2007 D9 500 Piston Failure: engine fitted to Fairline Targa 47 GT

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woodie1000

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The engine has done only 400 hours and has full service history, we bought the boat new in 2007. I've attached a photo fo the faulty piston which appears to have melted. Volvo say the only engine fault found was 'low fuel delivery' after an injector test, they had expected over delivery so they want us to pay to test the fuel. I'm no expert, but if the fuel was at fault why would only 1 of the 6 pistons on that engine have any heat damage? The other engine seems fine as does the generator. Does anyone have any experience or views on what could have caused this? The engine is basically a write off because some of the piston rings from number one have ended up in the other cylinders and apparently damaged the Turbo along with everything else.

Thanks very much and any help appreciated!
 
Low fuel delivery implies to me a lean mixture - nothing wrong with the actual fuel. Lean mixture burns hot and burns pistons etc. I would be looking at the injector and everything else related to the mixture on that cylinder.
 
Dont understand why bits of piston ring have made it into any other cylinders , logic would say the only way out would be through exhuast valve and then the turbo . Unless its one of volvos chuck away blocks i would try new piston ,rings , valves on that cylinder and new turbo ( hone cylinder and grind valve seats if poss ) . A new engine seams a bit extreme to me !!
 
Blimey. To state the obvious, that shouldn't happen at 400hrs on a boat serviced every yeear and one owner from new 2007. So it's very bad form of volvo not covering a chunk of the cost

It's hard to diagnose and I'd want Latestarter01's views on the engineering plus VolvoPaul and Col's experience of D9s in the field.

The low fuel delivery by that injector is a complex subject. As elton says, low fuel delivery means a leaner mixture so the temperature of the burning fuel will be higher. BUT, and it's a big BUT, the temperature of the burning fuel isn't the end of the story. The quantity of heat energy per rev released in the cylinder from a lean mixture caused by an under-delivering injector is lower than from a normal mixture, and that will tend to make that cylinder cooler. So it's very difficult to piece this together

There's nothing wrong with the fuel. It is the same source as mine and half the other boats around there and none of us has had this trouble. Plus your other D9 and genset are fine. So this has definitely been caused by a fault within the engine
 
I can not see the fuel being a problem as said above that Cly would just run less efficient and also run cooler nothing there to course over heating if that was the reason it would be down to lack of lubrication which if that was the case it would have wrecked the whole engine not just one piston alone.
Rings can break up but don't usually burst there way though the top of pistons in slow revving engines so they need a good coat of looking at.
It could quite possibly be the piston it's self failed due to an internal fault.
(A small cavity in the casting/forging billet manufacture it can develop into a fatigue failure) have it examined by a Metallurgist Engineer.
The type of guy who investigates the broken bits from aircraft crashes, any one know of one?.
Once a bit brakes free it will do all sorts of damage in less than 10 revs.
Then temperature of that piston would rise rapidly and create a partial seizure in the cylinder bore and that would give all the Symptom's of over heating and Volvo will make all the excuses they can to get out of admitting a simple failure of the piston, which of course these days should not happen.
 
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Hi Adam, to my knowledge and to be honest I have heard about 2 boats now with injector failures both were 575 engines fom memory.

What happens is the engine sounds rough running, will only pull about 1600rpm under load but shows no edc/evc faults.

The exhaust pours white smoke out showing poor combustion.

I the past years I have come across many kad 44 and 300s that are blown to pieces, pistons, valves etc.

To try and source the problem is very diffficult as many people involved will give a different account, its like the chicken and egg situation.

IE which part failed first, was it say the piston melting due to poor oil, blocked piston cooling jet, high oil temp, high coolant temp, as the piston failed and broke up parts have been blown everwhere including at the injector nozzle, with this happening its very difficult unless the injector works on test to prove the injector did the damage.

As the engine is not actually common rain tech it has a priming pump to the 6 injectors supplying low pressure then the camshaft finger builds the pressure, its then injected electronically with variable timing according to rpm, temp load, throttle position etc, PWM etc, so the engines brain could be at fault too .

Which dealer has stripped it, do you have a report from when the vodia tool was plugged in, this will tell you the history/data temp, rpm, relative load, fuel temp(very important) if they are trying to blame the fuel, this will reveal all when it went bang!

In my opinion most engines can be rebuilt with parts to a point where warranty and economic figures kick in, maybe its that whoever is dealing with it doesnt want to warrant an engine afterwards in that state of damage, and maybe quite right, that outcome is down to you if the warranty is being rejected, and a you say you have FSH since new and you being the owner fom new,all very difficult I know but I doubt fuel quality is the issue here more like a faulty part/parts culminating into this problem. A lot of dealers will say its down to bad luck, in a truck you would get a first hand honest explantion, moody off this forum works with dealers/ manufacturers vans and trucks, most probs are sorted far easier than in the marine world.

I would also add that as the owner I would not accept anything at this point until the ngine has been removed and totally stripped down as all you can see is the top of the piston crown, you need to look at the skirt, rings, conrod etc along with the other 5 pistons and crank before anything can be concrete evidence to the failure.
 
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Paul, totally agree that you need more data than just that pic looking downwards. Need to know if oil cooler jet underneath piston was working. As you know it wasn't poor quality oil in there; it was shell rimula 15w40 and it had been changed about 50 hours before the failure

At the time of the failure all dashboard gauges were showing normal readings. Boat was about 5 miles out of home port so engines had been running say 30mins including marina manoeuvres, and boat was crusing along at 18-19knots medium cruise, not blasting along. 7 pax, and clean bottom on boat because recently antifouled, so no overloading. Revs just fell off on that engine down to idle rpm, white smoke as you say, so engine was shut down. It didn't seize and it didn't make any unusual noises throughout.

