New stuffing box question.

CharlieO. · May 23, 2024

My newly installed stuffing box comes with a water feed inlet and my old one did not have a water feed. My new shaft log has an additional cutless bearing at the stuffing box end. Where is the best most convenient place to feed the water from? Single Lehman engine. For now I have the 3/8 hose run to the barb on the stuffing box with 10' of hose and capped the end until I figure out where to plumb it to. I figure that will be safe enough to get launched and into my slip. Thanks.

Brisyboy · May 23, 2024

I have Lehmans and my water comes from the back cap of the large heat exchanger - the rear plate was removed, drilled and tapped to take a hose barb. The water is under pressure from the salt water cooling pump

CharlieO. · May 23, 2024

Brisyboy said:
I have Lehmans and my water comes from the back cap of the large heat exchanger - the rear plate was removed, drilled and tapped to take a hose barb. The water is under pressure from the salt water cooling pump

Are you talking about the round plate on the end of the heat exchanger? Just wanting to make sure I understand. Thanks.

jleonard · May 23, 2024

My water feed came off of a pipe fitting on the exhaust elbow. You dont need much water to keep things cool and lubed. I think mine was only 1/8 or 3/16 ID.
Which brings up an important note: make sure when you winterize your engine that antifreeze comes out by the prop so you know you’ve displaced all the raw water in that cavity.

Brisyboy · May 23, 2024

CharlieO. said:
Are you talking about the round plate on the end of the heat exchanger? Just wanting to make sure I understand. Thanks.

Yes, thats the one. I have 135s so its a straight run back - yours are on the back of the engine so perhaps a right angled barb would be the go.

CharlieO. · May 28, 2024

Jay, your water feed came off the same fitting that feeds the exhaust elbow/hose? Did it just have a tee to grab some of the water for the cutlass bearing feed? Thanks. I want to replace my exhaust elbow and this would be the opportunity to grab for my water feed.

CharlieO. · May 29, 2024

Here is the recommendation and pictures I got from Brian Smith at ADC and will follow. I needed to replace the elbow anyway. Thanks for the replies.

jleonard · May 29, 2024

Yes mine was something like that.

twistedtree · May 29, 2024

just use bronze, not brass.

Steve DAntonio · Jun 7, 2024

Tides offers an injection T fitting, those are easy to install and they are corrosion resistant, and they come with placement instructions. TK0875-3/8-.218

As Tanglewood says, do not use brass.

Ideally, if possible, you should install the pick up before any zinc pencils in the system, pieces of zinc are known to clog these small fittings. Do not use clear PVC hose like that sown in a previous photo, this hose is not rated for raw water use and it easily kinks and chafes. Type B fuel hose is well-suited.

More here Keeping Your Bilge Dry with Dripless Stuffing Boxes | Steve D'Antonio Marine Consulting

douggairns · Jun 7, 2024

CharlieO. said:
My newly installed stuffing box comes with a water feed inlet and my old one did not have a water feed. My new shaft log has an additional cutless bearing at the stuffing box end. Where is the best most convenient place to feed the water from? Single Lehman engine. For now I have the 3/8 hose run to the barb on the stuffing box with 10' of hose and capped the end until I figure out where to plumb it to. I figure that will be safe enough to get launched and into my slip. Thanks.

Hi Charlie! I think I saw one comes off a small fitting on the elbow for the exhaust manifold just before it goes into the rubber exhaust hose! I also found out why some do and some don't. Apparently if the vessel can never exceed 12 (i dont know if it's mph or knots) the water pressure from the weight of the boat lets the water flow up the log to cool everything. If the boat may exceed the 12, it need's water flow from the front, or else the water would flow out the log and everything would get hot from lack of water. Same principle as pulling the plug on a tinny while underway, and all the water flows out!

Datenight · Jun 7, 2024

Steve DAntonio said:
Tides offers an injection T fitting, those are easy to install and they are corrosion resistant, and they come with placement instructions. TK0875-3/8-.218

As Tanglewood says, do not use brass.

Ideally, if possible, you should install the pick up before any zinc pencils in the system, pieces of zinc are known to clog these small fittings. Do not use clear PVC hose like that sown in a previous photo, this hose is not rated for raw water use and it easily kinks and chafes. Type B fuel hose is well-suited.

More here Keeping Your Bilge Dry with Dripless Stuffing Boxes | Steve D'Antonio Marine Consulting

Tides lists the fittings as brass. Does anyone have a source for bronze hose barbs?

Rob

Comodave · Jun 7, 2024

Datenight said:
Tides lists the fittings as brass. Does anyone have a source for bronze hose barbs?

