Keeping engines in good shape

[gordmac]

I would tend to go at about hull speed until I see the thermostats opening.

 

[dragoon]

run them, in neutral, from idle speed to pretty much full revs.

Ouch! The thought of a somewhat cold engine running up to full revs stirs something in my memory....

Many moons ago I worked for a company that managed to get a contract servicing diesel fire pumps at customer premises (warehouses, superstores and the like). I was sent on most of these jobs. They were tested weekly which basically meant an employee pushing a test button - this fired up the engines and ran them straight to working speed (around 3000 rpm) from cold. Once they were started and run for a minute or so, they were then shut off (at 3,000 rpm)....you could hear the turbos spinning for some time after shutdown.....I used to hate watching this...I didn't get the impression that the life expectancy of these motors was so long.

 

[Latestarter1]

Ouch! The thought of a somewhat cold engine running up to full revs stirs something in my memory....

Many moons ago I worked for a company that managed to get a contract servicing diesel fire pumps at customer premises (warehouses, superstores and the like). I was sent on most of these jobs. They were tested weekly which basically meant an employee pushing a test button - this fired up the engines and ran them straight to working speed (around 3000 rpm) from cold. Once they were started and run for a minute or so, they were then shut off (at 3,000 rpm)....you could hear the turbos spinning for some time after shutdown.....I used to hate watching this...I didn't get the impression that the life expectancy of these motors was so long.

Nobody is suggesting running cold engines at WOT.

However if you have seen Houchin ground power units starting jet engines from cold one wonders how they manage to make 10,000 hours, but they do.

 

[EugeneR]

I would tend to go at about hull speed until I see the thermostats opening.

For interest, how do you see this?

 

[rafiki_]

For interest, how do you see this?

Temp gauge should rock up to about 80C

 

[Latestarter1]

Airport GPU under load test from cold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZZuaKRcN9w

 

[[2068]]

Airport GPU under load test from cold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZZuaKRcN9w

I don't have anything in my garage that has a gauge that goes up to "250 Amps".

 

[gordmac]

For interest, how do you see this?

The temperature gauges are reasonably fast acting, they go up to nearly 100c then drop to about 80c when the thermostats open.

 

[Rocksteadee]

My thermostats I think are stamped 82 and go to about that when driving but even after 2 hours of idle (warm up for oil change) they did not go above 60
Engines are TAMD61 so there is a lot of metal to hat up and it seemed that it was losing heat as quick as generating it

 

[dragoon]

Airport GPU under load test from cold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZZuaKRcN9w

I like it. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Anders_P42]

Warm up, as soon as thermostat is starting to modulate engine is ready to rock and roll.

Cooling down, if engine has been running at maximum output temperatures quickly fall in linear manner once it is pulled back to idle. Turbocharged engines require no special treatment in a marine application, lube oil should never be flooding bearing housing unless there is installation issue resulting in high oil carryover. Take a look at relative sizes of lube oil connections to any turbocharger, drain diameter is four times cross section of flow. Early life turbo-machinery failures are 100% the result of poor engine installation practice, nothing to do with duty cycle.

Diesel engines are designed for a rough and tumble life and do not require the kid glove treatment that exist boaters folklore, marine duty cycles are incredibly kind in leisure applications. Overloading due to incorrect propping and failure to maintain charge air coolers represent major percentage of engine failures.

Do marine diesels pass engine coolant through engine oil cooler? ie help warm up oil while also capping oil temp? On a D6 penta (my boats engine), it must take a while to warm 580Kg engine, 16l coolant and 20l oil to 50-60C? Is it best practice to run off boost during warm up? Boost starts to build around 1.5K on d6-370, that's only 5-6 knots.