Volvo Penta 300-CE-M Heat Exchanger Leaking

[Omarf4]

I noticed my port engine’s heat exchanger is dripping and water puddling under it. I started the port and starboard engines and only the port heat exchanger is leaking excessively. Boat engines only have 52 hours on them. V8 300-CE-M.

Dealer ordering a new heat exchanger as the unit itself has no service parts nor can you just replace the gaskets.

two questions if someone could help me out:
1) how common are these heat exchanger gasket failures? I get infant mortality with new engines (have seen my share of evinrude, Yamaha and merc problems).
2) with the long holiday weekend and our plans to socially distant all of next week on some remote sandbar, any risk to just keep it as is for now? The leak appears to be raw water and not the yellow Volvo coolant.

Any advice would be appreciated.....

Leak area in the pic below:

 

[Omarf4]

Just closing the loop here in case anyone runs into this issue. New heat exchanger was installed and all is well. Upon inspection of the old heat exchanger, you can see a clear deformation in the bottom cap. Not sure if it’s from the factory or the boat wasn’t winterized properly (was with dealer prior to me buying it)....mechanic thinks it was a defect from the factory...see pic below showing separation at the corner....either way, the swap was fairly simple, add coolant and all back to normal.

 

[Scott Danforth]

you know that heat exchangers are repairable, right?

 

[Omarf4]

you know that heat exchangers are repairable, right?

With the engine being still under warranty, Volvo swapped the entire heat exchanger. Based on their parts list, this model heat exchanger comes as a unit and not repairable. The tech couldn’t just order a bottom cap/new gasket.

yes, aware other models/types are repairable.

 

[Lou C]

Yeah just like their $500 each trim rams that aren’t repairable or the $1200 steering actuators that aren’t repairable. Give the aftermarket a few years and it will be!
their parts policies are horrible

 

[Omarf4]

As a follow up here, I had requested a video from Ted on the heat exchanger tear down. He did a great job as always....for those that don’t follow Ted on YouTube, the guy is a rockstar.....no affiliation... just passing on a great resource...

https://youtu.be/D8IMTj-_zy0

 

[muc]

Thank you for posting the follow up.
I looked at a few of Ted’s videos. He’s a good instructor. Wish I would have had him. Might have saved me a few “learn the hard way” lessons.
For those that might see this in the future. A few tips.
Follow Ted’s advice and remove the heat exchanger to service it. I thought it would be faster to not have to drain the antifreeze, and just open it up in place. But that’s not the case. Buy the new orings and pull the exchanger.
2nd tip. Wait until the exchanger is cool before you open it up. The captive nuts all those little bolts screw into have a tendency to break loose and spin in the housing if you try to do this job when the exchanger is hot. It’s easy to ruin a good (and expensive) heat exchanger.
3rd tip. If the areas that you boat in causes the heat exchanger to get plugged up. I highly recommend that you look into Volvo’s sea water strainer. It’s fairly easy to install, is tucked up in a nice location and is easy to service. Only downside (other then price) is that it messes up the “easy drain system”. After installing it you will have to also pull one hose to use the drain system.