Warming up (engine)

[foxgoose]

Braved the icicles to pop out to boat on its river mooring today.

Pumped out the domestic water tanks just in case.

Ran the engine for 40mins at fast tickover (1500rpm) to get it up to temp and put the pilot house and cabin blowers on to dry the air a bit.

Is it OK to run a diesel (Volvo KAD43) at fast tickover under no load for this length of time or is it just going to put crap in the oil and glaze the bores??

Any opinions gratefully received.

Foxgoose

 

[longjohnsilver]

Not a problem if only done occasionally, but still best to be under load, everything heats up more.

 

[kimhollamby]

If you did it every day of the week it wouldn't be too clever but as it is your occasional visit warmed the engine through, recoated all the surfaces with oil and as a result as far as I am concerned its a happier diesel for your efforts. Do that a few times through the winter and you'll notice a bit of smoke when you go for your first proper run but it should burn off okay.

Always something that needs care but if you can rope the boat so it's completely unlikely to wander off on its own (and also assuming you are not going to do damage to anyone in the immediate vicinity) its not a bad idea to engage gear to put a bit more load on the engine - it will warm up quicker that way. Impossible on the really big engines but a KAD43/44 is usually fairly tame at fast idle in gear.

kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[foxgoose]

Thanks both.

I'm on a decent mooring chain, so I'll give a whirl in gear next week.

 

[Chris771]

Agree with all the others on this. Will not do any harm as long as it is only occasional short run which will get oil back onto all surfaces and reduce corrosion.

Obviously it is better if you can get well moored onto something solid and run it in gear with a bit of load on the engine.

Chris

 

[DavidJ]

Everyone seems to be in agreement but what's the theory behind 'better to run it under load' I agree it will warm up quicker but why is that better and why the reservation towards prolonged tickover
David

 

[adarcy]

Re: glazing

David

Suggest you do a search on glazing and bores (both senses)

Essentially running in or warming up a NEWISH engine at idle is not a good idea it needs some boost pressure to bed in the rings.
With an old/run in engine that won't happen.

BUT (here takes life in hands) I disagree with Kim and others. Running up an engine to warm " a few times over the winter" is not a good idea IMHO. Sure, it runs the oil over the surfaces again but the oil won't be hot and each time you are filling the oil up with part burnt fuel and corrosive acids - see the bit about it smoking when you really get it going again.
90% of all engine wear takes place in the first 3 minutes of starting it up.
I am unconvinced that 3-4 starts over the winter are going to keep the insides of an engine that much more protected from rust, but I may be wrong.

Warm up your engines if you need some heat for some other reason by all means but don't kid yourself it's doing your engines any good at all IMHO

Anthony

 

[duncan]

massive post recently on PBO forum - very heated and detailed discusssino well worth a read

 

[Viking]

Re:Warming up (engine) under load!!

If your in a marina berth, what can happen is that warming-up over winter, under load. The prop wash can dig the silt from the soft bottom which can build up behind the boat forming a 'bar' which if your a keel yacht you can run aground on if the marina water is a bit low come spring.