We recently attended an offshore platform to investigate an engine that was producing large amounts of black smoke, with a running speed that had dropped to 1200rpm.
Fairly quickly after arriving, it was clear there was a problem with the turbocharger.
And while the easiest thing to do would be to say, “That’s broken, you need a new one, we’ll supply and fit one”, that’s not how we operate.
At Bartech, we seek to understand WHY something has broken, whether there are any other residual problems arising from the broken part, and what the best next step is.
We got busy investigating and quickly found that the compressor wheel inside the turbocharger had pieces missing
This caused debris to enter the engine, with some being found in the intercooler, so we began dismantling the engine to check how far the debris had travelled.
The good news was that having removed the seized turbo, the intercooler and the cylinder heads, it was clear that there was no more to find.
We started the rebuild process, and after replacing the turbocharger and rebuilding the engine, it was filled with water.
Carrying out our prestart checks on the pistons and rods, we checked the oil flows and noticed water leaking from liner A1.
The liner was removed and everything became clear – the liner o-rings had become compressed and flattened, and as a result, they were no longer able to seal effectively.
We changed those, and refitted the liner, which solved the problem of water leakage.
Check back in next week for the potential mistake we avoided before we re-installed the piston…
*The damaged turbocharger will be brought to HQ and dismantled to find the cause of failure.
