Our engineers are currently doing some servicing and rectification work on an MTU 396 engine, and I thought it was worth sharing some feedback from them. Whilst carrying out the inspection of the top end of the engine, they’ve come across the common problem of excessive wearing, which is a result of ineffective lubrication. I won’t go into detail about the important role lubricating oil plays in your engine; I’ve got no doubt...

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We’re supporting a client who is overhauling 4 Caterpillar 3512 generator sets at the moment, and we got the email below from them this morning… There is a translation error in that this is an issue with the crankshaft and not camshaft, but this is where the beauty of photographs can help! Our advice was to helicoil the damaged threads (which is a recognised process by the OEM), though there are certain considerations in carrying...

An offshore client contacted us last week as they were experiencing issues with their Cummins KTA50 emergency generator performance. Once the engine was up to running speed and the running light illuminated, the engine kept accelerating. Shortly after this, the vent flaps tripped and the engine rapidly slowed down to below idle before stopping completely – all within 30 seconds. After a few conversations to gain all the information surrounding...

While Cris – our engineer – was visiting a client’s site last week he was asked to look at an Iveco 8281SRI25 engine. The engine was started, and straight away, thick plumes of black smoke were emitted. The client explained that this was normal on startup, but after 5 minutes of running, there was no change to the colour of the smoke. Talking to the client, they were unaware of the significance of the smoke colour, and that...

Our engineer Andy has just finished resolving a fuel control problem, and I figured I’d share it with you as it might help if you have a similar issue. The problem was caused by a Woodward PSG governor fitted on a cruise vessel’s Daihatsu 6DL-20 generator engine. The operator had tested the governor on board but found that when it reached the right temperature, the oil pressure was dropping. Once the governor had arrived in our...