Boat Plans African Queen
For my main engine cooling Ive decided to use a keel cooling system. Engine cooling seems to be one area of operating a boat that tends to give boat operators a large percentage of their problems and it is for this reason Ive decided upon using the keel cooling method.
With a more conventional cooling system o

My main engine cooler consists of 60 of 5" channel welded to the hull. The water basically goes in one end of the channel cooler, runs its route through the channel, then returns back to the engine out the other end of the channel as cooled water. Ive seen other builders use split pipe on the hull, but for me the channel was easier to work with and Im pleased with its form. A young guy from our neighborhood was an engineering student at Utah State University ( Justine Gastrich), and needed a project during his senior year as a requirement for graduation. He calculated and designed the requirements for cooling my engine by using the 5" channel as a cooler. His report was very thorough and it was kind of neat seeing the boat build put to that use. The report that Justin developed was very much in line with all the rule of thumb designs other builders used, so I went with what Justin recommended.
I had to alter the engine a little to make the


Ive had the engine running since Ive finished the keel cooler and all seems to be OK. I only had the engine running at a high idle but it did get up to operating temperature and stayed that way for the times I ran her. One good thing about the keel cooler is the ability to run the engine while on the hard.
I also decide to keel cool my air conditioners that Ill have on board. Im going to have two air conditioners ( one for the lower forward cabins, and one for the Salon and Wheelhouse). I think the lower AC unit will be around 12,000 btu, and the upper AC unit will be around 18,000 btu. I know of quite a few boats in our harbor that are always having problems with maintenance regarding their air conditioner from junk getting sucked up into the units. Keel cooling these air conditioners, while much more expensive, will eliminate most problems associated with a

Again, the hardest part of building these coolers was air testing my welds. I air tested all the coolers to 10 psi. Tacking the coolers to the hull went relatively quickly with me having only a few hours in the fitting and tacking. Air testing on the other hand found me spending at least a full day fixing leaks for each cooler.
While these types of coolers might seem a little labor intensive in some folks eyes, the robust nature of the cooling systems adds to the boat as a whole in regards to function and safety. That robustness will also translate into lower operating costs in the future witch, in my opinion, will easily off set the cost of my labor to build these devices.
Conall

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