Smoke from cold engine misery - a solution?

Montemar

Montemar

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www.voltloudspeakers.co.uk
We have a pair of TAMD41B which smoke a bit when cold. As we have about half a mile of slow motoring through Weymouth harbour plus a wait for the bridge to lift the gentle whiff from the exhausts is something we could do without.
As we have a water tank with immersion heater which can be heated using shore power I wondered if hot water from same would help to warm the ( starboard ) engine up and thus, hopefully, reduce smoke. I have not actually tried it but wondered if there is some kind of valve that may stop water circulation or other reason.
My idea, if it seems a goer, would be to fit a second water tank ( to the port engine ) and operate both immersions on a timer or by remote control to have hot water ready to warm the engines on start up.
Has anyone ever tried this? Perhaps warming a cast iron lump like an AD41 requires a bit more.
I have seen threads in the past about heaters to reduce smoking but they seemed rather complex.
Thanks in advance for your answers.
 
Our old boat had KAMD 44s and if I inadvertently left the immersion on it would heat the starboard engine nicely . Start up and she still smoked until properly hot , :( sorry .
 
Montemar said:
We have a pair of TAMD41B which smoke a bit when cold. As we have about half a mile of slow motoring through Weymouth harbour plus a wait for the bridge to lift the gentle whiff from the exhausts is something we could do without.
As we have a water tank with immersion heater which can be heated using shore power I wondered if hot water from same would help to warm the ( starboard ) engine up and thus, hopefully, reduce smoke. I have not actually tried it but wondered if there is some kind of valve that may stop water circulation or other reason.
My idea, if it seems a goer, would be to fit a second water tank ( to the port engine ) and operate both immersions on a timer or by remote control to have hot water ready to warm the engines on start up.
Has anyone ever tried this? Perhaps warming a cast iron lump like an AD41 requires a bit more.
I have seen threads in the past about heaters to reduce smoking but they seemed rather complex.
Thanks in advance for your answers.
Click to expand...
Hi David , did you get the injectors refurbed I know it was on the list I did ?
 
Yep , after injectors being refurbished our 44s were definitely less smokey on start up and almost smoke free when hot .
 
Farm tractors are prime candidates for cold start remedies. A neighbour drains all coolant from his tractor each cold night then, in the morning fills it with hot water, warms the block nicely and starts sweet every time.
Water has about 9 times the specific heat capacity of iron, meaning that if you have a 1kg lump of iron at 0C and a litre of water at 100C and let them even out you will have water and iron at 90C
 
Our V12 Perkins (1000 HP at 1500 rpm) had a water heater which kept the engine at about 60 C. On startup, it belched great clouds of black smoke and did not clear for about 5 mins. So your solution may not work as well as you might hope.
 
Last edited:
I started working towards a similar idea last year for our TAMD41As.......but , as is the way with projects, it's not got much closer to being finished since.

We have no shore power at our berth and the mass of the engines meant that , to reduce the pre-heat time to a resonable length using 230v, would require immersion heaters rated at above what my on board generator could provide.

I contacted a forum member, Bob Pettitt, who had used Webasto C top diesel heaters to pre-heat his TAMD41s and he was very helpful.

Core content of his messages :


I fitted a webasto c top 5 kW water heater to each engine , my stb eng also with calorifier in circuit , these units are cheap 2 nd hand on e bay as used on land rover and BMW powered rover cars about £ 100 each

Webasto units need no fancy controls just simple switch .or fancy if u want,,i have a timer set on my stb engine set to run 30 mins twice a day for frost protection in engine bay uses about 2 gallons diesel every two weeks

Water plumbing is simple ,use existing calorifier feeds from thermostat housing flow to boiler unit out of bottom through boiler onto calorifier and return to top fitting..i removed blanking plugs on other engine and piped the same (less calorifier)



100_2123.jpg100_2124.jpg100_2125.jpg100_2120.jpg

I had a few issues about hose connector sizing etc...once again Bob was very helpful:

