Marine Diesel Engines in Yachts Things you need to know. (Something for free). Part 2
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Closed Captions (CC):
hi there

hi folks well in part two of this video

um we're going to look at diagnosing

engine problems

um and the time when you're most likely

to be able to diagnose a problem or know

you have a problem

is when you start your engine so what

we've done is we've put together

a engine pre-start list

and we've given some explanations of why

we do those checks

so as part of this video we're now going

to show you how we do these checks

and what we're looking for and why we're

looking for it

so what's the first item cindy check the

oil level on the dipstick

it should be between the upper and lower

limits beware of high oil levels this

can indicate water in the oil or fuel

[Applause]

[Music]

[Music]

some of them are pretty important some

not so important

there's uh we've done them in

chronological order as you would start

your engine

and uh hopefully this will be of use to

you all

you can go to our website svmpavidusd

go to downloads and we will put this

pre-start list on there as a download as

a pdf for you

so that you can download it and stick it

in the engine bay or just use it as a

reference document so there's no charge

no no fees nothing like that

um just to say if you do download it and

give it to people just credit hustle or

buy some beer

okay so i'll go to the engine bay turn

the other camera on

and cindy's going to read off the uh the

items as we go through

okay right so

other cameras on this is our engine bay

hopefully uh

we've got some light there and you can

see what's going on but i'll try and

zoom in where i can

so what's the first item cindy check the

oil level on the dipstick

it should be between the upper and lower

limits beware of high

oil levels this can indicate water in

the oil or fuel

in the oil okay pop up and top up as

necessary

okay so our dipstick is here our engine

hasn't been started for a while i'm just

going to wipe

our dipstick off put it back in again

and our oil level is

just below don't you see that i'm about

to drip oil

just below the top and bottom marks

so as cindy said if your oil level

appears to be

increasing it can be a telltale

that you've got water going into the

engine

um and that can be

because your anti-siphon valve is not

working properly

and you've siphoned water into the

exhaust

and then that's gone through an inlet

manifold i'll put a little diagram here

and show you how that can get in

the other thing is that you can have

weeping injectors or leaking injectors

the diesel will then weep into the top

of the

combustion chamber and go down the sides

of the piston and the piston rings and

into the oil

and what that will do is that will

increase the level of the oil so it's

quite important

that if you see your oil level rising

from one day to the next

that you investigate why that is

and i've dripped oil on the floor what

was number two cindy

number two check the oil filler cap for

emulsified oil which

is white or a yellow paste okay so

this is again quite important if you're

topping up your oil you're going to need

to remove

your oil filler cap and this is usually

on the top

of the engine and what you want to look

for

is inside the oil cap or filler cap

that there is no white

like a paste a whitey yellowy paste um

looks a bit like mayonnaise if you've

got that in there

then that's a telltale sign that you've

got

um water in your engine

it may be fresh water it may be coolant

it may be

salt water but you need to investigate

that so

just one of those regular things to do

check the

oil filler cap and make sure it's clean

make sure there's no emulsified oil in

there

make sure the o-ring is okay and you can

do that when you top your oil up

so that's how we do that what's the next

one cindy number three gearbox oil check

look for water ingress or higher than

expected levels

or discolored oil okay so

most modern boats have sail drives

but some still have a shaft drive now

your gearbox

quite often will be cooled as well with

a heat exchanger

and what you're looking for is you're

looking again for oil levels that have

come up

which would indicate that something is

is getting into the oil and bringing it

up

and the same as your engine when when

the oil comes up what's actually

happening is the oil is floating on top

of the water because it's less dense

and it's giving you a false high reading

what you're actually doing

is you're reading the depth of water in

the sump or in the gearbox

plus the oil so it's a really good

indicator that you've got a seal gone

or something is a miss now our

gearbox oil is right over the back of

the engine

um and i'm sure you don't want to see my

backside

um doing a full moon let's see if i can

get in there

and just check it

now we did actually check this the other

day when we serviced the engine

and you can see our oil is

clean no

emulsifisation of mayonnaise on the top

there

nice clean oil let's just put it back in

check the depth

[Applause]

