filter, spark plugs, impeller, zinc anode and flushed, drained and refilled the cooling system. When I refilled the system, I was only able to put in about 2/3 of what the specified capacity of the system is into the radiator cap before it was full.
So I ran it for the first time and after about 5-6 minutes it simply shutdown. I have no gauges or diagnostics on my gen. I tried to restart, it started right up, ran for about 10 seconds and shut down. I let it cool for a few hours, opened the radiator cap and added just a few ounces. Re-started it. It ran for 5 minutes or so then shutdown.
It looks like I have good water flow out the exhaust. When I point my IR gun near the radiator cap, I'm reading temps around 255F, which seems very hot to me. The raw water side of the exchanger is reading a pretty steady 72F. Not sure if my model has a 165 or 195 thermostat as the service manual states. I'm not getting any overflow into the overflow bottle.
So, that's what leads me to believe I have an airlock issue (especially since I flushed it and was only able to get 2/3 of capacity into it). The overflow tank is 1/3 full of coolant, as recommended in the service manual. Oil level is perfect.
Is there a trick to purging ALL of the air out of this system?!
Thanks,
My Kohler 5E ran fine all last fall. For spring maintenance, I replaced oil, oil filter, spark plugs, impeller, zinc anode and flushed, drained and refilled the cooling system. When I refilled the system, I was only able to put in about 2/3 of what the specified capacity of the system is into the radiator cap before it was full.
So I ran it for the first time and after about 5-6 minutes it simply shutdown. I have no gauges or diagnostics on my gen. I tried to restart, it started right up, ran for about 10 seconds and shut down. I let it cool for a few hours, opened the radiator cap and added just a few ounces. Re-started it. It ran for 5 minutes or so then shutdown.
It looks like I have good water flow out the exhaust. When I point my IR gun near the radiator cap, I'm reading temps around 255F, which seems very hot to me. The raw water side of the exchanger is reading a pretty steady 72F. Not sure if my model has a 165 or 195 thermostat as the service manual states. I'm not getting any overflow into the overflow bottle.
So, that's what leads me to believe I have an airlock issue (especially since I flushed it and was only able to get 2/3 of capacity into it). The overflow tank is 1/3 full of coolant, as recommended in the service manual. Oil level is perfect.
Is there a trick to purging ALL of the air out of this system?!
Thanks,
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