Boat Plans For A Chesapeake Deadrise | Expansion Tank

Boat Plans For A Chesapeake Deadrise

My main engine is cooled with a keel cooler welded to the hull. Because coolant will expand as it warms up to operation temperature, I needed to give the coolant a place to go without building pressure on the system and causing the fill cap to burp off coolant.

The expansion tank is at the highest elevation of the cooling system. This will allow me to get air out of the system and also use the expansion tank as the fill point for the cooling system. I made the tank out of a 12" piece of thin walled pipe. Welding a place for the pressurized fill cap, end caps, mounting brackets, level check sight glass, connector fitting on the bottom, and drain fitting on the bottom plus and extra fitting on top was all it took to make the tank. Well I might as well throw in finding the pipe, getting the pipe, cutting the pipe, cutting the end caps, fabricating the fill neck and mounting brackets, air testing, sand blasting, and painting. Now that I think of it, building the expansion tank was a pain in the ass, and if I had to put a pencil to it, Id say I have 12 hours in it. I could have purchased one for a dump truck for about $250.00 but given my nature of tripping over a dollar to save a dime, I decided to fabricate mine.

I Installed a sight glass in the tank to make checking fluid level easy. Due to height constraints, peering down the fill cap would be difficult, a dip stick would be a pain in the ass, so the sight glass, hands down, is the way to go.

I built the tank a couple of years ago, and now that I have the engine room finished sheathed, I can go ahead and permanently mount the tank. I was able to make the permanent connections to the keel cooler from the engine, and also all the connections to the expansion tank.

I mounted the tank to the bulkhead by using studs welded to the framing. I messed up on one set in regard to how far the studs projected and ending up having to use couplings on the studs then bolting the tank to the coupling. I wanted every part of the tank to be higher than the engine coolant tank, and while I was cutting it close, all the elevations worked out fine. The street 90 at the bottom of the tank is 3/4" higher than the street 90 in the engine.

Oh how nice it is to finally see projects going from the shop shelves to their final resting spot on the boat.

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Boat Plans Wood | Water tanks fill pipes vent lines and manifolds

Boat Plans Wood

I have eight water tanks under the sole of the forward cabins. The total capacity of the tanks is about 380 gallons. I guess Ill find out for sure what the capacity is once I fill all of them and begin using water. But for right now, Im sticking with the story of 380 gallons in eight stainless steel tanks.

Because I have 8 tanks I decided to connect all the tanks together via the supply line feeding the fresh water pump. I installed a gate valve at each tank giving me the ability to isolate any one of the eight tanks. I would hate to have a water leak in one tank, and have that leak drain all the tanks. If I do develop a tank problem, I want to be able to isolate it quickly then deal with it on my terms and time. In order to totally isolate the tanks on the suction side, I had to be able to isolate them on the vent and fill side too. Manifolds were the easiest way I could think to accomplish what I had to do.

My deck fill line is 1 1/2" that manifolds to 1" that will fill each tank. I used 1" PVC ball valves and pressure fittings to build the manifolds.

My vent lines are 1/2" leaving the tank, then bush up to 3/4" tube witch goes into 3/4 ball valves, then into a 1" manifold. 1" stainless steel welded into the deck with a goose neck completes the vent. Again, I used PVC ball valves and pressure fittings for all the fittings.

My suction line feeding my pump is 3/4" wire reinforced tube rated for food service. All the ball valves on the suction line are 3/4" brass.

For the vent lines I welded 1" stainless steel into the the hull, then welded a goose neck on the vent above the deck. I epoxied 1" PVC couplers on to the 1" stainless thru hull, then bushed down to my 1" PVC manifold, bushed down to 3/4" slip x thread ball valves, threaded in 3/4" x 1/2" barbs, then went to the each tank with 1/2" tube.

The deck fill is 1 1/2" stainless deck fill bolted the the deck going into a 1 1/2" flexible PVC tubing, that leads to the 1 1/2" sch. 40 manifold.

I had to position the fill manifold ball valves so they would be flush behind the hull liner. The valve handles are easy to operate even though one is turned facing the hull sheathing. Ill have an easy to get to access port in the hull liner behind a cabinet to operate the valves if the need happens.

In some of the pictures, you can see the 1 1/2" bilge pump discharge lines plumbed next to the fill manifold. I have two 1 1/2" bilge pump discharge lines on each side of the hull. More on that later.

All my "behind the wall" construction is done regarding my water tank fill and vent. For that matter all the work under the sole concerning the water tanks is also complete. Im getting pretty close to start installing the finished hull liner material.

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