Elastomuffle replacement

[tribologist]

I been hanging out on the Facebook page with all the other Swedes. Its really interesting, most of the members are in the 30-40 year age with small kids. Just what Brohäll indented:-) check out "Albin 25 ägare" . If for no other reason the pictures. Cats, dogs, Swedish blonds... A25 with tinted windows...

Anyway, there were some interesting muffler discussion there and I'm not happy over the 50 year old football in the bilge. Besides Hetek's awesome installation, are there any good installs that you been happy with with new mufflers? The one on the picture is a Volvo muffler that is popular in Sweden but look at the corrosion on the hose barb... I'm not convinced..

[Desertboater]

There is a forum post by Kerrye in 2016 about an elasomuffler 'exploding' and almost sinking their vessel - some discussion there about replacement mufflers

http://www.albinowners.net/aog/viewtopi ... =28&t=9281

Several of us have used Centek horizontal Vernalift fiberglass mufflers. Centek makes waterlift mufflers that are vertical as well, but doubt they would fit well in our boats.

https://www.centekmarine.com/product-ca ... -mufflers/

Our early Albin now has a 1500042 Vernalift by Centek. The post by Kerrye above shows other examples of Centek mufflers - such as Willie C's Centek 1500038 or BCBoater's 1300214. I believe DesertAlbin736 is using a Centek also.

There are 2 elements of sizing the muffler - the exhaust hose diameter (inlet & outlet) and the volume of water you want to retain. In practical terms, the volume of the muffler is usually dictated by the available space for installation. Even the smallest Centek retains far more water than the elastomuffler did.

Ours went where the old elastomuffler was installed - after cutting out the old wood supports.

I modified our Centek by drilling & tapping a drain hole for a stainless steel 1/4-20 bolt, large SS washer & a neoprene washer. This allows almost complete draining of the muffler for winterization.

[tribologist]

That 1500042 seems like a good choice. Thanks

[WillieC]

Desertboater, thanks for digging all that info up. Saved me a trip out to the hook.

[DesertAlbin736]

I think we have same or similar Vernalift as Desertboater (no relation). Was installed some time after 1992 (date stamp on the muffler) during or after the Yanmar repower job. There is also a check valve in the exhaust hose located under the quarterberth close to the outlet. In those earlier threads I had commented & showed photos of the location of the exhaust outlets of early (port side) vs late (stbd side) models. In fact, the seemingly below water line location of exhaust outlet on the 1977 DeLuxe we almost bought in 2012 (first encounter with Albin25) was one among several concerns that kind of freaked us out & led us to walk away from that deal. I have seen photos of at least one Albin 25 where they attached a hose to the exhaust outlet & routed it up under a swim platform thereby keeping it above water. As seen in this photo, the Vernalift muffler we have is part number 1300209 date stamped June 1, 1992. Note that Vernalift was a product of Vernay Products Inc of Thomasville, GA back then. Also our engine is a smaller 24 HP (continuous rating) rather than 36 HP of the later DeLuxe models. So far in over 6 years & 600+ engine hours we've had no trouble with this installation. Ironically the early 1971 model has exhaust on port side, no doubt to accommodate the AD21 engines. So the Yanmar 3GM30F has exhaust manifold on starboard side & requires the exhaust hose to cross over while the later 3YM series has exhaust to port which would be a straight run for the early models but would need to cross over for later DeLuxe boats.

DSCN3408.JPG

Depending on how full the fuel & head holding tanks are we tend to have a persistent slight starboard list which while slightly annoying does help keep the exhaust outlet above water. As can be seen with this typical view through the windshield.

20160714_110943.jpg

Desertboater writes:

I modified our Centek by drilling & tapping a drain hole for a stainless steel 1/4-20 bolt, large SS washer & a neoprene washer. This allows almost complete draining of the muffler for winterization.

Good point, something I would not have thought of since winterization isn't a big concern of ours. It rarely gets down below freezing here, and even if it does it's just for a couple hours in the high 20s once or twice around mid to late December. However, even that problem could be solved by running some RV antifreeze through the raw water system, whether a fresh water cooled engine or straight raw water.

[tribologist]

Thanks! That 6”x10” with 2” looks great. I run a few gal of RV antifreeze before winter so im not to worried over it freezing.