Charge Air coolers D9 1250 hours.

[kashurst]

My D9s are at 1250 hours and 8 years old now. I read NickH´s thread about D12s and it got me wondering. Touch wood everything seems OK (thats bu""ered it). No smoke or soot from the exhausts, All pressures and temps, boost pressure etc are all spot on and almost identical when I compare port and starboard engines. Engine temps sit at 90 degrees C even in 36 degree sea water. I´m reluctant to pull bits off unneccesarily however do Charge coolers need stripping periodically to check for any water leaks as there doesn´t seem to be a way to tell unless one fails big style. Not so worried about gearbox cooler and fresh water cooler as the various fluids would go cloudy or milky, change level etc and you can check that by sight. Charge air cooler on a D9 doesn´t seem to have any sort of drain on the bottom to check for any water inside so if a small leak is developing you wouldn´t know. I´m probably being paranoid but any suggestions how to test in situ.

 

[BartW]

yes I know the feeling,
you hear about a problem from someone else, and you immediately start thinking what's going on with your engines ;-)
I frequently check different spots on both engine with the IR heat gun, and compare, and nevertheless had a heat problem with huge damage (heat gun was broken in that period )
but I still think it is good practice to compare the temps on different spots from both engines

FWIW, I had my intercoolers (MAN) checked about 2y ago, and also last season, they were in perfect shape,
(3500hrs and 24yo) Volvo might be different

there are parts on VP engines that are very vulnerable for corrosion,
on my D3's, the variable turbo, and a cooling water tube on the back of the engine (?)
on the D12 see NickH's post
on D6 (or D4?) the exhaust risers
but others might know better
the VP engineers on here might give more and better advice.

 

[volvopaul]

I serviced kevin V48 coolers , the hear exchanger and inter coolers were quite bad , new o rings , a scrape over the tubes and a rod through sorted them , build up and flush through with rydelime , start up and see the growth out the exhaust , kevin reported back a significant drop in running temp especially at wot which in your area has give worth a few HP and a fuel reduction.

 

[kashurst]

so If I understand you right Paul, its probably worth pulling them all apart and getting everything bright and shiny again, or run some rydelyme through them and clean them internally without stripping down.

 

[volvopaul]

so If I understand you right Paul, its probably worth pulling them all apart and getting everything bright and shiny again, or run some rydelyme through them and clean them internally without stripping down.

Very easy to take end caps off for a proper inspection.