Another 'smoke' question

[chillout]

Hi All,
First post on this forum and from previous posts on this I know its a subject thats close to many peoples hearts , not!
I have a Fairline phantom 41 , 500 hours on the clock and well cared for by the previous owners.The engines are VP TAMD72's and for the most part they are well behaved , run well , start without any fuss etc.
But, SB engine produces 3 times as much smoke as the Port engine on startup - white or grey smoke- not black.
I have had the injectors taken out and tested - no problems there, new fuel and air filters- lots of Fuel set when filling the tank, put Soltron in at last fill also- no water in the fuel as far as I can tell.
Once we get the boat on the plane all traces of smoke are gone.Drop into tickover / idle and within 5 mins smoke is back on the SB engine ,but the port engine remains clear.Thats the strange thing one good engine and one bad ,anyone else have this problem?
At this point the boat yard are saying it 'might' be the injection pump ,the fuel pump, this that and the other etc etc - I could spend a lot of money without fixing the problem.
I know some VP engines smoke a lot and from reading other posts on the subject I know many of you have had similar issues- should I give up now and just get on with life?
thanks.

 

[Col]

Is this something new or has it always done it?
Have you checked compression, tappets and pump timing?

 

[hlb]

If performance is normal and it's not useing any oil, I would not worry, my engines smoke on starting, but soon clear when warm. I HAD THE ENGINES OUT A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO. Upp's, for other reasons. But guess they got a chimney sweep as well.

My experience points to over fueling at start up, then soot in the pipes, not allot you can do about it, less forever stripping pipes.

Soltron used to work well, but that was when we could afford to give the boat a blast, for a hundred miles or more. There seems to be no subtitute from blasting diesels hard, whether we can afford it is another thing. Maybe port got a new tubo and a chimney sweep. I would not bother about it a great deal.

 

[rafiki_]

I have a pair of Merc Diesels. They both smoke on start-up and idle, even when hot, but clear at above 1200 revs. No performance issues etc, so inclined to leave alone. Someone has told me that the injectors need re-setting, others have said the engines need a hood blast.

If performance and reliability are OK, I would be inclined to leave well alone.

 

[coastwise]

Is it smoke or is it steam?
I had a similar problem with a twin volvo TAM installation on a boat I use to charter for running training courses. The owner had his own Volvo engineer who said - these engines always smoke. My question .... why is it only one engine and getting worse? Answer... no problem , they always smoke. Same question from me a few weeks later... it is getting worse and the exhaust is now barking. Answer ... no problem. The next week the engine would not turn over . Cylinders had water in them from a leak in the aftercooler allowing sea water cooling into the cylinders through the inlet valves.
Result - major rebuild.
Not saying this is your problem and hope it isnt, but if it gets bad & it is steam, nip it in the bud before expensive damage.

 

[volvopaul]

Hi as per cols theory it could be pump timing, as the bypass valve is shut at lower revs the charge air is not passing throught the intercooler so I doubt the intercooler is leaking sea water into the cylinders and giving steam that may look like grey smoke.

Before you have the pump off and I wouldnt think its that, have the timing checked though if it was retarded which causes grey smoke the engine would start badly and not perform as good as the other in terms of high rpm, try each engine in gear flat out and record the attained rpm, then do the other and compare it, if the faulty smokey engine is down on rpm compared to the good one you know there is a problem that need further investigation.

The 72 was not that good an engine, too overfuelled for its cc, maybe the wastegate on the turbo is playing up, does the engine breathe smoke out of the breather filter showing signs of blowby the piston rings, these engines were known for it.

Dont suppose the boats "muttley" in Lymington?

 

[omega2]

smoke??

Until you have seen ours at start up you do not know what smoke is. We have the radar on before we start, and leave the berth as soon as they fire up, having been to all our neighbours to apologise before we do anything. Once under the load the smoke goes, and when warm they are clean as whistle, on our return to the berth we have about 1/2 mile of tickover speed through the trots and by the time we are tied up we are smoking again. We have had many "couch engineers" giving advice but we ignore them, as you should. Also we have a "bad" engine and a "good" one, ours is bad port, good starboard. Until they stop they will have remain as such.

 

[Rabbit]

Oh smoke!

Hi there,

A pair of 180 sabres.


NOW THATS Smoke.

As you say the neighbours are reasonably understanding?

But we too have to get in gear and get out quick.

kind regards,

Les.

 

[hlb]

Oi, are you trying to take prime position on smoke from Mucky Farter. You'll get a long run fer yer money. MF is quite famous for smoke and will not tolerate intruders.

Our neighbours arn't understanding at all, there all dead. Mind, we get little complaint these days.

 

[chillout]

Thanks to all for your advice.
Both engines perform at the same RPM under load- flat out about 2500, start without a problem , do not use any oil (none needed over the past 100 hours) and except for the excess smoke I would say they are perfect .
I should have stated from the outset that my technical knowledge on engines is nil.As most of you have said its not an uncommon issue with boats.I would not mind spending money to get it fixed but as many options have been suggested and the mechanic who has worked on the boat has stated - no guarantee that said action would fix the problem -but I will discuss your suggestions with him and see what he comes up with .
thanks again for your help.
regards

 

[mjf]

Are you running each engine from seperate tanks or common feed?

 

[chillout]

Both engines have their own tank and are run seperatly.I put a good dose of soltron in the SB tank last Oct, but its too soon to say if its had any impact as not much boating done over past 4 months .