Mystery blower on Beneteau 50

[negrini]

Inspect the air tubes that run air in/out your engine compartment. The blower could be turned off due to previous water flood. Anyway, noisy blower is a common place, and must be replaced when bearings are gone ... good luck !

[TejasSailer]

An earlier post mentions a 36.7 with a blower activated by the key. Our 36.7 has no key. However, there is a button on the panel with the glow plug and starter switch, and the blower can be operated independently of running the engine.

We always run the blower when the engine is running, but since the engine is diesel, I've wondered what is the intended function blower if not to remove carbon monoxide.

[Bene505]

I just had a thought. I'll check for connectivity of the ground wire to the boat's ground. Then I'll put 12v on each wire coming out of the 12v distribution panel. My thinking is that it may have been disconnected at the panel instead of (simply) at the blower.

I know that's a long shot, but it's probably not going to be easy to trace the wires behind the engine soundproofing, which I will try first.

[xort]

Tracing wires is a PAIN
I have a speaker that is out. Tested at the source, fine but at the speaker, nothing. So the break is somewhere in the bowels of the ship. Looked hard but so far nothing.
I don't have both speakers!!!!!!!! It's terrible! The HORROR

[negrini]

Xort, do it in a beter way ... just re-route a new wire on a smarter way !

[Bene505]

They have a thing for houses, for figuring out which outlets go to which circuit breakers. You plug it into an outlet and it sends an RF signal back down the wires. Then at the circuit breaker box you uses a receiver thing that makes a noise when you are close to the outlet's circuit breaker.

Maybe one of those would help you?

[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by TejasSailer

We always run the blower when the engine is running, but since the engine is diesel, I've wondered what is the intended function blower if not to remove carbon monoxide.

Teja,

Maybe I've misinterpreted your meaning here, but I just wanted to add that even with a gasoline engine, the purpose of the blower is not to evacuate CO. With gas engines, the blowers are used to vacate any potentially explosive gasoline fumes from the inner confines of the boat.

If there is a leak in the exhaust system that is allowing CO into the cabin or engine compartment, I would not under any circumstances rely on a blower as a remedy. But you're right, CO is much less of a worry with diesel engines.

I think the reason they add the blower on these diesel-powered boats is simply to evacuate heat and odors from the engine compartment. As Faster mentioned, it would be nice if that blower fan would stay on for 5-10 minutes after engine shut down.

[xcbxer]

My Bene 473 blower runs off the engine switch. With the very quiet 4JH3-TE the blower becomes the noise maker under power. I remounted the blower on rubber feet with no improvement. Final solution was a cut off switch and a remote thermometer at the helm.

[Bene505]

Originally Posted by Bene505

I just had a thought. I'll check for connectivity of the ground wire to the boat's ground. Then I'll put 12v on each wire coming out of the 12v distribution panel. My thinking is that it may have been disconnected at the panel instead of (simply) at the blower.

I know that's a long shot, but it's probably not going to be easy to trace the wires behind the engine soundproofing, which I will try first.

I'm doing get-in-the-water projects first, so It will be awhile before I get back to the "Mystery Blower". I'm planning to check the connection at the ignition switch. It means removing some panels, but that's a high probability location for a disconnect.

[gilsurf]

My PO had also cut the blower motor wire. Blower was dead. I sourced a new blower from Beneteau (plastimo) as it fit correctly (special flange mount) and traced the wires. They lead to the ignition relay under the stbd aft bunk (on a B 440). In my case, the wires had been disconnected from the relay. Once found, a simple fix.