Quote:
Originally Posted by Yachtsman
I flew to the Solomons to bring a trawler style vessel back to Cairns. We stopped briefly at Samarai (I think) because of engine trouble. While there I got to talking to an engineer off, probably, a Banks Line ship. As I recall it he told me they were trying to get a cylinder liner out and it was stuck. They had a crane pulling it up and a couple of jacks pushing. Is this a feasable story or have I got it all wrong? We left the next day so I have no idea of the outcome. Could the ship get home with one cylinder completely out of action?
Bob H
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Hi Bob,
Yes, the story is correct.
The "jacks" are threaded bars and pull a "strong back" to free the cylinder liner. The liner itself is sealed with the engine block with "O" rings. These, very often twist as the liner moves up and jam the liner's movement. The crane should only be used to exert a very small upward force on the liner: It is definitely a "no-no" to try and use it to pull the liner out! If this is done, the liner can shoot up and then bounce, with the danger of damaging machined surfaces or the liner - It can also damage irreparably the crane which is a vital equipment in the engine room.
As Varley has said, it is possible to "dead leg" a damage cylinder, and run the engine at reduced revs/power until a safe port is reached to conduct the required repairs.
On an older vessel that I was on, we only had two generators and they required a lot of maintenance and TLC. The injectors were particularly bad and, as the ship was being sold, the company did not want to invest in new spares. When checking each engines individual cylinder power balance (as a result of the rubbish injectors), if there was excess smoke, we would cut fuel during running to each cylinder in turn until the smoke diminished - that was the leaky injector! Crude, but effective.
Welcome aboard, by the way!
Rgds.
Dave