We’ve got 12 Waukesha cylinder heads in for an overhaul at the moment and every single one of them has water erosion damage.
I thought I’d make a quick video so you can see the damage caused when correct additives are not used with your coolant system.
Here’s what you’re seeing on this video:
- That hole is NOT meant to be here. The untrained eye might think that it’s part of the water jacket, but it’s actually a result of water erosion damage
- The cylinder head gasket will prevent the coolant leaking for a time, but then the engine will suffer a loss of coolant and damage through overheating
- So, prevention is about having the right additive mix in place and systems to make sure this is maintained
- Once this damage has occurred, the head could be replaced, but if it’s like these Waukesha heads, they are no longer in production (and this would be a costly choice)
- One alternative option would be to convert a gas engine head, or in this instance, what we will be doing for this customer is to machine out the hole and plug it
This is a process we’ve used many times before, in particular on Ruston cylinder heads and gives a far quicker and cheaper option for the operator.
Not only that, it eliminates the problem of trying to source replacement heads, which in this case are obsolete.