and again just between the top and the

bottom marks

on that dipstick again we've got an

o-ring there just check that's okay

which it is and then we can put that one

back

that's our gearbox

and drive leg oil checked

what's the next one cindy number four

raw water

filter check then re-prime if necessary

okay so

um sometimes it's called a strainer it's

a raw water

strain or a raw water filter now

as it's always tight

and obviously it's salt water so what

happens is when you take the lid off

you just want to be aware

that salt water you don't want to drip

it all over the engine

just wipe that o-ring off carefully

oh you're rattling away well and

there's our basket and as you can see

it's a bit discolored

but it's clean now

that locates back in there and sits down

re-priming now our

strainer is well above our water level

on the outside of the boat our water

level on it on this boat is about here

at the top of the engine you can just

see the water level there

now before we put the lid back on

we need to prime that piece of hose

because

the pump will be drawing in air for a

little while

and because this is so high we need to

top this up

and just prime it and you'll find that

on a lot of modern

engines you need to re-prime

the raw water strainer or filter before

you start the engine now if i was to

pull water straight down there

it would go back down the inlet hose

out the bottom of the leg and be

absolutely no use at all for priming

so what we have to do is turn off our

raw water

valve which is down here

and then we top the raw water

strainer box up

here's a kettle i prepared earlier

now the leveling now has gone up

just check the top make sure that o-ring

is going to seat

properly back on

and now we can reopen the raw water

inlet

which will allow the water to

flow back down that pipe but it will

actually be full to the water level if

that makes sense

quite important on some of these modern

engines

the way in which they're installed so i

can now open that valve

and we know that that is now primed and

full of water

what's the next one cindy uh the raw

water

pump and hoses check okay

so on these uh on this particular engine

our raw water pump is at the front you

know we've we've done the

servicing how to service that what we're

looking for

is around the back of the pump there

are two opposing lip seals

one keeps the oil in the engine and the

other one

keeps the water in the pump if those

start to degrade or break down

you will have either water or oil

dripping from the back of the pump it's

an easy fix

it's in one of our other videos in fact

i think it's in two of our videos

but we're just looking for any leaks

any oil look around the clamps make sure

they're not leaking

check the hoses visually make sure

there's no leaks

and down to the heat exchanger

one of the things that's really

important of course is when you keep

your engine clean if you have got

a leak you will see it straight away as

soon as you

start doing a visual inspection so we're

okay on that one sydney what's the next

one

check the coolant level and then for any

leaks in the hoses or towel ends

on this engine we've put a coolant

header tank

up a little bit higher than the heat

exchanger previously it was mounted down

the front

the reason we've done that is that it

stops

air being trapped in the heat exchanger

and gives you the full

the full internal volume of the heat

exchanger

uh full of coolant there's no air locks

or anything in there

so if you look here our coolant's there

it's

just in between the minimum and the

maximum marks

there's no coolant leaking out of here

there's none around the coolant pump the

hoses are good

there's no coolant around the bottom or

around the back

uh our coolant doesn't need topping up

it's all okay

so that's that check done what's the

next one cindy uh the electrical check

the cables and insulation connections

okay so one of the

one of the things that we're looking for

is we're looking for connections

around the splitters here this is our

charge

splitter this splits off the charge from

our alternator

to our domestic batteries our

starter battery which is under here and

our bow thruster battery

so they're all looking good um

one place in particular that you need to

look at

is down the side of the engine on the

starter mode to make sure

that there's no corrosion around the

starter motor cables and that's the

usually the big red one the positive is

the one that you get

a bit of corrosion around but also

there's

a small wire on the back of most starter

motors

which is the energizer cable

for the solenoid and those corrode

and you cannot see them corroding

because they're usually

covered in heat shrink or they're on one

of these little spade clips

and one of the things that happens is

when they corrode inside you don't see

it

you go to start your engine and you

think your batteries are flat

