23 IB - How Many Drips for Stuffing Box? How do you Adjust?
 

I recently repacked the stuffing box in my new to me 23SF inboard. I put the packing nut on hand tight, and did not over crank after installing new GTU packing. I tightened the lock nut up, and took her out for about an hour/hour and a half. Everything I read online said to do this to conduct the initial break in period of the packing. Well, 1.5 hours later my stuffing box is up to 120 F per my IR Temp Gun - Too hot!

Since then I backed it off even more, and kept running it, adjusting it, trying to get it to drip every few seconds at cruise, more sparingly at idle, and as little as possible at rest.

I am curious as to what other IB owners have done adjusting stuffing boxes in these hulls, and what everyone gets on average for a drip?

A guess is that the "tunnel" sometimes induces cavitation, but I find it hard to believe this would make the packing nut that hot.

I think at this point I may pull the packing out and start over again using regular flax packing since the GTU seems to drip more than the regular stuff I pulled out.

Thoughts? Thanks in advance for the help!

So I decided to repack the stuffing box again.

Went a lot better this time. Once new packing was in place, I hand tightened the packing nut on and stopped once I felt any pressure against the new packing.

I ran the boat well, constantly checking for temp, for about 2 hours. It was still dripping pretty good, almost a constant stream.

I backed off the lock nut, hand tightened again about 1.5/2 flats of the packing nut, and seems to be the right spot.

Barely drips on the mooring, drips every 5-6 seconds while cruising.

I think the lesson is to NOT over tighten the packing nut with new packing. I repacked with GTU again, and this time it seems to be packed correctly and working right.

Even after cruising for a few hours I can still put my hand on the packing nut, highest temp recorded was high 88.4 F.

Glad it went better for you. Not a lot of inboards out there which is probably why you haven't had any responses. Good luck with it!

John,

Congrats on the new IB. I have had similar experiences with Ultra x. You have to go real loose for break in and keep adjusting for the first 5 or so hrs.
The graphite packings will generate higher temps I am told because they transfer heat better. I have had 140 on break in and backed off a few times to get temps down. Runs cooler now but have had to adjust a few times over the last 70hrs. Do you have 1.25 shaft and are you using 1/4 "packing?

Thanks guys, I know its a rare boat which is why I jumped on it when it popped up locally!

Yes, I repacked it again and left it WAY loose this time for break in. Worked much better, this time around.

Shaft is 1-1/4" and the packing is 1/4".

Inboard Packing
 

John,

I have a 1 1/4" shaft and used 3/16" packing. It my understanding that it should drip 3-4 drips per minute at rest. The inboard is new to me also, so others may have other input.

Barry

A while back there was some good info on this subject and a link or video that was posted by Miles Offshore a member on here. You can do a search or maybe he will chime in but I think he was running 3/16 packing instead of 1/4.
He also had posted a lot of good info on resto or repairs on the 23IB.

Awesome information guys thank you.

Maybe mine was so tough breaking in because I was using too big a packing size? The old stuff I pulled out was 1/4" but maybe the previous owner measured wrong. This may depend on the packing gland and nut as well?

As an update, packing seems to be doing good and not overheating anymore. Only time it gets warm (and I can still put my hand on it) is when I run above 3000 RPMs for an extended period of time.

On a side note, I can cruise at 2600 RPMs doing 18 knots with the tabs down a little bit. How did they not make more of these hulls :confused: Loving the switch to the inboard.

John,

Glad to hear that things are going well with the packing. By the way I ended up taking my tabs off after losing several fish that managed to dive under the boat and breaking the line when hooked up rather than wanting to come aboard. The boat still stays on plain very well without the tabs even at lower rpm and handles just as good in rough water without them. The only time I miss them is when the crew doesn't stay where you want them and the boat leans to one side or another while under way. Getting the crew in tune with there positions relative to the boats attitude has been a lot better than the tabs ever reacted anyway. I cannot answer why they didn't make more inboards than the 78 or so (according to this site) but after down sizing from a 34 footer I can say these boats offer unbelievable performance. I have owned a few SeaCrafts w/ IO and Out Boards over the years and really liked them but have been very impressed w/' the Inboard. Especially the way the wind has blowing this yea.r

Moving People Instead of Tabs
 

As Bushwacker has remarked before, Bob Reiland (rest his soul) probably made over 25 trips between WPB and the Bahamas in his "Unoho" 21' SeaCraft with an I/O which he bought from Carl at the Miami boat show. He always moved people, coolers or whatever around to maintain trim. I was on a couple trips with him, but on another boat.