Crap! Easy job went bad but yielded good result. Changing the heat exchanger pencil zinc on my Universal 25XPB is usually a 5-10 minute job every couple months. This time the zinc stuck in the nipple. Access is difficult with only 3 inches so their is no room to tap with "special tool alpha (hammer). Decided to pull the end cap and see if I could grab it and pull it out with pliers. Nope! None of it sticking up.
While the end cap was off I thought it would be a good idea to look at the tubes. Mirror on a stick showed a couple pieces of zinc and a couple tubes scaled up. Double crap! Compass Marine has a page documenting pieces of zincs plugging Westerbeke and Universal exchangers. Worth a look. Spent an hour or so with a pick chipping scale. Access is bad with a scupper hose and bulkhead limiting room. Managed to remove most of the scale and flush the scale and zinc pieces out. Not totally clean but much better. Last trip out the engine was running about 10 F hot. The scale may have contributed. So now back to the original problem, the zinc piece stuck in the nipple. Couldn't get any leverage to push or tap it out. I finally took the zinc cap (the plug that the zinc screws into) and put a pan head screw in it. Managed to catch a couple threads, tightened it and used the screw to force the zinc piece up into the exchanger. Removed it, reinstalled end caps and new zinc. Engine runs on temp now. Beer time! Probably need to acid clean the exchanger when the boat gets back to home slip in a couple months. Dennis C. Touché 35-1 #83 Mandeville, LA Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ This list is supported by the generous donations of our members. If you wish to make a contribution to offset our costs, please go to: https://www.paypal.me/stumurray All Contributions are greatly appreciated!
