Cleaning your turbo's

CskipR
Mine were done on the 1000 hour mark and again after a number of years. I believe Man now is recommending a length of time schedule rather than straight engine hours.

Maybe some of the pros on this forum can answer that. I'd suspect it would be a good thing to check from time to time. I think its more about the inspection than the cleaning? Turbo failures can create a mess.

You inspect turbo's, mainly for bearing wear which causes the turbine to scrape the housing and send metal through your motor. First it just cuts into the housing ever so slightly, if you rebuild it at that point no harm no foul. Left long enough it will cause the turbine to disintegrate and send shrapnel through your motor.

Water and dawn while the turbo's are running??? run very very far from these people. If you want to clean the turbo's go out and run WOT for 10 minutes or so, or very close to it for 20 mins. They should only be crudded up if you idle all of the time and never run at cruise. If you run the boat at cruise for periods of time, like you're Bahamas trip they should be clean. IRL you shouldn't have to clean the turbo's. But in really bad situations on boats that never ever run a cruise, for years, they can become very very gummed up with carbon and crap. Spray them with brake cleaner and wipe out the goo. I've only seen this on 1 boat.

CaptJ, Once again you show a serious lack of actual engineering experience while offering advice like an old sage.

Anyone contemplating cleaning their turbos should

A, Read the manual if you have one.

B, Contact the dealer and ask what the recommended intervals and methods are

C, Search Google for your engine and turbo cleaning - when looking at tge search results try to only use ones with the engine brand in the URL. Less chance of wishful thinking rather than factual information.

Water washing , walnut shells, rice - all have and can be used to clean a turbo- they use of each depends on what the manufacturer recommends.

Ahhh, the trusted impact cavitation method. Larger fixed turbochargers have an array of built in internal fluid nozzles to clean the compressor side of the turbo . Any neutral light weight combustable material could be used or water as it will vaporize.

for those of us who are mechanically challenged - why am I cleaning my turbos in this manner? and how do I know when it needs to be done?

The turbo contains two turbine wheels on most if not all high speed diesel engines.

The inlet side (compressor) can become fouled by oil especially with the closed loop crankcase ventilation so popular today.

The exhaust side which is the drive side can be fouled by combustion by products, this process can be accelerated if the compressor side is fouled and there is insufficient air being shoved into the cylinders for complete combustion, poor quality fuels and long time running at very low load conditions can all have a detrimental effect on the condition of the turbine blades and or nozzle if fitted.

My post does not suggest a method to clean your particular turbos, I just added that there are many ways to do it, each is suited to a particular application and as previously stated the best way to proceed will be to find out what the manufacturers of your particular engines say is the correct way to carry out this procedure.

Don't in the case of a small high speed diesel engine see just turbo cleaning as the one pill fix for any air system issues. If having this procedure carried out or doing it yourself the prudent Owner should also check the condition and cleanliness of the air filter, the charge air cooler if fitted and the injectors.

Excessive black smoke, reduction in power can be two indications of this needing attention, they can also be signs of other things so a general awareness of what is going on with the hull and machinery can usually assist in working out if its purely mechanical or aquaculture (growth) related

Carbon deposits from exhaust powering your turbo charger will unbalance what is the fastest rotating assembly of the engine. Constant or prolonged low RPM operation (to save fuel) will deposit "wet exhaust" or "blade loading" on the turbine blades and decrease bearing life. Oil cooled turbo's need oil capillary inspections and cleaning at set intervals. Waste gates need inspections for proper operation @ the required pressure etc. And for you supercharged Detroit aficionados, your blower bypass valves need inspections along with charge air coolers & aftercoolers that are all part of the turbo circuit. Proper operation of the engine for correct loading and temperatures will burn the majority of these deposits off but all manufactures will have a recommended service period for a technical , visual inspection for clearance's and bearing wear & replacement before catastrophic failures occur @ 45,000 RPM..
Sorry, Composing response while K1W1 replied

Funny, i thought this was where this thread was going.

I also saw something about the dawn soap and water method somewhere.

I am way to afraid to try anything like this.

Skip, RT

I'll keep my airseps clean and leave it to my mechanic to tell me when he needs the turbos cleaned. K1W1 and the others have far more "hands on" then I do....

Can you show me where in the maintanence manual of a E-rated Caterpillar, or Man common rail or other performance diesel that it says to "clean" the turbo's? Every turbo I've had pulled off, the inlet side has been clean, even on D.D. 2 strokes. The exhaust side had discoloration, but didn't have any heavy build up of carbon or anything. Perhaps on engines that are run at slow speeds way too often. But I've been told and experienced that engines run at cruise for periods of time, that the heat bakes off anything that is on the exhaust side blades. Which is what Captholli's post is referring to.

The mechanical construction and maintenance procedures of any rated CAT Engine are the same.

I will have a dig around in my office and see what manuals I have copies of but in the meantime here is one for a Yanmar 6LY Engine, read Page 40 Item 5.

http://global.yanmar.com/product/ma...opulsion/operationmanual/LYA-LY2Operation.pdf

SEBU7917 is a C18 Operation and Maintenance Manual, If you read the maintenance section you will see they call for an inspection every 1000 hours or 15,000 US Gal and a replacement every 10,000 hours.

If your mechanic opens it up to inspect it and sees carbon and crud all over the turbine blades common sense would suggest that it is cleaned prior to spending the big dollars and replacing it as a unit don't you think?

I have sailed with C 18 Gensets that have gone way beyond 10,000 hrs in service with the original turbos on, the oil was changed every 250 hrs and the charge air coolers were cleaned and pressure tested every 1000 hrs.

K1Wi

If that's the recommended interval for cleaning and checking ,and it is for MAN also, why do some people squirt soapsuds into their turbo?

Each Manufacturer has their own way to achieve the same result, the Yanmar one I posted does involve water and cleaning solution.

The answer to this entire question is simple, it's READ AND FOLLOW THE MANUAL. Even the same brand will have changes over the years.

Obviously sound advice. Curious though, does any manual recommend a water and dawn spray while the engines are running?? That was part of the OP's inquiry... and mine too.