Volvo TAMD61 Gearbox Oil Cooler Repair or Renewal

[60F]

The Oil Coolers for the ZF Gearboxes on the Volvo TAMD61's fitted to my Gosport based Princess 435 were removed at the end of last week for checking as when the stern tubes were repacked the engineer noted the pipework from the oil coolers to the stern tubes showed some corrosion worthy of further investigation. When he removed the coolers, there was evidence of corrosion / silt inside the oil coolers which would prevent them working properly, There is no obvious evidence of an oil leak (I understand that the gearboxes work at very high pressures and would quickly empty themselves of oil if there was a leak) but they really need to be checked over and, ideally cleaned out and rebuilt or, if absolutely necessary, replaced. I understand the engines ceased production in 1995 and are obsolete and it's difficult to get non routine spares for, so replacing them might be both difficult and costly and so best avoided if at all possible.

Does anyone have experience of these coolers and know if they can generally be rebuilt and, if so, where the best place on the South Coast to take them would be, or whether it is better to replace them and in which case where it might be possible to get either Volvo or pattern parts ( I'm guessing that there was a good chance that Volvo didn't actually make the originals in the first place but fitted a standard part to their engines which may be common to others). As ever, it is quite important to resolve this quickly as the boat was due to go back in the water on Wednesday (though not now ), and although I can do routine maintenance my mechanical ability for sorting this is limited at the best of times !

Any help or guidance would be very much appreciated please.

 

[scottie]

The oil coolers are only a bunch of tubes soldered carrying cold water which are surrounded by oil with end s
The only failure is either burst tubes or faulty ends any competent radiator specialist can test and repair if necessary lancing marine Brighton included
Replacement units are available and easily fitted indeed for very short term they can be bypassed
The main thing is to avoid Volvo prices

 

[jim.howes]

Hi, ABBEY HEAT of Eastleigh, 023 80653331 always did a good job for me.
Jim

 

[Mr Googler]

If you did need to replace, you could probably make Bowmans work.

Hydraulic Oil Coolers - EJ Bowman

Im sure Superheat of this forum did that on a pair of VP60c’s

 

[petem]

Any good?

Volvo Penta Marine Transmission-Gear Coolers

 

[Plum]

The Oil Coolers for the ZF Gearboxes on the Volvo TAMD61's fitted to my Gosport based Princess 435 were removed at the end of last week for checking as when the stern tubes were repacked the engineer noted the pipework from the oil coolers to the stern tubes showed some corrosion worthy of further investigation. When he removed the coolers, there was evidence of corrosion / silt inside the oil coolers which would prevent them working properly, There is no obvious evidence of an oil leak (I understand that the gearboxes work at very high pressures and would quickly empty themselves of oil if there was a leak) but they really need to be checked over and, ideally cleaned out and rebuilt or, if absolutely necessary, replaced. I understand the engines ceased production in 1995 and are obsolete and it's difficult to get non routine spares for, so replacing them might be both difficult and costly and so best avoided if at all possible.

Does anyone have experience of these coolers and know if they can generally be rebuilt and, if so, where the best place on the South Coast to take them would be, or whether it is better to replace them and in which case where it might be possible to get either Volvo or pattern parts ( I'm guessing that there was a good chance that Volvo didn't actually make the originals in the first place but fitted a standard part to their engines which may be common to others). As ever, it is quite important to resolve this quickly as the boat was due to go back in the water on Wednesday (though not now ), and although I can do routine maintenance my mechanical ability for sorting this is limited at the best of times !

Any help or guidance would be very much appreciated please.

Can you post a picture showing where the corrosion is? I had corrosion on my VP gearbox oil cooler last year. It didn't look good. The exterior casing of the cooler is steel! After a thorough removal of all paint and corrosion back to bare steel I found the corrosion was superficial and after de-greasing, priming and painting was as good as new.

www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

 

[60F]

Thanks for the feedback. As recommended they have gone into Abbey Heat to be checked over and hopefully can be fully restored. Thanks for the tip Jim, it confirmed Abbey as probably the best place to go. I should know in a few days if they are repairable.

Plum, I'm afraid I cant send a picture at the moment as I am not on the boat, but the corrosion was on the flexible steel protection wound around the rubber tubing that ran from the cooler to the stuffing box. When it was all taken out, the steel surround came away and the pipework opened up due to decay - lucky escape. It was tucked away and only noticed when they replaced the stuffing and shaft earths

 

[scottie]

It sounds from your description that it’s the pipe rather than cooler that is the problem or am I misunderstanding

 

[volvopaul]

It sounds from your description that it’s the pipe rather than cooler that is the problem or am I misunderstanding

Will be the union in the end cover to the stern gland that’s failed Common issue at that age , 2 different metals screwed together, one acts as an anode

 

[superheat6k]

If you did need to replace, you could probably make Bowmans work.

Hydraulic Oil Coolers - EJ Bowman

Im sure Superheat of this forum did that on a pair of VP60c’s

Indeed - I replaced both on my TAMD60C Twin Disc - after the job looked superb. The details are still on the turbo36.wordpress.com website

Improvements

Please let us know how you get on.

 

[vas]

There is no obvious evidence of an oil leak (I understand that the gearboxes work at very high pressures and would quickly empty themselves of oil if there was a leak) but they really need to be checked over and, ideally cleaned out and rebuilt or, if absolutely necessary, replaced.

Just a note from knowledge gained when rebuilding a twin disk gearbox, yes, pressure WITHIN the box is high 20-25-28bar, BUT that's specific to the pushing the plates to engage.
The cooling circuit runs at probably under a bar, I could block a VDO temp sender hole with my finger easily.
so don't expect you'd have high pressures in the heat exchanger!
Further it wouldn't make much sense as oil would pass through the exchanger so quickly that wouldn't have time to do the heat exchange thing