Hardmy
Well-Known Member
When I bought the boat a couple of years ago, the very first thing I did was to install EGTs on both sides. It proved useful to show temps under different loads (it would sometimes sound the alarm when running the boat on very long passages at slow speeds, i.e. before turbos kick in) and it gave me of course great peace of mind should something go wrong with the raw water flow.
The two past years, the fiberglass exhaust tubes started to slightly leak (the boat is 28 years old), so I decided to change them this spring and install at the same time Centek mufflers. We relaunched the boat last week in Preveza with the aft cabin furniture dismantled in order to check if all was fine. The EGT sensors weren’t fitted back, because I was in a hurry and we wanted to undertake a minicruise with SWMBO and a friend.
So off we went towards the N-entrance of Levkas canal, a short 9 NM passage. My friend was helming from the fly and I was hunting potential leaks (and CO emissions) as well as checking relevant temps with the laser thermometer. All was working fine; water was flowing out of the exhausts so I joined the others on the fly, relieved that the project was successful (and the sound dampening effect was really noticeable).
Soon after, I went down again to drink something and routinely checked the transom, to find out that no water was flowing from the port exhaust anymore! I ran to the helm where the engine temp gauge was just shy of hitting the 100° mark, so I immediately killed it and went in the engine room. A slight smell of silicone (or similar) was noticeable and I quickly found out that the raw water pump belt sprang out of the pulley. Note that the annual service had just been carried out!
Seas were calm so we kept going on one shaft towards the canal entrance. Our luck was that there wasn’t too much traffic in front of the closed bridge (other crews, though looked a bit p****d when we overtook them) and we were able to go alongside on one engine which went quite well because luckily, the usual trade winds didn’t kick in yet. A half an hour later our mechanic was already there and diagnosed a faulty OEM CAT belt which had 0 hours on it. He fitted it back for testing purposes, and it jumped away as soon as we exceeded around 1600RPMs! In 30 years of his career, this happened only for the second time. Unfortunately I didn’t shot a pic of the twist of the faulty part for the forum. But even a trained eye wouldn't have notice it at first sight.
I would put my hand in the fire for my mechanic, Simon Trippier the sole capable CAT expert in the whole area with whom I very happily work since 4 years. He only uses OEM parts, shows the receipts and gives me back the old parts. He fitted back the old belt (which I kept as spare after only 80 hours of use), and we kept going on with an uneventful minicruise (well nearly, since we had a leaking stainless steel fresh water tank, but this is another story and is also about to be solved).
The question is, what would have happened if the raw water flow would have gone unnoticed (altogether or longer than around 5-10 min)?
- Would the muffler and the tubing have melted away? The Centek specs say 176° continuous peak temps, but engine fumes can certainly reach 400° and more.
- Is there an overheating protection on old fully mechanical CAT 3208TAs? If yes, does it kick-in early enough before something starts to burn somewhere down the exhaust system and/or irremediable damages are incurred to the engines?
Voilà, for all those who read this rather lengthy write-up: please install EGTs and don't rely to luck only. 2 x €170 won’t break the bank and give really great piece of mind. In my case, Murphy’s law proved to be true and an event with catastrophic potential materialized the only time I used the boat without EGTs fitted. Needless to say, that our EGT probes go back in right now!
Finally I would like to add, that one should never ever issue a Pan-Pan in Greece, save when lives are really in danger.
And since a post without pics is useless, here were are:
Levkas canal N-entrance (with its new quay 30 minutes after the failure)
Our playground E of Levkas
I nearly pulled this rickety pier away. Only to be used in flat calm conditions!
The two past years, the fiberglass exhaust tubes started to slightly leak (the boat is 28 years old), so I decided to change them this spring and install at the same time Centek mufflers. We relaunched the boat last week in Preveza with the aft cabin furniture dismantled in order to check if all was fine. The EGT sensors weren’t fitted back, because I was in a hurry and we wanted to undertake a minicruise with SWMBO and a friend.
So off we went towards the N-entrance of Levkas canal, a short 9 NM passage. My friend was helming from the fly and I was hunting potential leaks (and CO emissions) as well as checking relevant temps with the laser thermometer. All was working fine; water was flowing out of the exhausts so I joined the others on the fly, relieved that the project was successful (and the sound dampening effect was really noticeable).
Soon after, I went down again to drink something and routinely checked the transom, to find out that no water was flowing from the port exhaust anymore! I ran to the helm where the engine temp gauge was just shy of hitting the 100° mark, so I immediately killed it and went in the engine room. A slight smell of silicone (or similar) was noticeable and I quickly found out that the raw water pump belt sprang out of the pulley. Note that the annual service had just been carried out!
Seas were calm so we kept going on one shaft towards the canal entrance. Our luck was that there wasn’t too much traffic in front of the closed bridge (other crews, though looked a bit p****d when we overtook them) and we were able to go alongside on one engine which went quite well because luckily, the usual trade winds didn’t kick in yet. A half an hour later our mechanic was already there and diagnosed a faulty OEM CAT belt which had 0 hours on it. He fitted it back for testing purposes, and it jumped away as soon as we exceeded around 1600RPMs! In 30 years of his career, this happened only for the second time. Unfortunately I didn’t shot a pic of the twist of the faulty part for the forum. But even a trained eye wouldn't have notice it at first sight.
I would put my hand in the fire for my mechanic, Simon Trippier the sole capable CAT expert in the whole area with whom I very happily work since 4 years. He only uses OEM parts, shows the receipts and gives me back the old parts. He fitted back the old belt (which I kept as spare after only 80 hours of use), and we kept going on with an uneventful minicruise (well nearly, since we had a leaking stainless steel fresh water tank, but this is another story and is also about to be solved).
The question is, what would have happened if the raw water flow would have gone unnoticed (altogether or longer than around 5-10 min)?
- Would the muffler and the tubing have melted away? The Centek specs say 176° continuous peak temps, but engine fumes can certainly reach 400° and more.
- Is there an overheating protection on old fully mechanical CAT 3208TAs? If yes, does it kick-in early enough before something starts to burn somewhere down the exhaust system and/or irremediable damages are incurred to the engines?
Voilà, for all those who read this rather lengthy write-up: please install EGTs and don't rely to luck only. 2 x €170 won’t break the bank and give really great piece of mind. In my case, Murphy’s law proved to be true and an event with catastrophic potential materialized the only time I used the boat without EGTs fitted. Needless to say, that our EGT probes go back in right now!
Finally I would like to add, that one should never ever issue a Pan-Pan in Greece, save when lives are really in danger.
And since a post without pics is useless, here were are:
Levkas canal N-entrance (with its new quay 30 minutes after the failure)
Our playground E of Levkas
I nearly pulled this rickety pier away. Only to be used in flat calm conditions!