Rob

McMaster-Carr, General Propeller. Lots more with Google.

CharlieO. · Jun 7, 2024

Yes, Doug I wasn't sure how necessary the water feed is being a slow boat but the guys that built my parts recommended it because they added a cut less bearing on/in the forward end of the new shaft tube/log.
I will be trying to source the feed hardware in bronze.

douggairns · Monday at 4:52 PM

CharlieO. said:
Yes, Doug I wasn't sure how necessary the water feed is being a slow boat but the guys that built my parts recommended it because they added a cut less bearing on/in the forward end of the new shaft tube/log.
I will be trying to source the feed hardware in bronze.

Hi Charlie! Before and after pics of the stuffing box, the water feed tube going into the stuffing box has a tiny hole where the water gets into the stuffing box. Mine was plugged with small bits of dirt. One post i saw said the hole can get plugged with particles of the Zinc's in the system disintegrating over time as they get dissolved,or corroded, so when I was putting it back together i cleaned out the hole, drilled it a tiny bit bigger and put a small sea strainer above it;s inlet so it hopefully doesn't get plugged again. I also got a bronze sea strainer to put in the system from the through hull to the raw water pump, because this boats never had one. But it will soon! lol The more work i do on this thing just shows me where it needs more. At least the stuffing box, and the shaft tube are not letting any h2o in the boat. I'm still working on it putting it back together. I drove it home after I did the shaft tube work, probably 10 or 12 miles. Got the material in for the enclosure up top, now it just has to be made.

CharlieO. · Tuesday at 6:16 AM

douggairns said:
Hi Charlie! Before and after pics of the stuffing box, the water feed tube going into the stuffing box has a tiny hole where the water gets into the stuffing box. Mine was plugged with small bits of dirt. One post i saw said the hole can get plugged with particles of the Zinc's in the system disintegrating over time as they get dissolved,or corroded, so when I was putting it back together i cleaned out the hole, drilled it a tiny bit bigger and put a small sea strainer above it;s inlet so it hopefully doesn't get plugged again. I also got a bronze sea strainer to put in the system from the through hull to the raw water pump, because this boats never had one. But it will soon! lol The more work i do on this thing just shows me where it needs more. At least the stuffing box, and the shaft tube are not letting any h2o in the boat. I'm still working on it putting it back together. I drove it home after I did the shaft tube work, probably 10 or 12 miles. Got the material in for the enclosure up top, now it just has to be made.

Looks good, funny that you messaged me, I was just thinking about you and your project this weekend while we were out cruising. I too have no water coming into the bilge from shaft tube any longer. Went from bilge pump coming on multiple times a day to not even once a week. For me it was money and time well spent. Now onto a pesky oil leak that showed up after changing the oil cooler (I believe it is one of the oil hoses).

I do like your stuffing box strainer, and it looks like it would make it easier to verify that there is water flowing. I shoot mine with the temperature gun to be sure it doesn't run hot. I replaced my sea strainer last year after the tabs that hold the screw down for the lid failed.

Are you doing your own canvas work?

Keep in touch.

douggairns · Tuesday at 10:31 AM

CharlieO. said:
Looks good, funny that you messaged me, I was just thinking about you and your project this weekend while we were out cruising. I too have no water coming into the bilge from shaft tube any longer. Went from bilge pump coming on multiple times a day to not even once a week. For me it was money and time well spent. Now onto a pesky oil leak that showed up after changing the oil cooler (I believe it is one of the oil hoses).

I do like your stuffing box strainer, and it looks like it would make it easier to verify that there is water flowing. I shoot mine with the temperature gun to be sure it doesn't run hot. I replaced my sea strainer last year after the tabs that hold the screw down for the lid failed.

Are you doing your own canvas work?

Keep in touch.

Yes,it has a cover that you can see into, there's a lot of flow. The tiny hole in the stuffing box was plugged with small stuff, maybe even zinc remnants, so hopefully the strainer will stop most of it, and i drilled the hole a tiny bit bigger. My sons going to make the top, he'd beem trying stuff out with a commercial sewing machine making seat covers and stuff, and the guy at the marina he's building his boat at has been teaching him how to do it all. he did the canvas on his go to the lake boat last winter, it looks pretty good!

douggairns · Tuesday at 10:55 AM

first pic u can see small hole drilled out bigger for water flow, and had stuffing box machined out and grooves for O rings cut in to seal the SS tube and separate the 2 different metals. 2nd, testing SS tube fitting. 3 towing it to Holland Landing to take it out of the water. 4 at Albert's Marina waiting to be pulled out 5 I drove it home after.

New stuffing box question.

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