Turbo Diesel Engines

[coliholic]

A post further down on looking after diesel engines got me thinking. It's generally recognised as good practice to give a diesel engine a bit of a thrashing to stop bore glazing etc. Fair enough if you use your boat at sea or have a relatively small engine that you can open up on the river. But what should I do?

I've got two turbo charged VP AQAD30's of 115HP each and for most of the time only use the boat on a 8knot limited river. Normal river speed is 1300 rpm and flat out is 3,500, but that gives me over 20knots, not too popular on the River Ouse.

So what should I do to keep the engines in good condition. Should I periodically take the turbos apart and clean them (did that last year) run one engine at high revs with other in reverse to sort of counteract increased speed (don't know if that's feasible, never tried it), run engines up ingear whilst tied to pontoon?

Any suggestions?

Apart from selling the boat or moving it elsewhere.

 

[BarryH]

Re: Care of Whiney rattly enginges

One forward one reverse = spinny round in circles. The only real answer is run em both up to speed in gear, in neautral dont do'em any good. The glazing comes from the engine oil. A few years ago when i re built my engines, I used to run them in on bedding in oil. Dont know if you can still get it. The only other option, quiet drastic really, is a glaze busting tool. Bit of major surgery really consisting of a full strip down.

 

[byron]

If you can't get down to the sea, wind them up individually. Another way is to tie the boat to a tree and open them up.
It doesn't have to be done every week, once a year is good enough.

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[coliholic]

Re: Care of Whiney rattly enginges

<One forward one reverse = spinny round in circles>. Yes forgot that, too long since I've been out on the boat. Or is that what you recommend then Barry? We go whiz, whiz whiz, round and round for half an hour? Might be interesting to see what speed of rotation we can get it up to, sort of one revolution per second pulling 5G should be good for the onlookers;-)

But there must be a way that I can run one engine sort of quite fast and the other not, to sort of put some load on the engine without breaking the speed limit (too much)?

 

[coliholic]

Thnks for that Byron. We've got plenty of trees floating down the river at the moment so I'll try towing one along then;-)

 

[oldharry]

Re: Care of Whiney rattly enginges

Hmm some interesting mental pictures here: let me know if (when) you're going to try it, and I'll come up and watch (larf...!).

Seriously though, apart from the rather obvious question about running 2 hefty blown diesels in a river boat, the use you describe should be adequate to avoid problems - just! Diesels like to be worked reasonably hard, and 1300 off 3500 rpm = 37% capacity which is probably just about reasonable. They would benefit from a blast out across the Wash once or twice a year - as you probably found out, easier than dismantling and cleaning the turbos - and a whole lot more fun! By the way, Ii hope you cleaned out the Manifolds, valves and decoked the engine as well: if the turbo needed it, so does the rest. A lot simpler to take a run down to Brancaster and back at near full chat, once in a while?

Tying the boat to a tree (or anything else) and running up hard for half an hour or so could radically alter the course of the river, because of the prop wash in shallow water, and you would encounter several new mudbanks around your mooring after such an exercise! That is assuming you havent washed the bank away in the first place.... Also make sure your mooring points both aboard and ashore are strong enough - again let me know so I can come and laugh - er watch.

Running up diesels off load is the quickest way to destroy them - all kinds of nasties will happen inside leading to injector problems, cracked heads or blocks, corroded valve springs which break and drop the valves, lubrication problems, cooling problems the list is endless, and the answer simple: Dont!

 

[longjohnsilver]

Vim

Have heard that pouring a liberal dose of vim in the air intakes combats bore glazing. Let me know if it works Colin!!!

 

[coliholic]

Re: Care of Whiney rattly enginges

Ah but the main reason I bought the boat in the first place was because I want to be able to run out to sea now and again and in fact last year went to France, Belgium and Holland and we couldn't do that with a 1.8 BMC diesel now could we.

Anyway thanks very much for the useful info.

Where do I buy Vim then? Is this like Slutrot? Does it have a website with FAQ section?

 

[longjohnsilver]

Vim, a special price

Just for you my son I will sell you a marine version of engine mending Vim for the once only reduced price of £15 (normally £1-50 in Tescos). Order it from Depsol and you won't have to pay VAT.

Wot a bargain!!!!!!

 

[rich]

Re: Vim, a special price

the S,,stuff will stop any carbon buildup, i know, i use it....

rich )

 

[mtb]

Re: Big boys do it in a lock

Just pop into the lock good tie up then VROOOM the wash wont hurt the lock

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/boats
I want a big steel ex trawler / tug v/cheep or swap for tug

 

[oldharry]

Re: Big boys do it in a lock

Errr Vim? - another way to rapidly destroy diesels - like putting grinding paste in the lube. Guaranteed to wreck the turbo as well.

 

[miket]

2 THINGS:
1. Each weekend you are are out on the river, finish with a couple of minutes on one engine, wheel hard over (left engine, right helm, & vice versa). I found this left serious amounts of blue smoke on the river. Better there than than in my turbo. Practically no wash if circle small enough.

2. Between locks travel on one engine only. Alternate to keep hours similar. I have done this with all my twin large engine boats. And why have a large engined boat on the river? Because we like to take annual holidays at sea, and don't wish to travel at 8 knots.

Last boat we kept on river was Fairline turbo 36 with twin 300hp Cummins. Was a bit of an embarassment, but great at sea. Still love the peace and tranquility of the river (Thames).

 

[byron]

Re: Care of Whiney rattly enginges

Sorry Harry to spoil your picture but the "tie to a tree" method is a "tried and true" method used by many people. If you are worried about the bank turn the wheel over and deflect the thrust away. I am a Riparian owner and have never noticed any damage, mudbanks or anything else by people doing this.
I also see dudes up a weir stream/pool doing the same thing one engine at a time like MikeT describes.

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[tristan]

Rolls Royce used to use VIM as a glaze busting oil about 20 years ago, more on industrial gensets though, as they are fixed speed units. They did stop using it after about 5 years though, so there has to be a reason for that (the comment about grinding paste is about right).

Seriousely though, to stop the engines suffering from light-loading (a real problem on boats used mainly on rivers or estuaries), they should be run under load, the more often the better, but at least 20 mins. every 6 months (break that down to 5 mins a week, whatever is more practical). The tug in Poole harbour has 3000hp and they run it alongside the pontoon for 20 mins every monday morning (in astern because the thrust transmitted is not so great) for the same reason - it just doesn't get used.

Regular maintainance and a good dose of healthy use will see your engines last longer than you will imagine - under use them, and you might find that they give up when you really need to push them hard (one of the virtues of twin-engined boats is that normally only one engine fails at a time - small conselation)

Tristan

 

[oldharry]

Re: Care of Whiney rattly enginges

Hmm - I'm sure it is Byron, but 230hp is pretty fair weight to run up even on a large tree. Its not the tree I'm worried about, but the mooring cleats: I think I'll still hang around with my camera.....

The 'new mudbanks' comment is from first hand experience. Years ago, an old 10hp Albin petrol engine shifted nearly 100 tons of mud and silt after it had been run up on test for 20 - 30 minutes in shallow water. There was a new 6 foot deep hollow running 10 feet aft from the prop, and a large bank beyond it with only a foot of water over it! The River Authority and land owners were 'not amused'. Not at all they weren't! Nor was the owner when he received the bill from them for dredging it out.

 

[byron]

Re: Care of Whiney rattly enginges

Of course the type of river bed will make a difference but we regularly run up boats here at home using not a tree but the mooring posts, my boat has a total of 612hp. The trick is to turn the wheel deflecting thrust away from the bank.

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My wife has not given me permission to express any opinion here