because you get this click click click

of the solenoid

and what that is is it's not the starter

motor or solenoid that's a problem

it's that one little connection and i've

seen people go off and buy new batteries

or go and buy a new starter motor fit

them

and have exactly the same problem so you

need to check

that those cables aren't haven't got

salt corrosion on them

well made we can actually get in the

side of our engine here

through our heads and check all of those

things out

you don't need to do it every time but

it's good practice to keep an eye on it

every two or three weeks or so so

no issues with corrosion in here nice

and clean and tidy

and all our connections are okay what's

the next one cindy

the belts and tension check you would

see in the manual

right so we have serpentine belts or

multi-v

groove belts on this engine that drive

our 130 amp alternator

we don't have any auxiliary drives for a

fridge or compressor

or hydraulic pumps or anything so we

only have a single belt

but you may have more than one belt on

your engine

these belts need to be kept in good

condition they need to be tight

but not over tight and generally

just on the longest side which is either

this one here at the top

or the one at the bottom they should be

able to move

with light finger pressure um half an

inch

no more um 10 10 to 12 centimeters no

more than that

you can do more damage by over

tightening the belt

than having it too loose if it's too

loose it will slip

but if it's over tight you'll damage the

bearings

in the coolant pump and you'll damage

the bearings in your alternator or your

auxiliary drives

so don't go mad over tightening it

um this one's good it's uh

it's actually been on there five years

now so that shows you that

uh the belts can be made to last

uh five years is good and it's still not

got any cracks

any crazy and it's not shiny and worn so

yep we've got a good belt there our

alternator is nice and

firm solid on the top there there's no

movement

nothing in the adjusters i'm quite happy

with that

what's the next one cindy the shut off

cable or the emergency stop

ah right now

um there's there's two different types

of problem the first problem is if you

have a conventional

uh cable which goes to a shut off

valve on your diesel pump and that

breaks or slides or slips what happens

is

you can get your engine out of gear but

you can't stop your engine

so we don't have that on this engine

we have an electronic solenoid

which allows the fuel on or off to start

and stop the engine should that solenoid

fail

in the open condition we wouldn't be

able to stop our engine

and so down here you can just see that

there is an emergency stop

lever on the pump if the engine

won't stop and that it speaks through an

electrical fault

then we can come down open the bombay

doors

and uh just push that lever over

to stop the engine and that works okay

we know that works okay

um i did actually stop the engine with

it the other day

when i was working on my own so

it's in good condition it's working and

it's free

and as is actually marked with emergency

stop

what's the next one cindy the throttle

and gear linkage checks

okay throttle and gear linkage um

i would say that the gear linkage is

probably the most

important of these two and here's the

reason

you're coming into a berth or coming

into a mooring

or a dock and you're in gear in forward

gear

and you take it out of gear to the

neutral position

and nothing happens you have no way

of stopping your boat unless

you can stop the engine because the

gearbox

will remain engaged in whatever position

it is either in forward or reversed or

even in neutral

now as is is on the back of the engine

down by a gearbox

and it's one of those things that we

check regularly

i'll see if i can put a little insert

picture

down here somewhere to show you how it

works and the other one of course is

your throttle linkage

so on ours it comes directly

through an isolation clamp as most volvo

sail drives do

because the sail drive on volvos are

isolated from the engine um electrically

to to to stop corrosion

galvanic action so this one is good here

on the throttle

it's not moved until isolation rubbers

are in position

the clamp back here is good

there's no movement there and i'll just

check our gearbox one

yep that's good little split pins still

in there

everything's tight nothing wobbling

so that's quite an important check i've

seen boats

or we've seen boats haven't we

particularly

a big power boat in i think it was in

port solon

a few years ago 10 12 years ago a

gentleman came in

using both his engines to position his

motorboat

in the right place as he came into the

dock

one of the gearbox cables came loose

came off the engine off the gearbox and

he then proceeded at

about three quarter throttle half

throttle

to go up the pontoon and uh knocked out

all the electric for the ponto and quite

funny wouldn't it