Sure they were 1/2 bsp.
Use 5/8 hose , 1/2 too small, don't need expansion tanks as engine units deal with this.
Don't worry to much about recommended exhaust lengths mine are about 5 ft lagged going to standard hull heater skin fittings with both exhaust and intake silencer ( so noisy without)

I use my boat a lot on inland waterways at engine idle speeds.
Engines run very cool at these speeds so often run pre heaters aswell , at sea/ estuarys engines above 1200 revs engines rapid warm up to temp on their own , I use a separate 25 litre tank with small transfer pump taking from after water filter / seperator on my stb engine tank, both heaters fitted with small plastic in line fuel filters and had no problems with fuel

I sourced 2 x Eberspacher hydronic 5.3 Kw heaters for £260 the pair.... plus fuel pumps, water pumps, hose , fittings exhaust etc.. which added about another £250. All new but mainly Ebay purchases.

Will get round to fitting them one day..... :)
 
I'm somewhat reluctant to make this suggestion , but it has a proven track record; add 10% petrol to your diesel and it will totally clean up the exhaust smoke.

Certain unscrupulous people do just this to get their vehicles through the emissions test.

Perhaps your could add a small day tank above the engines with a couple of gallons of petrol/diesel mix; just put a t- piece into the diesel supply line with a simple cut off valve, no need to mess with the return line.
 
:p tongue in cheek mode.


So the 41 series smokes on start up. Rejoice, it could be worse, it could be one of those new lean burn jobbies that scare you witless with every unfathomable fault alarm that goes off making you check your credit score.
 
rustybarge said:
I'm somewhat reluctant to make this suggestion , but it has a proven track record; add 10% petrol to your diesel and it will totally clean up the exhaust smoke.

Certain unscrupulous people do just this to get their vehicles through the emissions test.

Perhaps your could add a small day tank above the engines with a couple of gallons of petrol/diesel mix; just put a t- piece into the diesel supply line with a simple cut off valve, no need to mess with the return line.
Click to expand...

Been wondering about a petrol/diesel mix to feed the thermostarts, but worried about a back flash and fire in the engine box.
 
rustybarge said:
I'm somewhat reluctant to make this suggestion , but it has a proven track record; add 10% petrol to your diesel and it will totally clean up the exhaust smoke.

Certain unscrupulous people do just this to get their vehicles through the emissions test.

Perhaps your could add a small day tank above the engines with a couple of gallons of petrol/diesel mix; just put a t- piece into the diesel supply line with a simple cut off valve, no need to mess with the return line.
Click to expand...
Rustybarge - thank you for your suggestion. I am slightly apprehensive about the addition of a small day tank of petrol! I presume it was only for getting the engines warmed up - an overdose could be interesting.....
 
omega2 said:
How about these?
http://www.ipu.co.uk/products/engine-oil-heaters/
Click to expand...

Cant comment on these particular items but as a former long term customer of IPU I can tell you that Robert Beebee leads from the top in ensuring that IPU are one of the best companies you will ever deal with by building a great team with really friendly staff, who will do anything to help and go out of their way to make sure you are happy.

No connection other than a customer who has received outstanding service and support over the years.
 
Montemar said:
Rustybarge - thank you for your suggestion. I am slightly apprehensive about the addition of a small day tank of petrol! I presume it was only for getting the engines warmed up - an overdose could be interesting.....
Click to expand...

A 10% mix wouldn't be very imflamable.

You could scale this idea down even further; how about a couple of sports metal drinks bottles with those twist top pipes for drinking on the run. Push on a plastic pipe onto the bottle and connect to the injector pump line.

If you have a look at the banjo bolt holding on the diesel feed line to the injector pump, an easy solution would be to buy another identical banjo fitting to fit on top, in tandem, with a new bolt twice the lenght to fit through both banjo connectors. This would allow you to try out the system without cutting the feed line.
 
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