As you know, we look after critical diesel engines, and over the past 30 plus years, we have seen many that have been in service since the 1970s and earlier! Our engineers know the difficulties that can arise with these older heritage engines and will be able to solve 99% of them. Take a recent NHS job – we were called to the hospital to rectify electrical issues with their Mirrlees Blackstone ERS8 emergency generator. The operator had no...

You may have heard the sad news that MAN Energy Solutions (Formerly Paxman Diesels) has announced plans to shut their facility in Colchester. Paxman has been in Colchester (currently next door to our own facilities) for more than 150 years and this news is a major blow for our town and the UK engineering industry. At its peak, the facility was employing around 3,000 local people, plus all the local support and sub-contracting companies, so it...

We are just completing the replacement of the engine mounts on a couple of Niigata engines and whilst the engine mounts were in vital need of replacing (that’s another story!), one of the critical parts of the work scope was the alignments. As you’ll be aware, engine alignment is critical in protecting the engine and the equipment it’s driving, with misalignments resulting in vibrations able to cause bearing failures and catastrophic damage. As...

We were recently asked to attend a vessel to investigate a Caterpillar C12 starboard engine with high coolant temperature. The operator was rightly concerned and keen to get it resolved before it became a bigger problem. (And he was also planning to get back out on the water the next day!) When our engineer Cris arrived at the marina, he began his investigations by checking the contents of the seawater strainer. It contained a very small amount...

Late last year we were sent in various spares from an offshore operator to inspect and overhaul. Included in the shipment were two Woodward EG3P Governors that had been stored and never used, which was just as well! Andy, our Woodward trained engineer, flushed them internally with clean engine oil before mounting them onto our governor test rig to put them through their paces.  The governors’ specifications were checked against their...

Whilst speaking with an operator recently, the question came up about whether it was possible to save time and money by not replacing the damper. We gave them the full technical explanation and it made me think that it was worth putting together the correct protocol when it comes to the dampers in your critical diesel engine, to help you make the right decisions. There are two types of dampers: viscous and rubber bonded. Viscous dampers come in...