What are the chances of both engines failing?
Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Sat 21 Sep 2013 03:46
41:15.6N 72:28.8W
We left Mystic bound for Duck Island, a short hop along Long Island
Sound. As we were pulling away from the dock the port engine shut down
with a loud beep and the “Check Engine” light flashing. Fortunately there
was not too much wind and we had enough clearance from the dock to pull away on
just the starboard engine without being blown into anything.
Sometimes the engines shut down because if they are run slowly for long
periods then the turbo blades get clogged with soot that needs to be burned
off. Our generator is out of action and we have been using the engines to
charge the batteries, so sooting up seemed a likely cause.
Motoring towards Duck Island I ran both engines at 3000 RPM for a while to
see if it would clear the problem. The port engine would run for a while
but still shut down periodically. It also seemed unwilling to rev very
high, which is indicative of a blocked fuel filter.
Meanwhile, revving both the engines high made the starboard engine overheat
and shut down. We limped into Duck Island with just the one half-powered
port engine and dropped anchor.
The port fuel filter was pretty dirty. I replaced it and the port
engine seems to run OK now.
The starboard engine was completely out of coolant and attempting to refill
the coolant tank was simply filling the bilge up with water. Upon further
inspection it turned out that the hose running from the engine to the hot water
cylinder was draped through the bilge and it was completely rotted through after
years of exposure to the oily bilge water.
We replaced it with a spare piece of freshwater hose, just to get the
starboard engine usable until we can get a proper replacement hose.
I guess the moral here is that if one engine is playing up you should be
really gentle with the other one.
What bilge water will do to a coolant pipe |