Run engines over winter or not

[RIN]

Same here. Autumn service, winterise, and leave well alone till the spring.

I've always been advised that getting an engine (particularly a turbo diesel) only partially up to temperature (and you'll never get a turbo diesel up to normal temperature without running it normally - ie cruising speed/revs/load) and then shutting it down is inadvisable.

I have never had much problem getting the engines pretty hot on the pontoon by running the engines in opposition at just under 1500 revs. They do a lot of work in opposition. I do put extra lines on though to spread the load on the pontoon

 

[ari]

At what revs do your turbos spin up to full boost?

 

[RIN]

At what revs do your turbos spin up to full boost?

Ari
No Idea. But the load gets the engines up to pretty much normal operating temperature as they are doing plenty of work
Richard

 

[Anders_P42]

Someone mentioned bore glazing earlier in thread, I think that's a bit of a myth from various threads I've read on here especially on a modern common rail engines.

 

[superheat6k]

A point omitted here is the importance of turning over shafts in the cutlass bearings. Crevice corrosion where the shaft bears on to the rubber surface and hard scale build up along the flutes can both create issues - pitting and roughening of the shaft surface and the scale is harder than the rubber of the bearing causing premature wear of the cutlass bearing. A few minutes at tickover with the lines secure once a month, then let the engines warm up until the temperature gets to at least 60oC..

Glazed bores takes a lot more than a few minutes at idle several times over the winter, but when you can get out let the engines 'breath deeply' which is technical speak for WOT.

If you can keep the engine bay a few degrees above cooler ambient this will prevent condensation occurring, and a 500w heater set at say 7oC won't cost that much to run through the Winter compared with other boating costs, as it will not be on all the time, so say 30% on that is ~ 2p / hour or £0.50 day less than £50 for a cold 3 months peace of mind.