well not funny for him i suppose but

those simple checks

will just uh just allow you not to be

embarrassed when

you're maneuvering into position so

what's the next one cindy

the engine mounts and the drive linkage

check

okay so we have direct drive our gearbox

is connected

directly to our sail drive if you're on

a boat with a shaft

you will know that you have two flanges

or a vari drive but there will be a

connection

between the gearbox and the shaft and

quite often those things are overlooked

so on a regular basis and it doesn't

need to be

every time you start your engine you

just need to check for loose bolts make

sure the alignment's okay

make sure everything is working or

looking as it should be

also if you have a shaft obviously

you're going to have a shaft seal

and you need to be looking for drips or

or leakage around that um

what else uh yeah some of these shaft

seals

have they're called dripless

they're not always dripless but you need

to keep an eye

on how much they are or are not dripping

on ours our drive is directly to

our flywheel via

percussion plate so we can't actually

inspect that

but shaft drives there's something else

you need to look at

the other thing is that our engine is

mounted on two

engine mounts at the front and then the

third engine mount is actually on the

back of the gearbox

and that's what allows the engine to be

moved around

with the sail drive the cell drive

connected directly

so if you have loose bolts on your

engine mounts or the one at the back

just a regular inspection make sure

they're okay if your engine's vibrating

quite a lot when you run it you might

find that

the vulcanization between the rubber

mounts and the bolt

has come undone and you've then got to

replace your engine mount

obviously on a shaft drive boat

fiddling with the engine mountains will

change the alignment between the shaft

and the engine so just be aware if

you're going to change engine mounts on

a shaft drive boat

that you will need to realign the engine

and that's something you should do

fairly regularly

to check just make sure that your

alignment's good

otherwise you'll run your cutlass

bearing out either

inside your outer shaft or on your p

bracket

so we're all good here all in good

condition

a bit of dust on there but otherwise

we're okay

what's the next one cindy who put check

the fuel is switched

on and visually check the fuel lines and

water separator

okay so our fuel cut off switch

is in our aft cabin uh

i believe the reason they've done that

is that should there be an engine fire

you don't need to open this hatch

to switch the fuel off you can do it

without opening the hatch

so i've just turned that on i know

that's okay

and the other thing was sorry

fuel and the water separator

done the water separator up right water

separator yeah

so in the back of our engine bay

we have a primary filter with a water

separator and it's got a little glass

bowl in the bottom

we check that just visually every now

and then

yeah that's okay we've got clean fuel in

there if you've got one of the raikou

ones and it's up a bit higher

you'll probably be able to see it better

than we can on ours

but yeah that's an indication that

you've got water in your

fuel and that your separators having to

pull it out so

keep an eye on those if you've got one

of the cav

type primary filters there's a little

drain plug on the bottom

um and it's a good idea you know once a

month or so

maybe more frequently just to drain the

filter bowl

off the bottom and check that you

haven't got water or bits and pieces in

there

if you have then you have one of two

problems either you've got condensation

forming in the tank

or you have water being put into the

tank

and that can happen in two ways either

the o-ring

on your fuel filler is allowing salt

water or

rain water to get past the filler cap or

you've been given some dodgy fuel

we have a filter that we can put our

diesel through which

separates the diesel from any muck or

any water

um and that that's the prime thing

is to not actually have the water being

put in the tank in the first place

so on airboat the heater plugs are fully

automatic

via a timed relay on the side of the

engine

on some boats you may have to push a

button

to use your heater plugs don't use them

excessively they'll actually glow white

hot if you use them

for too long your manual should tell you

the length of time you need to activate

them and it's usually somewhere between

five and 10 seconds so to start our

engine

all we have to do is push our start

button

and then we're going to do a couple of

checks now your engine should start

within three to five seconds

i'm going to stop airs just for a minute

and explain

why you shouldn't keep pushing

the start button let me show you in the

diagram

so from previous videos you know that

your sea water pump is driven

directly from your engine either on the

