Cat C12 (2006) Heat Exchangers, to clean or replace?

[Portofino]

Very nice Cat engineer filled me full of fear of certain catastrophe if these were too far gone... along the lines of 'sitting there in salty water', the engines are in good order, low hours, nice dry engine room, etc etc... I'm starting to feel that I've been sowed this seed of concern and it's been growing out of control... Can I reasonably just use the running temps as the best guide as to whether they're starting to stifle the cooling and need attention?

Yes go along and take her out
Also what SH is there --any old invoices --reg oil changes etc ,been a coolent change any time ?
You could take an "engineer " or a Infered thermomitor ( Maplins a tenner ) and "scan " the stacks while running -take some ear defenders !

But yes you can have nightmares wondering - if this , if that ,or t,other is going to go bang !
Or buy a new boat + warranties .
If well looked after 10y --should be ok .
Mine (similar 13 L ) are 2003 and got it in 2014 ---after it was hangered for 3-1/2 years --yup moth balled .

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Can I reasonably just use the running temps as the best guide as to whether they're starting to stifle the cooling and need attention?

I'm no expert as you can see from the above but isn't that what its all about? If you're concerned that the engines haven't been serviced for a few years (and then you'd be right to be concerned), have the Cat guy remove one heat exchanger for inspection. If its clear then you're OK. If it isn't then get both cleaned. The time to be worried would be if the heat exchanger he removed was in pieces but don't worry about it until then because its very unlikely

 

[volvopaul]

Very nice Cat engineer filled me full of fear of certain catastrophe if these were too far gone... along the lines of 'sitting there in salty water', the engines are in good order, low hours, nice dry engine room, etc etc... I'm starting to feel that I've been sowed this seed of concern and it's been growing out of control... Can I reasonably just use the running temps as the best guide as to whether they're starting to stifle the cooling and need attention?

A simple answer to that would be over in a morning sea trial with an engineer and a heat sensor gun recording inlet and outlet temps.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I'm trying to decide whether or not to do mine at the moment. 10 years old 1280 hours, no apparent heating/cooling symptoms. Thinking of selling the boat, would it help sell it if the work had already been done????

You might get €9000 more for your boat

Thanks for the explanation

 

[kashurst]

"Very nice Cat engineer filled me full of fear of certain catastrophe if these were too far gone... along the lines of 'sitting there in salty water', the engines are in good order, low hours, nice dry engine room, etc etc..." Of course they sit there full of salty water thats what they are there for. However a fair bit of water usually drains out of the inner core tubes when the engines stop. The inner core of the heat exchangers are usually made from very high quality material to resist corrosion etc for a very very long time - even Volvo ones! As long as the anodes have been changed all will be well. The outside of the cooling tubes in the gearbox oil cooler is full of oil, so nothing to worry about there, the engine coolant heat exchanger are full of anti freeze mix so thats all fine too. The charge air cooler is full off fresh air (albeit ever so slightly salty) so not much happening there either. If the charge air cooler was bunged up on the air side because the turbo was leaking oil you would notice a drop off in power. Worst case some tubes will be bunged up with some deposits- easy to remove.
You are being wound up, Find a new engineer, this one isn't very nice at all. Plenty of recomendations on here and I believe VolvoPaul does CATs too. With such low hours it may be worth putting a mini camera inside them to see if there is any significant deposits at all.

 

[Phildorset]

Some great advice - thank you chaps. Kashurst, your description of the what where and why is really useful, cheers.
I'm going to stop fretting so much and assume the engines are as good as the rest of the boat for now. 'Am getting a full service done anyway in a few weeks, partly based on what Finnings reply with in their report from their engine survey earlier this week. That might have evidence to either prompt me to investigate more or give me reason to leave alone and trust the build quality.

 

[crossy]

Hmmm. Nobody so far has talked about replacing, so it's all about marine growth and crud build up in the little tubes & how best to remove it. I'm too new to big engines to think about tackling this myself, but it doesn't seem to be a franchised engine co type job... Can anyone recommend maybe an independent Cat experienced engineer that might like to do this in Poole? Volvopaul gets lots of great praise here - but the (your ) name suggests maybe prefering to stick to VP?

Mike Wills and his team know CAT engines well and do all the work on mine. He is based in Cobbs and I would certainly recommend him.

 

[petem]

Btw can anyone explain what the technician does with the heat exchangers once they are removed from the engines? In other words how are they cleaned?

Probably pump Ridlyme through them .

 

[omega2]

With bowman equipment, the end caps are removed, and the "O" rings examined, the core is "persuaded" out of the housing, the faces of the end caps and housing are checked for erosion "different metal" fatigue, the core is either power washed to remove external crud, or even given a bath, the reeds are poked clear with a thin rod, then reassembled. None of the above needs doing unless you like us are getting hot, or mixing fresh water with sea water, a simple test to determine the "mixing is to taste the water in the header tank, if it's salty then you have a problem, it should taste sweet (anti freeze)