Volbvo MD 2010 D (2002 vintage )Overheat Alarm

[pvb]

My mate at a Volvo dealer tells me the next step is to take the heat-exchange stack to a car radiator company for chemical cleaning.

May I add a cautionary note? I had the heat exchanger tube stack on my old 2003T chemically cleaned, arranged by a VP dealer whilst they had the heat exchanger off for another job. It wasn't particularly scaled, but they said it made sense to do it whilst it was out. The tube stack was over 20 years old, and had never been cleaned, and there was never any overheating in long runs at high revs. After cleaning, there was a slight leak where one of the tubes met the end plate. The VP dealer "fixed" this with epoxy, and I believe it's still working OK. However, if your tube stack doesn't look very scaled, I'd suggest you give chemical cleaning a miss.

 

[TSB240]

Think I have sorted it. Spent the afternoon stripping the HE out . Removed thermostat and tested opening as came to boil. Found on close inspection with phone camera that outlet at bottom of HE for circulation water was badly constricted by hard deposits. Approx 2mm constriction opened up to 15mm with a round file pictures to follow. Reassembled and ran at full throttle for 15 minutes under load without any alarms. Very relieved and had a slap up meal to celebrate.

 

[pvb]

Excellent! Result!

 

[RichardS]

Think I have sorted it. Spent the afternoon stripping the HE out . Removed thermostat and tested opening as came to boil. Found on close inspection with phone camera that outlet at bottom of HE for circulation water was badly constricted by hard deposits. Approx 2mm constriction opened up to 15mm with a round file pictures to follow. Reassembled and ran at full throttle for 15 minutes under load without any alarms. Very relieved and had a slap up meal to celebrate.

Well done.

It sounds as if the circulating coolant plus antifreeze / anticorrosion additive has not been changed frequently enough. From my experience it definitely needs a full change every 2 - 5 years depending upon usage and type of antifreeze. The internals seem to start to degrade more quickly than with modern cars so even though I'm using the same coolant in both I find that the boat needs changing more often.

Richard

 

[VicS]

Well done.

It sounds as if the circulating coolant plus antifreeze / anticorrosion additive has not been changed frequently enough. From my experience it definitely needs a full change every 2 - 5 years depending upon usage and type of antifreeze. The internals seem to start to degrade more quickly than with modern cars so even though I'm using the same coolant in both I find that the boat needs changing more often.

Richard

Every other year according to the maintenance schedule in the owners manual. Its a conventional "short life " antifreeze not the long life OAT type that is used in modern cars.

 

[VicS]

I will attempt to post some pictures ....................

I think youneed to find out how to post links to dropbox pictures **

Or how to use Photobucket

Or even the attachment method

**
Share individual photos and videos

1. Sign in to the Dropbox website.

2. Open Photos.

3. Select the photos and videos you want to add. A blue border and checkmark will appear on each selection. Or, if you want to view a photo in lightroom, you can share it from there too.

4. Click the Share photos or Share files button at the top of the page. Alternatively, right-click on one of the selected items and choose Share from the pop-up menu.

5. Enter the names or email addresses of the people you want to share with and click Send. Or click Get Link to copy the link and paste it anywhere.​

 

[TSB240]

When I previewed the post it showed all my pictures will have a go again later tonight!
Try again

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79352891/Volvo MD Circulation Fault/IMAG1663.jpg

Ok I can paste the links but if i do this inside the IMG book ends its way oversize..

I will paste all the links and see if anybody can make any sense of them!
First link engine bay opened up after removing box front and left side. Sea cock off. Disconnect sea water pipe off HE front end. Slacken off alternator 12mm socket and 12 mm ring spanner. Remove clamp bolt and bracket Remove alternator mounting bolt 17mm socket. I removed the air intake (two 10mm bolts) and stuck a rag in just in case....
remove drive belt and slide alternator to side and down take care of attached wires do not strain.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79352891/Volvo MD Circulation Fault/IMAG1664.jpg
at rear rh side of heat exchanger undo two 10mm flange nuts holding relay control box remove two phillips screws from lid and remove smaller hidden phillips screw that holds box onto bracket. Move box down and to rhs.

If you are just looking to change thermostat. Drain coolant by removing hose off circ pump and putting in a bowl(helps to remove the pressure cap first! remove two washers off studs that held control box and then remove 2 more flanged nuts off studs that hold HE to cylinder head and also the other 4 10mm bolts that are low down on HE.
Gently push heat exhanger off head. Enough to retrieve thermostat and spring that is trapped between them note orientation of thermostat and spring. The spring is engine side of thermostat. Take care of soft gasket unless you have a spare. Luckily mine all stuck to cylinder head in one piece.

I tested thermostat before progressing any further but it was fine.

I then went on to remove flexible coolant pipe from RHS of heat exchanger

I managed to take a picture of the heat exchanger outlet spigot at the bottom of the heat exchanger to which the pipe was fixed.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79352891/Volvo MD Circulation Fault/IMAG1661.jpg

This sort of showed it to be blocked. It is soft aluminium and needs a 24mm deep socket to be removed from the heat exchanger.

No chance of swinging a spanner in there so had to remove HE by undoing the two jubilee clips that clamp the exhaust hose onto the elbow.You now need to have plenty of space on the RHS or you have to remove the two studs (Two Nut Method)mentioned previously. I had to temporarily remove the LED light and the sea water strainer to allow the Heat exchanger to slide off the two long studs.


On removal fairly obviously virtually blocked
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79352891/Volvo MD Circulation Fault/IMAG1665.jpg


two minutes with a round file....

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79352891/Volvo MD Circulation Fault/IMAG1668.jpg

I rebuilt with a bit of red gasket sealant on threads and a smear on the HE to cylinder head gasket

This blurred picture just about shows how much constriction had occurred.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79352891/Volvo MD Circulation Fault/IMAG1667.jpg

 

[TSB240]

I think youneed to find out how to post links to dropbox pictures **

Or how to use Photobucket

Or even the attachment method

**
Share individual photos and videos

1. Sign in to the Dropbox website.

2. Open Photos.

3. Select the photos and videos you want to add. A blue border and checkmark will appear on each selection. Or, if you want to view a photo in lightroom, you can share it from there too.

4. Click the Share photos or Share files button at the top of the page. Alternatively, right-click on one of the selected items and choose Share from the pop-up menu.

5. Enter the names or email addresses of the people you want to share with and click Send. Or click Get Link to copy the link and paste it anywhere.​

Thanks for the advice. If I post them in the IMG book ends they end up huge! See above if you can help?

 

[VicS]

Thanks for the advice. If I post them in the IMG book ends they end up huge! See above if you can help?

Perhaps you have to reduce the size before dropping them into Dropbox.

Photobucket seems to me to be the best option. It automatically sizes to one of a range of sizes available as you up load. Below is the result and the largest size available for a free account.

 

[johnphilip]

Had something similar to the OP. Was found to be a detached impeller blade which had caught in the exhaust elbow

I am amazed the impellor blade went through the heat exchanger to get as far as the elbow. I found a couple of blades in the rubber end of the exchanger.