Marine Diesel Insights

A mounth ago, I wrote an article regarding the damages observed in piston connecting rods . Shortly after that, we received a service request from a ship where it was reported that the connecting rod had bent and fractured the liner. In this article, I will discuss the findings, conclusions and preventive measures related to the incident on the ship we provided service for. The piston rod that has fractured by striking the liner [1] We visited a ship waiting at anchor to inspect the situation of a diesel generator following an incident. Upon arrival we observed that all the cylinder heads had been removed by the ship's crew from the engine and that the engine could not be rotated . The damaged cylinders were numbers 2 and 6 (firing order 1-4-2-6-3-5). In these cylinders, the piston rods had bent and struck the liners resulting in fractures and the engine was immobilized in this state. The ship's crew had attempted to disassemble cylinder number 6 but had not succee...

A maintenance worker is never short of surprises in their career. These surprises can sometimes be unpleasant. Just when you think the job is done you realize that everything is actually just beginning. We experienced one of these moments during a machine maintenance when we saw that the pin guiding the cover bridge had snapped. This incident of the bridge guide breaking is a rare occurrence. One of the components responsible for opening valves in the cylinder heads of diesel engines is a part called the valve bridge, which operates on a solid cylindrical piece. This part is referred to as the "bridge guide." Inside the red circle in the photo, you can see the bridge guide, and inside the blue circle, you can see the valve bridge. For the bridge guide to break the valve bridge needs to operate outside its axis. When a broken bridge guide is detected during routine maintenance the first thing that comes to mind is that the bridge or valve adjustment might have been i...

Introduction In order to reduce the environmental impact MARPOL regulations have gradually lowered the sulfur content in the fuels used in marine diesel engines in recent years. However the use of low-sulfur fuels has introduced new challenges for ship operators. Today we have a better understanding of the consequences of using low-sulfur fuel compared to when it was first introduced. Believing that understanding is crucial for better operations I wanted to address this topic today and contribute to this path. "The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) is the main international convention covering prevention of pollution of the marine environment by ships from operational or accidental causes". [1] Lubricating oils used in diesel engines were previously optimized for higher sulfur content fuels . During combustion the sulfur in these fuels is converted to Sulfur Trioxide SO 3 , which then interacts with the water produced ...