TAMD63P oil pressure and engine temp anomaly

[Paulo33]

Hi Everyone,

I wonder if anyone could shed a bit of light on this? Would be grateful if any of you Volvo and other mechanical geniuses could cast an eye over it!

I have a boat with a pair of TAMD63P-A engines in it. They are 15 years old and have done about 2400 hours. They have been very well maintained and have no leaks or obvious problems. This season I have done about 140 hours without needing to add any oil or coolant or reverse gear oil whatsoever. All levels are checked daily prior to use.

The boat is kept in the southern med, so it's used in high temps (40 degrees) in Summer. Sea water temp is quite warm too, naturally.

I have owned the boat for 1 year. The boat was surveyed by an able surveyor from the UK, who temperature checked the engines under full load at 2800RPM using a thermal temp camera. I know this is not totally conclusive, but there were no hotspots or other cooling or lube related temp issues as far as could be ascertained.

I brought it from Mallorca to Greece in the Spring; a journey of about 1000Nm which took 100 hours. RPM all the way was between 1300 and 1500 and engines never missed a beat.

So, here's the thing I am curious about: the Volvo standard helm instrument gauges for the port engine have always shown lower oil pressure and higher engine temps than the starboard.

On the delivery from Mallorca to Greece the bottom was clean, as were the props, shafts, rudder etc. Max RPM was achievable, about 2800, and top speed of about 20 knots. Needless to say, I don't run at those speeds, but after every few hours of running at 1300 to 1500 RPM (8 to 10knots) I open the taps for 10 minutes.

On returning to the boat 6 weeks ago, there was quite a bit of mediterranean growth on the props, shafts, rudder and hull etc. which reduced top speed and RPM quite a bit. No worries there, don't need to use the extremes anyway. Still, every few hours I did increase the RPM to about 2000 to 2300 for 10 minutes as recommended by a Volvo agent, something to do with bursts of hard work at higher temps keeping the engines and turbos in better shape??? I'm no expert, so please feel free to correct me if needs be guys.

In 40 degrees outside air temp with warm seawater, at 1000 RPM the port engine gauges show 45 PSI and 82 celsius. The starboard's show about 50 PSI and 70 celsius.

I noticed, as you would expect, that the temps and oil pressures increased with RPM. At 2300 RPM the port engine gauges showed 60 PSI and 90 celsius while the starboard's show 65 PSI and 82 celsius.

Does anyone know if this discrepancy is likely to be gauge error or calibration? I'm guessing the gauges may not be totally accurate to the decimal and maybe it's better to read them as an indication of trend and stability of readings rather than an absolute of PSI and temp? Or is it possible it could actually be indicative of a possible cooling problem on the port engine?

And out of interest, does anyone know what the engine temps should be at high RPM on these motors in warm waters with high ambient air temps in a hot machine space? What is the safe temp range for the TAMPD63P-A?

As an aside, is it sensible to routinely clean heat exchangers, oil coolers, and any other coolers etc or is there a schedule to stick to by which they should be serviced and cleaned?

Hope this makes sense!!

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Bandit]

I have same engines 14 years old 900 hrs.

i had an oil pressure sensor give way lower readings, changed the sensors over engine for engine and fault transferred so faulty sensor, you should be able to do the same for temp as well.

bear in mind it could be a faulty gauge.

problems I have had are EC controls twin station ie fly & saloon gear box sticking in ahead, replace spring and ball on gearbox selector and grease regularly.

Bend from turbo to injection bend failed with corrosion, replaced bends and injection elbows on both engines, injection elbows well corroded up 70% occluded.

Engines scale up with time so Rydlymed both engines which brought temperatures down. you can rydlyme them in series at the same time.

if you have water lubricated/cooled stern gland remove water feed from engine inspect and prove.

 

[tamarix]

Do you have a hot water calorifier attached to one of your engines? That usually lowers the temp/ oil pressure of that engine.

 

[Beamishken]

Do you have a hot water calorifier attached to one of your engines? That usually lowers the temp/ oil pressure of that engine.

