Boat Maintenance: Engine Room Blower Replacement

Old blower fan.

While motoring into the port the other day, we noticed air venting out the of port side, but not the starboard side. This fan has the important job of venting the hot air out of the engine compartment, so it doesn't overheat inside.

Once we were secure on the quay, Jared went into the engine compartment to investigate. After checking the connections, we decided to replace the fan.

Starboard blower vent area (we removed the cover to access the bolts). It got a good cleaning and new sealant afterwards!

Two days later, we had the new fan installed, but it would not turn on. Hmmm. We double checked all of the connections and wires again and determined that one of the wires was bad. After replacing that wire, we were back in  business!

I guess I can say that it was a good thing this happened. While messing about with the wires at the helm, Jared noticed our start switch wires were badly corroded and replaced those while he was at it.

So, next time you switch on your engine(s) check to see if your blower is working. We don't know how long ours was out of commission, but are glad we found out before a serious problem arose.

Port blower vent area (for reference).