A couple of weeks ago, we were contacted by a Chief Engineer who was having some issues with his engine cooling, and I figured it was worth sharing what we did with you.
The engineer was experiencing problems with the fresh water pump on his portside Paxman 12RPH engine and was rightly concerned about the increase in engine temperature.
(If you’ve not come across these engines, it’s not surprising as they stopped production over 30 years ago!!)
When the engine was running, the fresh water pump worked as expected with correct pressure, but after the engine speed increased, the pressure of the freshwater pump dropped to 0.7 bar.
Our engineer asked the Chief Engineer a number of questions, all of which are well worth asking if you have a similar issue:
• Is there water getting into the engine oil?
• Are you getting air bubbles in the header tank when the engine is running?
• Are you losing water?
• Can an independent gauge be put in the water system?
• Can you tell if you are burning water?
Working together with the Chief Engineer, we found that the drop in pressure was as a result of air in the freshwater system.
Further checks were carried out and together, we were able to confirm that a cracked cylinder head was causing the air to get into the system.
By working together with the engineer, we diagnosed the problem and put an action plan in place, without the need to visit the engine, which was just as well, as the engine was located overseas!!