Do you have more detail on the two D9 failures you've looked at?
 
woodie1000 very sorry to hear about this. You dont say whether Volvo have flatly refused to contribute to the repair or not? Also has anyone said how debris from the damage has found it's way into the other cylinders? Via the oil?
How about getting an independent metallurgy testing company in to analyse the failed components? It might provide you with some ammunition as would an independent expert report on the engine itself
 
woodie1000 said:
The engine has done only 400 hours and has full service history, we bought the boat new in 2007. I've attached a photo fo the faulty piston which appears to have melted. Volvo say the only engine fault found was 'low fuel delivery' after an injector test, they had expected over delivery so they want us to pay to test the fuel. I'm no expert, but if the fuel was at fault why would only 1 of the 6 pistons on that engine have any heat damage? The other engine seems fine as does the generator. Does anyone have any experience or views on what could have caused this? The engine is basically a write off because some of the piston rings from number one have ended up in the other cylinders and apparently damaged the Turbo along with everything else.

Thanks very much and any help appreciated!
Click to expand...

I am looking at it, will PM my comments
 
We had the boat initially diagnosed in France but the repair price was very high as the boat is berthed in Antibes they just wanted to replace the engine at retail, plus the work to get the engine out of the boat was quite involved being a hard top you have to remove some of the floor and aft seating to make room for the engine to come out so we contacted Essex boatyards who had a truck in the area and now the boat is back in Essex, they have removed the engine and the cylinder head to save costs then the local Volvo agent Volspec have carried out the injector test and taken fuel samples. They (Volspec) have asked for us to pay £400 towards getting the fuel analysed we just felt this could be barking up the wrong tree. I will find out if they have any vodia information. I have a couple of extra photos of the other pistons, all pistons and liners are damaged beyond repair.
 
Adam, the vodia reaings will give an idea as to which problem has caused the injector to fail you need these readings to fight your case, if its just an injector failure which it looks like then the outcome for you might not be that good.

Latestarter will come back with real tech on this subject I have also sent yo another pm.
 
I find it hard to believe that a faulty injector could cause such damage around the edge of the piston, and so quickly - if the boat was running normally before it shut down. I'd be looking at the piston cooling nozzle on that cylinder very closely.
 
Jim@sea said:
Pity you cant buy Extended Warrenties for Boat Engines like you can with cars.
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Simple answer is yes you can, and as far as I am aware they are proper factory backed extended five year packages on CAT, Cummins, MAN and Volvo etc.

However Volvo is a little different from other manufacturers in their terminology. For RECEATIONAL use two year base warranty is the norm, offered by everybody with a pretty worthless coverage of major components block etc usually up to six years. I say worthless cos I refer to it as warranty on the parts which do not break, block crank etc, sounds good when the salesman puts it over.

Then you add on a three year extended coverage package which either has to be paid up front or dependant on manufacturer sometimes before end of expiry of first year, but in all cases before expiry of base two year warranty.

Volvo Penta confuse the picture slightly, in US market forces mean that their warranty fits the above description i.e. two years base plus three year extension. However in Europe VP refer to warranty as one year plus second year as extended warranty with caveats regarding servicing by approved VP dealers. Then I assume VP offer the additional three year bolt on, however this is where my Green engine knowledge is deficient. Reading warranty terms and conditions is a good cure for insomnia.

Now as usual, the big however warranty is exactly what it says warranty against faulty materials or manufacture, it is NOT a guarantee!

Having spent many years on both sides of the fence trying to arbitrate, nailing down a warrantable failure is like herding cats. Unrealistic expectations over extended warranties often lead to big arguments.
 
Can you imagine the unfortunate situation where someone could have bought this boat yesterday as a 3 year old boat with only 400 hours on the clock, and today on their first trip out the engine goes into "meltdown" And if it was bought off a "Broker" neither the broker nor the original owner could be expected to contribute towards the cost.
Engine manufacturers do sometimes make a manufacturing mistake, or a part was fitted which had an unnoticed manufacturing defect.
But consider this, as your engine has only done 400 hours I would consider that as you are the original purchaser I would suggest you have a claim against the boat manufacturer as 400 hours is nothing.
Are you aware that under EU Legislation that we are entitled to a 6 year warrenty. This was highlighted when someone bought a TV from Tesco and 1 month after the 2 year guarantee ran out it broke down and Tesco Refused to repair it. However the owner knew the law and forced Tesco to give him a new one under the 6 year rule.
In your case I would ask the Trading Standards for their opinion. I did over 30 years ago when I had a brand new Princess 33, which I was able to return for "not being of merchantable quality" and "not as described" and in the last 30 years things have improved for consumers.
And finally, as it appears that other owners of D9 500 Engines have also experienced problems perhaps Volvo are aware of this and hope that it doesn't become common knowledge otherwise they will have to do a recall, which will cost them so much it doesn't bear thinking about. But that's life.
And this foreum is superb as without it we would be "mushrooms" ie., fed on S**t and kept in the dark.
 
Jim, there is a whole lot more that goes off re boats built by reputable uk companies that we never get to hear about, I heard about an under 30ft boat built in the midlands whos hull was so badly cracked it was returned to the factory, stripped out and chopped up with a still saw and placed in a skip.

Im with Adam on this one 400 hours is not right, there must be something wrong with the engine, many forum members refer to only boat engine being faulty, this does happen in the automotive industry too, I worked in that sector of Plant and Industrial from school for 10 years and trust me it also has many faults, even more so now with the advent of common rail injection, MF john deere to name but a few are all having these problems I still have mates in that trade to talk about, it seems common rail and new emission engines are still unreliable.
 
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