That's odd my last two boats have had higher temp & lower oil pressure on the engine fitted with the calorifier
One had mercruiser diesels & the current boat has yanmars I assume the lower oil pressure is due to the higher running temp but don't quite understand why the engine runs hotter with a greater volume of water as you'd expect the oposite
My anomalie is definitely related to the calorifier as if I close the valve the symptom is reduced but doesn't go away I'm planning on adding another valve so I can shut off the circuit altogether to see what that does

 

[spannerman]

One thing people tend to overlook is that with a twin installation you have two completely separate engine and instrument systems that happen to sit side by side in the same hull. Its a bit like expecting two identical single engine/boat combinations to have identical readings while they run along side each other.
There can be several reasons for the difference in readings, from the internal condition of the engine and cooling system, to the positive and negative supplies and connections, through the various connectors between the engine and helm and down to the individual gauges. I have rarely in 20 yrs seen a twin installation where the temps and pressures are identical, and that's from hundreds of commissionings on new boats and testing many more used boats, there are always slight variations but not enough to worry about as long as they remain constant in relation to each other through the rev range and are in overall spec, obviously if the temp or pressure differs greatly with varying rpm then it needs to be investigated.

 

[Paulo33]

Thanks for your input guys.

Port engine (the one with the lower oil pressure and higher temp) has clarifier on it.

 

[scottie]

Would agree that there is quite a variation between senders and gauges that can cause this .
The old coloured gauges were more forgiving.
Try explaining to an airline pilot that near enough readings are OK when they are expecting calibrated units

 

[Paulo33]

Hi Spannerman, thanks for you reply. I had thought / hoped that it was what you have suggested; that the 2 installations can't be identical. The gauges seem to be steady in relation to each other at different RPMs and as you say, that's the important thing.

Do you know much about this flushing with Rydlyme? I'd like to flush the saltwater side of the cooling systems this winter and remove any scaling up etc. Any suggestions as to how to achieve this without dismantling all the coolers etc? Any products better than others in your opinion. Not too worried about cost, just want to make sure cooling system is optimum on each engine.

Cheers

 

[Paulo33]

Hi Bandit,

Thanks for your response.

Can I ask, how do you go about Rydlyming these engines? Can it be pumped through continuously using a barrel and a pump without the engine running or does the engine need to be running and sucking from a barrel and discharging into same barrel?

Not quite sure how to go about this. What was your method? (My boat will be out of the water for the Winter)

Cheers

Paulo

 

[rafiki_]

You close off the raw water sea cocks, and introduce the Rydlime into the strainers, and run the engines for about an hour.

 

[ian38_39]

How do you circulate the Rydlime? wouldn't it all just disappear through the exhaust in a few seconds?

 

[spannerman]

We don't have Rydlyme here in Norway but similar products, we normally do it with barrel method so it re-circulates around the raw water side and usually let it run over night using a cheap electric bilge pump as it doesn't need any pressure just constant circulation. You connect the electric pump to the system after the seawater pump or before if its easier but remove the impellor, and disconnect the hose at the exhaust bend and lead it back to the barrel.

 

[rafiki_]

How do you circulate the Rydlime? wouldn't it all just disappear through the exhaust in a few seconds?

Yep, if you don't route it back round.

 

[Forty_Two]

Don't forget to remove any zincs on the heat exchangers if you use Rydlyme. Usually fed in after the raw water pump & back to the container after last heat exchanger. Mix ratio 1:1. Use a small cheapo Bilge pump to circulate.

Used it this year on my aircon chiller.

 

[ian38_39]

Can you use this on the fresh water side as well?

 

[Bandit]

You don't need it in the fw side.

Get a 12v pump, diaphragm or similar, mix up rydlyme in a plastic box capacity say 30l or similar, remove engine rubber seawater impellers, pump into seawater inlet after sea strainer on say starb engine, through engine and coolers take hose from feed to injection bend on starb engine connect to sw intake after strainer on port engine return from hose before injection bend to plastic box to recirculate .

beware it will foam like hell to start with. Use two batches.

 

[Paulo33]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I have a clear picture of what to do now. Very grateful to all.

Cheers,

Paul