Can use PVC for my cooling water intake?
 

I am thinking about running sched 40 pvc pipe for a portion of my raw water intake line. I added an oil cooler and ended up with a custome plumbing situation. Is there any reason I can't hard pipe some of the intake line using PVC?

I bought the hardin marine combo cooller that is thermosat controlled. i had the same issues and i gave it a shot. the inlet would hold but the outlet would blow off. there is no raised edge to the endo fo a pvc elbow like the hose barbs that can be used. it also added length to the cooler and almost touched my risers. it blew off 3 times atttempting to get on plane.

So, learn from my mistake. take the $20 that would have gone to misc fittings and hose and spend $100 with Cp performance for the hardin marine fittings. have not had a single problem with them and they look great!.

You can get barbed Plastic fittings from McMaster-Carr which I ran for a while but had some issues with a cpl of them blowing off on the pressure side of the pump which would be the oil cooler side. I finally replaced them with SS barbed fittings from MC ..The problem was when the oil got it heated the water enough to soften and distort the fittings ...I still have a cpl of plastic fittings but the are before the cooler. also MC has the fittings in Aluminum or Stainless .....m

Find a local hydraulic supply house and go shopping. There are plenty of good hose products out there that will NOT put your engine or worse, your boat at risk. Most have a great selection of some pretty good looking hose and have SS fittings and elbows as needed.

Dont skimp on any part that forces water into your boat... Just not a good idea..

Use the pvc for mock up, then do it permanently in Stainless or copper tubing. You could polish the stainless or paint the copper.

Agree, Since I tried and failed. That $100 was money well spent for peice of mind.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm not looking to skimp. I'm really looking for the best way to connect a line between two 1 1/4" hose nipples, and pvc seemed like the best alternative to a "molded hose".

Seems to me that regardless of wether I use PVC, copper, or stainless the weak link will be the connection to the cooler which will be 1 1/4" hose with a hose clamp.

I found some SS fittings at Tractor supply. Any hydraulic shop should be able to help you out too. I made a plastic setup strictly for flusing on the trailer, but I would not trust it for running.

-Artie

I ran into the same thing on mine and I used stainless steel tubing I made up, it was easy and free since I work at a power plant I have access to a complete machine shop at work and I have even had the machinist custom make some outdrive parts.