Engine running on passage

We use to check the engine room at every change of watch or at least every 4:th hour. Plus we have a TV-camera and all sorts of alarm systems for heat, smoke, gas and water intrusion...

Don´t know if you have to check the engine oil that frequent though?

We do a full engine room check every hour, but I wouldn't worry about checking the oil on a 4 day trip as long as the oil pressure is acceptable.

If you do want to check oil levels while underway start by making sure that levels are correct start engine and run till warmed up then remark the oil stick. This is because when the engine is running most of the oil is dispersed around the engine not in the sump. You dont see this done much on modern engine as oil consumption is generally much lighter, but it was common practice on older engines. I also do an hourly check around the engine room as long as I am confident that I can leave the bridge unattended for 5 minutes or so.

I would think you would know your boat's engines like you know your others. A Car that uses no oil between 3000 mile changes, only gets a check and look for leaks the next day after a change (to look for leaks around filter & drain) and about half way to the next oil change, If you have a car that uses a quart every 2000 miles you check it more often ,every 500 to 1000.

I would be more concerned about the much more costly and usually larger marine engines, but depending on consumption, when prudent. Oil consumption from an engine burning it will usually be at a predictable hourly rate. It's the failures that sometime occur that I would spot check for.

I would check when they are shut down and cooled off a little. How often? Well, get to know your cast iron and forged steel!!!

Would anyone here agree that this would be a good application for a Murphy gauge, i.e., monitoring crankcase oil level?

Poolster,
You should check the engine room at least once a day for other things besides oil/coolant levels. Look for oil and fuel leaks, excessive bilge levels, excessive soot around turbos and exhaust, etc. It's the problems that go unnoticed that will stop you in your tracks.
As for your trip, check the oil after the first 4 hours (as long as you can do it safely). If okay, check when you get into port that night or after another 4-6 hours and note the usage. That should give you a sense of oil consumption per engine. Just remember this: when you fill a crankcase after an oil change, and you add oil to the full mark, a diesel engine will find it's natural level after a few hours of running, so if the level goes down a little, don't alway refill to the full mark. Let the engines run and spot the "sweet level" that engine runs best at. Too much oil and the engine may just be burning it off or leaking it.
Good luck.

Pre-Alarm

Murphy builds a great system for your need. The fluid in the captive system is visible in a sight glass mounted on the engine. This makes it possible to check fluids on a running machine. The sight glass is made of toughened glass. This device is also rigged with electrical contactors. If these contactors are used and wired and you were to lose your oil or your coolant you would get an alarm. This is called a pre - alarm. Pre to the low oil pressure and overheat alarms. It gives you more reaction time as by the time you actually get a low oil pressure, or overheat it may be to late.

Hi,


He says he is using a pair of these http://www.cat.com/cda/layout?m=52432&x=7

If they are new then a use trend needs to be established by regular checks especially if they are being run at or near 100% load ( the time they can be operated at 100% loading will depend upon the rating which is not given in his first post).

Garry Hartshorn has described the best way to set yourself up. But please bear in mind that the turbulence in one of those at full power may make the use of a dipstick useless as the whole stick will be splattered with oil.

A modern engine like the C32 may well have been supplied with an Oil Level monitoring set-up on the Caterpillar monitoring system which would do the same job as a Murphy Switch and you can see it( the oil level) from the wheelhouse as many times a day as you want.

More pre - alarm

The great thing about a pre - alarm system is that is you are always monitoring for low fluid levels. A slow leak or a rupture in the system is identified prior to a full blown alarm state. Again more time to react.

Hi Northern Lights,

On the longer trips we used to run our Northern Lights 30 Kw gensets for 12 hours and switched set every 12 hours. Is this a good routine or do you have other recommendations?

Hi,

You will have to excuse my ignorance of this Lars but why would you want to change the duty genset so often?

On motor boats with only two gensets I always run one genset till it needs a service ( 250hrs for Caterpillar) and have the other one in reserve just with the hours on it when two were needed and then swap them over, service the one that is due as quick as possible and run what was the reserve one till it needs a service then repeat the whole cycle for as long as required.

I went around the world on a yacht with just two gensets. There was no hand pump to extract lube oil from the tank in event of a power failure. As a precaution I used to carry enough Lube Oil ( 28.5 Lts) in Plastic Containers to refill the sump once because we all know that that infamous Irishman Murphy lurks in all bilges and will leap out and cause you grief when you least expect it. Thankfully it was never needed but when one had a problem it used to get special attention as I was always fearful that the other would stop as well.

Well K1W1,

This may be interesting, since i have always had the idea that both gensets (if you have two equal main generators) should be equally used to know more certain that both are in running order when you need them.

When in ports without shore power we use to run the one that could disturb nearby yachts or houses daytime and switch over to the other night-time, since we had exhausts each side of the yacht. Also a 12 hour duty.

