Metal and seawater don't like each other and the direct seawater cooling system on my motor-sailer's YANMAR diesel engine has sprung a leak.
It turns out that the cast-iron 'mixing elbow' which returns the heated seawater to the sea after it has cooled the engine, has sprung a big leak. So big in fact that, when I tried to pry it loose from its joint (#13) with the cylinder head, it literally split in half. I had to unscrew the whole assembly, right up to the cylinder head, and put it into a diesel/petrol bath for the rusted-up joints to come loose.
Expecting trouble, I had already ordered in a new mixing elbow and a joint for the princely sum of $420 (anything prefaced with 'marine' usually costs twice the price) but unless the diesel/petrol bath works its magic, I may have to order the rest of the assembly as well.
In the meantime, the good old motor-sailer is purely a sailer.
