Was cruising around over the 4th and power steering cooler sprung a leak (stock merc ) causing low fluid and erratic steering (didn't know it was leaking at first). I have already replaced this junk cooler twice and also had it repaired a few times. It's mounted like a stock 502 mpi acrossed back of bellhousing, has a little metal tag silver brazed on it which is the cause of most leaks. I bypassed the cooler and ran the rest of the wknd. My question is do boats really need power steering coolers anyways? I could see when mine was stock and had virtually no capacity but I have converted my boat to twin ram full hydraulic to the helm,I would think the fluid in the rams would be cooled by contact with water and the extra capacity from all the hoses would moderate the temp. I have too much stuff packed in my engine compartment and would like to ELIMINATE the cooler completely,not add a heavier duty,bigger one. Would this be a mistake,has anyone actually had there power steering fluid get hot and foam up or do something un-expected? My boat drove fine all day on the 4th without a cooler so I'm really leaning towards just tearing it out,Smitty

I have often wondered that myself. please let me know your findings.
Steve

Anyone else? Did all bbc boats even have them from the factory? Smitty

I really don't see a need for them for the most part, I worked at a dealership years ago doing steering work, only a very few vehicles used P/S coolers, most don't, the pump on these boats is just a std GM pump and the engine room temp much lower on boats than cars/trucks usually....the control valve assy, is a take off from a older ford or corvette type....so I don't see a big issue here....you could run for a while see if the fluid gets dark or you notice anything with the steering...Rob

we have had p/s pumps come to us burned up do to no coolers. when we checked the engine bay temp it was well over 500 f under the hatch. remember that the oil in the ram lines does not return to the tank, it stays in the rams and hoses so very little oil does all of the work in the system. the system only needs a cooler if you have more oil flow than work (ie steering).the oil gets hotter when running straight , than when steering.this is caused by the pump running up to pressure and not doing any work with the oil that it is pumping.most coolers for power steering are to big just to cool the engine compartment.remember that p/s oil does not like to be hotter than 140f . you should be able to touch any component of the system and not get burned or (ouch test). if you can not do this you need a cooler.

Good info, jb-fse. I have been following this to see if an intelligent answer could be given. The "ouch" test seems reasonable.

500f for a bilge tempature?
Steve

Temps will vary however seems a little high considering most engines run less than half that. I never have checked the temps in the bilge though so I can't honestly say what the norm is. I do recall checking on something in the engine compartment years ago on a boat with the hatch closed while running. It was a little uncomfortable however I didn't make it on the 1,000 ways to die show... LOL

I know mine does not get anywhere near that hot. I have run the boat hard for 20 mins staight and then opened the hatch and it was warm in there, but i guarantee not more than 200 degrees max. 500 degrees would melt some of the plastic crap in there at that temp.

500 degrees- highly unlikely.