crankshaft or via a pulley

if you continue to start the engine or

rotate it

that pump will continue to pump water

through the system

eventually it will fill up your exhaust

hose

and then flow back through the exhaust

manifold

and into the engine so just for

illustration purposes

you can hear that alarm going off when i

stop the engine

using this button here

there's obviously no wall pressure and

uh the ignition's on so the alarm has

come on

and i can either stop that by hitting

the

alarm button or

by turning the start circuits off

so i'm going to go through the start

sequence on our boat

it's just running through itself

diagnostics

two bleeps means all the alarms are okay

and we're ready to start

three or four seconds and the engine

bursts into life

we're ticking over okay and our engine

hours are

14 34 so i'll put that in the log as

14 34

well sorry 14 35

because we're gonna run it for five ten

minutes and just make sure

everything's okay and the next thing

we're going to be looking for

let's go over the back of the boat

[Music]

is we've got water coming out the

exhaust and there's plenty of it and

we're now going to let the engine warm

up

lovely sunny day here in le carter bit

chilly

a lovely sunny day all right let's go to

the next item on our checklist okay so

we've just been through outside starting

the engine and the sequence that we use

for

what i wanted to do is come back out of

the wind

and tell you some of the things that you

should look for

when you're starting your engine well

obviously the water that we've seen

coming out the exhaust if you've got a

dry exhaust

you'll normally have a telltale which

will put water out somewhere or a

pressure switch which will

which you tell you that your raw water

system is pressurized and you've

actually got

um raw water going through your heat

exchanger

and exchanging heat with the with the um

engine coolant um again we've been

through that

on a previous uh video

so i'll see if i can put a link down

here somewhere to

to engine cooling so that you can have a

look at that

within three to five seconds of you

starting the engine

if you've got a water cooled exhaust you

should have a very

reasonable amount of water coming out it

shouldn't be just a dribble

um and lastly um

all engines all all four-stroke engines

will give a slight puff of smoke when

you start them

um it's not unusual it's part of the

cold uh

starting process that some of the fuel

might not be burnt and you might have a

little puff of

of dark smoke black smoke or a little

puff of white smoke

but it certainly shouldn't go on

if you've got excessive smoke after

starting your engine

i would say probably 30 seconds to a

minute after starting

and there is some form of smoke coming

out

either blue smoke from burning oil

white smoke from incomplete burn or

black smoke from

over-fuelling then you really need to

look at that because

if you're over fuelling you can get

diesel

around the rings and down into the oil

to make your oil level go up

if you're not burning your fuel

efficiently you're getting white smoke

uh the air is being suffocated from your

engine from

a blocked air filter or

or indeed by an exhaust elbow that's

blocked or partially blocked

then you really need to look at that

because as smoke

is a telltale sign that something is

wrong

that you're not getting a good burn

inside your engine

not only can you do damage to the engine

but you can cause something catastrophic

uh by continuing to run that engine when

you've got excessive

smoke

and finally really one of the most

important things we would say

about looking after your diesel engine

in your boat

you need to do visual checks um

you know it it takes you five minutes

just to look around the engine

uh you know touch things run your hands

around it piece of cloth

make sure you haven't got any leaks and

make sure there's no water in the builds

that's coming from somewhere

um and keeping a clean engine bay

if you keep a clean engine bay you will

see these things happening

way before they become a major problem

and it's invariably

when you need to rely on your engine

that

not taking notice not doing the right

maintenance

not doing visual checks will bite you on

the

back side so from

here on impedance me my shiny head in

the sun

um we'd like to say thanks for watching

uh thanks to our patreons

you guys great we couldn't do these

videos

without your patronage um thanks to

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and if this video has been useful to you

pop over to our website and download the

engine starting

um spreadsheet or that we've done

it might just be helpful to you and uh

if we can pass a bit of knowledge on

and make something useful to you well

that's what we're all about here on

impedance

so from now from me i'm from cindy who's

over there

i'm looking over here now you're over

here now

bye folks thanks for watching sail safe