Water leaking roid

[fabricator]

Well, here's my 8/1 roid all hooked up to an alternator and my hydronic heating system, the alternator works great, I have a problem though, it literally leaks water everywhere, everyplace there is a gasket on the water jacket, between the block and cylinder, head and cylinder, there is even water coming out of the large stud that holds the rocker assembly on, water was dripping out of the flex pipe that I have on the exhaust pipe.
Where do I start?

[dieselgman]

For one thing it sounds like your head gasket is not sealing up... you can get a pretty nice modern composition gasket from us or can reseal most copper gaskets with some of the tricks listed on this forum.

Some people have used various copper head gasket compounds and some used metallic spray paints to help seal her up. Your situation sounds like that may be the place to start but, you may need to take a look at what pressure is being maintained in the hydronic system as well, because the standard cooling system on the Lister does not normally take any pressure to speak of. A heat exchanger in between may be called for if you are applying much pressure to the hydronic system.

dieselgman

[dieselgman]

I notice a mixture of metals in your plumbing system, that could be a longer term problem for electrolysis... are you circulating a glycol mixture? galvanized vs. cast iron vs. copper... may need to be isolated from one another. I noticed the copper plumbing pipes moving around a great deal in your video as well, that motion would likely need to be minimized to avoid future problems.

Your leakage around the engine can all be attributed to a very poorly sealed head gasket, but you will also want to minimize the pressure on your cooling system... maybe 5psi relief pressure would be a good guess. Normally these are hopper cooled (via convection) with only the gravity weight of your coolant involved.

How is your coolant circulated? Do you have a thermostatic control to keep the engine at proper temperature? These machines will slobber or wet-stack in most cases where they are run "cold". 180F is a good target running temp and in many cases they have been reported to average around 200 F or more under full load conditions.

So, in addition to solving the head-gasket leaks, you should add some instrumentation to understand fully what is going on with the system.

dieselgman

[fabricator]

The system usually has zero to 5 psi it is circulated by a gundfoss pump, it sounds like I'm gonna have to build a fire to get the temp up them start the engine,
I'm pretty sure it's leaking at the block to cylinder gasket too.
The copper lines will have a bracket on the engine base and on the wall so the only movement will be in the flex lines, I'll be keeping a close watch on any dissimilar metals problems, but I have several places in the system that go from copper to galvanized and have had no problem for 15 years.

[dieselgman]

Does your engine have a cylinder liner? Unless it does (or has a crack in the cylinder), there is no likely way for water to exit down at the block.

I would recommend using a thermostatic control for the circulating pump to only force-feed coolant when the engine water jacket is up to temp. If you were to preheat the hydronic system, then the engine would be nicely preheated when you are ready to start it up. Without a thermostatic control, you would not be able to control things very well though.

dieselgman

[fabricator]

I think I'll machine out a thermostat housing, with a thermostat if the heat isn't on it'll run up to temperature and the thermostat will keep it to temp, but if the heat is on the stat will just be open most of the time, or, better yet instead of a thermostat housing I could just use a couple zone valves to keep the engine at the right temp.

[LowGear]

I didn't notice an expansion tank of any kind.  If there is no air expansion tank like on a standard hydronic heating system then the 100 degree plus change is going to put the larger molecules someplace.  Perhaps something more like found on an automobile cooling system but in either case hot water needs more room than cold water.

Casey

[xyzer]

"OIDS" are also leakers usually due to excessive liner protrusion causing a poor seal other than compression.

[carlb23]

"OIDS" are also leakers usually due to excessive liner protrusion causing a poor seal other than compression.

+1 on that

[piperpilot3tk]

Mine did exactly the same thing.  The water leaking from the base of the cylinder was caused from coolant leaking past the head gasket and draining into the cylinder stud holes in the cylinder block, then seeping out around the bottom of the cylinder.  I tried every trick to "reseal" the stock copper/paper head gasket and the best I could do was slow down the leaks.  One I installed the composite gasket using some hylomar around the water ports all was well.  I highly recommend buying several of these gaskets   http://www.ebay.com/itm/230632439673?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

You also should check the cylinder liner protrusion and correct any discrepancies or the composite gasket may not fix the problem, if it does fix the leak too much liner protrusion will destroy the gasket and definitely make the gasket a one time use.  When I took my engine apart I found my liner was protruding .016" above the cylinder deck surface!

[dieselgman]

Affirmative on that composition gasket!

dieselgman

[fabricator]

Mine did exactly the same thing.  The water leaking from the base of the cylinder was caused from coolant leaking past the head gasket and draining into the cylinder stud holes in the cylinder block, then seeping out around the bottom of the cylinder.  I tried every trick to "reseal" the stock copper/paper head gasket and the best I could do was slow down the leaks.  One I installed the composite gasket using some hylomar around the water ports all was well.  I highly recommend buying several of these gaskets   http://www.ebay.com/itm/230632439673?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

You also should check the cylinder liner protrusion and correct any discrepancies or the composite gasket may not fix the problem, if it does fix the leak too much liner protrusion will destroy the gasket and definitely make the gasket a one time use.  When I took my engine apart I found my liner was protruding .016" above the cylinder deck surface!

Thanks for the link PP, that is exactly what I found today, when I tore it down the stud bores were full of water, the stock gasket was an absolute mess.

[fabricator]

I didn't notice an expansion tank of any kind.  If there is no air expansion tank like on a standard hydronic heating system then the 100 degree plus change is going to put the larger molecules someplace.  Perhaps something more like found on an automobile cooling system but in either case hot water needs more room than cold water.

Casey

Oh there is an expansion tank in the system, but I think I've decided to go another route to heat water, I'm gonna set up a regular radiator on the roid and heat water electrically, I already have a dump load tank in the basement for my wind turbine, it's got four 2kw elements in it and the turbine only uses one.
I'm gonna set it up so the roid uses two of the other elements, these elements are run off an inverter so they get AC and their full rated power.

[fabricator]

"OIDS" are also leakers usually due to excessive liner protrusion causing a poor seal other than compression.

These 8/1's dont have a liner.