It would be interesting with more input from other owners/crew who runs two equal main generators?

Hi,

I forgot to add that the non preferential one would sometimes start and stop several times during the day when load dictated. I used to try and shed load ,reduce the reheat coils in the AC etc in an effort to get the boat to go on just one so we would have a 100% redundancy.

It was things like the stabilisers in heavy weather when the R.O Plant and Galley were running that was just enough to initiate a start cycle of the non pref one that used to be difficult to overcome.

We did 2.5 yrs around the world and came back with 20,000 hrs split pretty evenly between the two engines. I replaced the Cylinder head on the port one in Seattle in a day and a half including going to NC Machinery for the new bits owing to badly worn Exh. Valve guides ( a not uncommon problem with the 1500 rpm,160 EkW 3306 Caterpillar gensets) at around 5800 hrs.

On another yacht I was on in early 90's the Chief before me had run the lungs out of one of these to get it some 3000 hrs ahead of it's mate. His reasoning being that any major component failures that came along would not affect both engines at the same time and there would be time to remedy the fault whilst the other one roared away. Those ones which were also 3306 sets but rated at 125 EkW survived for 22 and 24,000 hrs before the short block was rebuilt.

Oil change

Hi AMG,

The different Northern Lights generators recommend oil changes at 200 - 250 hours. The machine is run continuously for 8 -10 days then switched over to the other machine. The nice thing about the murphy pre - alarm is being able to look at the oil and water level without shutting down. That is typical of boats with the same size generators. Often the boat is set up with two different size machines. A smaller machine as a night generator or light load machine. It is also common to have three machines. Two full load and a third as the night generator. Sizing is important. Load is very important for diesel health. The nice thing about a night generator is being able to keep the diesels properly loaded to avoid wet-stacking and glazed pistons. Water cooled load banks can be utilized in boats that need the extra load during low electric usage. Many Westports have water cooled load banks. It is my understanding that Feadship is now installlling load banks as standard equip.

When I was first learning about diesels, I was taught that the most wear and tear takes place on the motor during start up and warm up stages. And then for gens, when they start up it is right to 1200RPM or what ever with a cold block dumping fuel through the blow by into the oil pan. I was told it was best to minimize start ups for hundreds of reasons. When you are swapping back and fourth every day, that is a lot of start ups verse running one gen for 250 hrs before another start up.

Thanks for your input, I guess we have different use of our yachts. When I say longer trips, they will last for 4-14 days, which means max 14 startups of each generator. Then the boat is sitting for months with just a weekly startup. This is why I wanted to have both generators serviced at the same time on about equal hours.

But I understand this will be different if you are on generators for months...

Hi,

Regarding diesel-generator checkings - every manufacturer has rules, but my experience is:

1. Once a day (if running permanently) all levels, temps, pressures.
Visual inspection (loose bolts, broken lines, leakages, etc.) - depends on engine, some brands need more attention (once at 3-4 hrs), some (more reliable) have to be checked once a day or at 24 hrs.
All alarms, autostops - to be checked every 1000-1500 rhrs, but, at least, once per 4 months.

2. Every startup takes away appx. 7-8 hrs of rhrs till major overhaul.

3. If engine has more than 15000 - 20000 rhrs, normally more additional oil is needed daily.

4. two things in the world need lubrication most...
diesel engines and .... w......en.

rgds,

Andrei

Diesel Generators

Gentlemen,Please bear with me as I`m new to this forum.
Regarding the discussion on Cat Diesels,these engines have a watchkeeping panel which will sense any Lub Oil usage(ie low level,low pressure etc).
Diesel engines like to run at full load,max capacity,as this clears any carbon deposits from the inlet manifold.If a diesel runs on low load, you will see by the exhaust!!!!In my experience in the Royal Navy,diesel generators were run alternatively to equalise engine hours,so when we were in a maintenance period,all generators could be serviced at the same time(ie top end overhauls etc).One of the biggest problems with diesel lub oil is fuel dillution,which cannot be sensed by a watchkeeping panel.The Navy check oil every 4 hours(ok we had the man power)for clarity,contamination etc..daily we checked the oil using a simple test kit for carbonaceous content etc.
If possible,in harbour,use a load bank to test diesel gen sets,or load them up starting all your equipment, and burn that carbon away from the inlet manifold....give them turbos free breathing space.
Regards.....Bill

Hi,

Bill, Unless you know the particular vessel I would be cautious in assuming that it has the full monitoring package. Caterpillar have a huge range of monitoring and control "groups" or " attachments" as they refer to them in the manuals.

These are available as options when the original purchase spec of the engine is decided.

As I wrote earlier these engines may have this feature included but it's not a given.

Could you please also take the time to explain how carbon ends up in the Inlet Manifold?