Commercial Marine Diesel OCIs

[asleepz]

To start this off, I have no control as to when these engines are serviced or with what materials they are serviced with. I just run the boat now...

We have 24 inland towing vessels that run Caterpillar 3508B engines (two). 20 of which are in their 775BHP configuration and 2 that run in a 1000BHP configuration.

We use Baldwin air and oil filters and Mobil 409NC Straight 40 weight oil in the engine and gearboxes. 60 gallon sump on the engines. Approx 15 gallons on the gearboxes

When I was a engineer company policy was to change all filters every 500 hours, then all filters plus oil at 1000 hours. The oil filters aren't fancy centrifuges or anything, just huge paper filters. We only followed this policy on "live aboard vessels" which run at 75-100% load the majority of the time. 24 hours a day 365 days a week.

Now I run a harbor vessel. I average 60% idle hours. Currently resting at 18,300 hours with zero major overhauls/maintenance. Our oil gets changed roughly every 1500 hours along with filters, but no filter change in between.

We've had several vessels make it to 40,000 hours on original everything, but I'd say the worst repair we've ever had was a head gasket, a turbo, or an out of adjustment valve.

I've just recently started shutting down the engines any time I think I'll have idle time over an hour. EGTs usually are around 250-260 at idle. I've also just considered high idling them to 600RPM (450 normal).

I don't really have a question here but I was looking for input of what everyone thought about this process or maybe just enlightening someone.

 

[JimPghPA]

If you really want to know if these engines are having the oil changed often enough, or maybe even too often, then contact BlackStone labs and get some oil sample kits and use them. Compared to the cost of these engines, and the oil, the cost for an oil analysis from BlackStone truly is insignificant. Heck, compared to the cost of the oil for systems holding that much oil, the information gained from sending samples into BlackStone can give a very good idea of when the oil should be changed.

Some places that use big engines send samples on a fairly regular basis. I talked to someone who works on big engines once, and he told me that the sampling he uses has so far saved two engines that would have had major damage from other fluids leaking into the oil.

 

[chubbs1]

Well if you have no ability/control to change anything related to maintenance, then, it is what it is. How you have explained everything though, it sounds like the people who do make the maintenance decisions are doing a good job. As Jim said, if you can persuade anyone to sample the oil, that is a great idea.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
If you really want to know if these engines are having the oil changed often enough, or maybe even too often, then contact BlackStone labs and get some oil sample kits and use them. Compared to the cost of these engines, and the oil, the cost for an oil analysis from BlackStone truly is insignificant. Heck, compared to the cost of the oil for systems holding that much oil, the information gained from sending samples into BlackStone can give a very good idea of when the oil should be changed.

Some places that use big engines send samples on a fairly regular basis. I talked to someone who works on big engines once, and he told me that the sampling he uses has so far saved two engines that would have had major damage from other fluids leaking into the oil.


If you want a UOA for a commercial diesel then go to Polaris or maybe CAT has their own. Blackstone is fine for car enthusiasts, but not the engines you mention.

 

[Texan4Life]

I wouldn't worry. I wouldn't bother shutting them down while idling. Since it is a straight grade keeping them running would keep your oil up to temp. Unless your trying to save fuel or something.

my .02

 

[BobsArmory]

Originally Posted By: Donald


If you want a UOA for a commercial diesel then go to Polaris or maybe CAT has their own. Blackstone is fine for car enthusiasts, but not the engines you mention.


Yep CAT should be able to do it as well as the oil company. Shell Kendall and D A Lubricants used to do it for free when I was in the construction/environmental clean up business but that was way back in the 90's

 

[asleepz]

Fuel conservation is what I was shutting them down for. But I'm starting to question whether its worth the 7 gallons per hour being the lone duck in doing this.

Caterpillar actually used to take oil samples from all of our boats but they don't do it anymore. My guess is it was for warranty purposes.

We also use inline 4 cylinder John Deere diesels for 70KW gen sets. With the same OCI. We had one swapped out at 6K hours and the other is trucking along at 10K and some change. These even with a straight weight go from startup straight to 1800RPM with no ill effects that I can tell.

Our larger EMD diesels in our line haul vessels only get oil changes after a catastrophic failure or top end overhaul but have much better filtering capabilities. They also use the 409NC.

Btw, we run 5% biodiesel I'm assuming because of the swap to ULSD

 

[camelCase]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
If you really want to know if these engines are having the oil changed often enough, or maybe even too often, then contact BlackStone labs and get some oil sample kits and use them. Compared to the cost of these engines, and the oil, the cost for an oil analysis from BlackStone truly is insignificant. Heck, compared to the cost of the oil for systems holding that much oil, the information gained from sending samples into BlackStone can give a very good idea of when the oil should be changed.

Some places that use big engines send samples on a fairly regular basis. I talked to someone who works on big engines once, and he told me that the sampling he uses has so far saved two engines that would have had major damage from other fluids leaking into the oil.


If you want a UOA for a commercial diesel then go to Polaris or maybe CAT has their own. Blackstone is fine for car enthusiasts, but not the engines you mention.



This a million times. Nothing Against Blackstone, but they don't have the equipment or experience to do good UOAs on industrial heavy equipment. Good for your daily driver, not good for a $100,000+ motor that can shutdown a whole business.

 

[yucca]

Our fleet has some 3508's and a bunch of 3512's. We run 2 to 3 times your current OCI's. We do use bypass filtration as well as baldwin filters to in place of the OEM filters. Use wearcheck labs to run samples.

 

[JR]

Could you pop some pictures for us all.

Ken