Kelvin R6 marine diesel.

[bigman1]

A friend has a big fishing boat with a kelvin R6 turbo. He took out a party of friends for a sail,coming back to the berth everything seemed
fine,he shut down engine,no unusual noise,2 weeks later he tries to start it, won't turn over on starter or by hand. I told him to check oil
level and quality (has wet liners) oil ok,he removes starter bendix type that stick pinion to ring gear,still wont turn. Fitting a 3 foot bar
into flywheel it moves about 1/2"with a heavy clunking noise as though it were being physically restrained metal to metal sound.
Apart from tearing the engine to bits i can't come up with an answer. If anyone can please help. Or direct me to a kelvin forum,have
searched google but can't find anything.Also if anyone can tell me where i can get a workshop manual. Thanks. Ronnie.

 

[Uricanejack]

When I was young. I used to tag along as unpaid crew with my friend and her dad who ran an old tour boat with a Kelvin. not turbo.

It was a big old straight 6 green diesel with a huge fly wheel and was hand cranked to start.
First you had to open the decompression levers on all 6.
Make sure its out of gear.
Put the hand crank in and as a 10 or 12 yr old I could turn it slowly with both hands
Gradually building up speed.
Once I had it turning fast enough her dad would throw the first lever and it would start to puff on one and he would close the others and away she would go.

Big old kelvin should turn easy.
If its out of gear.
And if the decompression levers are open.

Those would be the first things I'd check.

If those don't work I would wonder what he might have done to it.

Diesels are fairly simple. no complicated electronics fussy carbs.
Ussualy will turn quite happily. might not start blocked fuel. filter or injectors.

On the rather serious side. Did he check the sea cocks before he left last time?
Did he check he had cooling water flowing.

(I went out on a charter as a deck hand with a skipper and mate who didn't check, they siesed two, we had to get towed in. Had a film crew on board, wasted a days filming, lost the charter, and a rather huge repair bill)

Probably not to worry about. If he had run it to hot. and shut it down to hot it might have siesed. But if he had you wouldn't move it with a pry bar even a fraction of an inch.

 

[NickRobinson]

As the problem showed after a period out of use after a normal trip-

If the big ends or mains had seized there would be no movement at all. The half inch movement with the bar is slap in the crank/b.end/l.end bearings. (Bit much possibly but not the issue today.)

Sounds like water has rusted up the piston/s.

If so its possible the movement may be increased by repeating the gentle forcing back and forth, can you get some thin oil/diesel fuel into the bores? If so, make sure you don't lock it hydraulically if it does start to turn.

A full revolution may eventually result then starting to ease the rings. (not an engineer's solution, which would be to strip down to avoid possible further damage to bores from possibly broken rings.)

 

[jerrytug]

Strip down is the only sensible answer. You might get it turning and even running, but that course of action is likely to cause terrible damage and you are risking the crankshaft.
Keep googling, I am fairly sure that spares and probably a manual are available, at least in the UK, Kelvin still exist! cheers Jerry

 

[Bilgediver]

Sounds like a water leak in the engine or water back fed through an exhaust valve . This
will have seized one or more pistons with corrosion.

 

[omega2]

remove injectors, and try to move it! if you get water squirting at you then get the spanners out. As stated do not force the engine to turn as she is if there is "hydraulic" pressure in the cylinders you will reduce the engine to scrap.