Sailinfiji
Newbie
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2023
- Messages
- 1
Hello everyone,
We had an incident last week with our FORD D380 Bowman installed on a 46 foot, 16 tons steel yacht.
From the crew, engine did not overheat (keep in mind they may not tell me everything), on arrival at base they noticed the oil was murky but not salty. Following a few troubleshoots we decided to remove the head, it was bucked in the midle. Engineering shop plained it and we fitted it back on today with new head set and torqued as per manual sequence. We started, tested and we eventually ended up with more water in the engine oil after 2 runs of 5 to 10 mins at 1000rpm. Temperature did not raise above 60°Cels.
Initially running the engine without the header tank cap to monitor and get rid of the air pockets, it seemed to be ok and the oil was still a bit meurky,, I initially assumed it was from the left over water we could not remove from the engine after the last incident.
Then we pressured the cooling system with a good header tank cap (has a pressure release button on it) When I noticed more water in the oil we pressed on the cap's release button and heared the system whistling lightly and the engine changed noise (similar to valves tapping).
What do you think could be the issue?
Cracked head? Cracked block? Water jacket?
Could the exhaust manifold contaminate the engine oil with water/coolant?
The engineering shop that machined our head wanted to pressure test the head but they were unable as the header tank fitting on the head was not even (old engine). They finally machined all and we had a nice surface in the end but did not carry the test as after consulting a few poeple I was told it was not necessary.
Should we dismantle all and pressure test the cylinder head or look somewhere else?
I have tasted the oil again today and there is NO presence of salt in it which tells me it could not be the oil cooler coreect me if I am wrong (our oil is cooled by salt water in this cooler) it just taste engine oil mixed with water (we dis not use coolant straight away as I wanted to make sure first that all was fine. Well it was NOT.
Could you think of anything else I could do to identify / trouble shoot the issue?
Are there any Internal water jackets in the block that could leak in the oil?
Is It a common failure on those engines?
We have been running this engine roughly 400 hours per year for the last 10 years following an overall in 2012 and barely had any issues. 99% of the time, we run the engine between 1100 to 1200 Rpm, cruising 5 to 6 knots, which is all we need for our operations here..
Where can I get a good Ford D380 marinised? Urgently needed here
We are based in Fiji, which will be a difficult overhaul if at all possible.
I thank you all in advance for the recommendations and the help, we are running out of options in the midle of a very busy year ... also please excuse my ignorance if I missed something.
Cheers
Luc
We had an incident last week with our FORD D380 Bowman installed on a 46 foot, 16 tons steel yacht.
From the crew, engine did not overheat (keep in mind they may not tell me everything), on arrival at base they noticed the oil was murky but not salty. Following a few troubleshoots we decided to remove the head, it was bucked in the midle. Engineering shop plained it and we fitted it back on today with new head set and torqued as per manual sequence. We started, tested and we eventually ended up with more water in the engine oil after 2 runs of 5 to 10 mins at 1000rpm. Temperature did not raise above 60°Cels.
Initially running the engine without the header tank cap to monitor and get rid of the air pockets, it seemed to be ok and the oil was still a bit meurky,, I initially assumed it was from the left over water we could not remove from the engine after the last incident.
Then we pressured the cooling system with a good header tank cap (has a pressure release button on it) When I noticed more water in the oil we pressed on the cap's release button and heared the system whistling lightly and the engine changed noise (similar to valves tapping).
What do you think could be the issue?
Cracked head? Cracked block? Water jacket?
Could the exhaust manifold contaminate the engine oil with water/coolant?
The engineering shop that machined our head wanted to pressure test the head but they were unable as the header tank fitting on the head was not even (old engine). They finally machined all and we had a nice surface in the end but did not carry the test as after consulting a few poeple I was told it was not necessary.
Should we dismantle all and pressure test the cylinder head or look somewhere else?
I have tasted the oil again today and there is NO presence of salt in it which tells me it could not be the oil cooler coreect me if I am wrong (our oil is cooled by salt water in this cooler) it just taste engine oil mixed with water (we dis not use coolant straight away as I wanted to make sure first that all was fine. Well it was NOT.
Could you think of anything else I could do to identify / trouble shoot the issue?
Are there any Internal water jackets in the block that could leak in the oil?
Is It a common failure on those engines?
We have been running this engine roughly 400 hours per year for the last 10 years following an overall in 2012 and barely had any issues. 99% of the time, we run the engine between 1100 to 1200 Rpm, cruising 5 to 6 knots, which is all we need for our operations here..
Where can I get a good Ford D380 marinised? Urgently needed here
We are based in Fiji, which will be a difficult overhaul if at all possible.
I thank you all in advance for the recommendations and the help, we are running out of options in the midle of a very busy year ... also please excuse my ignorance if I missed something.
Cheers
Luc
