Steamy exhaust on generator. Point me in the right direction!

C6 Doberman

C6 Doberman

New Member
Jun 10, 2009
106
ga
Boat Info
2004 320 Sundancer
Engines
Twin 350 Mag. V-Drives
I have a 5kw kohler gen that has steam coming out of the exhaust. I replaced the impellar and still the same results. There is water coming out of the exhaust just not what I think there should be. There will be times when nothing at all is coming out. I am going to pull the impellar housing off again to check for debris. Where else should I look? I am going to check the coolant level as well. How would I flush the whole system?
 
You have a clog somewhere else. Need to check from the elbow above the seacock to the heat exchanger.
 
Its odd because the gen runs fine and doesn't overheat. I checked the strainer and it was clean. Do you just detach all the hose and flush it with a water hose?
 
Same problem I had. I flushed my heat exchanger repeatedly. When I bought the boat the gen had a new impeller on it...but I ended up taking off the entire housing. The intake side of the water pump housing was clogged full of broken impeller vanes.

That solve my problem. It was running hot like yours with steam out the exhaust, but it wasn't hot enough to overheat it.
 
Great advice guys. Keep the thoughts coming! I'm going up this afternoon when I leave work to try and sort it out.
 
open your sea cock valve with the strainer top removed to make sure that you have free flow to the strainer. I had grass clogging the 90 fitting on the intake side. I had the top of the strainer off and the valve wide open and no flow. However if the top of the strainer was on and the generator running, the raw water pump was still able to suck some water through the grass. Good Luck.
 
My generator loved to eat impellers, every time I changed the impeller there were numerous parts of the old one in the exchanger and hoses. My generator would run fine but I could tell by the lack of water output something was clogged.
 
If your generator is getting all hot an steamy, take away it's romance novels.
 
Didn't get a chance to make it up to the boat last night. Is it difficult to clean out the exchanger?
 
As mentioned before, try opening the seacock with the strainer removed to make sure you are getting a strong water flow first. Seaweed clogged mine this past weekend and i had the same symptoms as you mentioned. I removed the hose right after the seacock and cleaned out the seaweed that was stuck there. If that doesnt fix the water flow problem, THEN check the heat exchanger.

Good Luck
 
MAKC said:
As mentioned before, try opening the seacock with the strainer removed to make sure you are getting a strong water flow first. Seaweed clogged mine this past weekend and i had the same symptoms as you mentioned. I removed the hose right after the seacock and cleaned out the seaweed that was stuck there. If that doesnt fix the water flow problem, THEN check the heat exchanger.

Good Luck
Click to expand...

10-4! If I do have to clean the heat exhanger what all is involved? Never had to work with one.
 
Mine is always the elbow above the seacock. I have always replaced the impeller ahead of schedule. When I flushed the heat exchange - just a little dirt but not much.
 
I had the same prob om my boat, and turned out to be a clog in the raw water intake below the strainer. I removed the hose from the heat exchanger and blew {with mouth} backwards to the strainer and it unclogged. Maybe was a little fish... or seaweed...this was after changing the impellor, checking everything else.. duh
 
well I fixed it. I verified I was getting good water flow to the strainer. I then took all the hose off from there to the exchanger. Ended up being little pieces of impellar clogging the line right where it goes to the exchanger. What a difference! I can barely tell it's running now. Thanks for all the great advice!
 
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