Diesel Doctor

[ebermudez]

Hi
I have a Detroit 60 series installed on a launch. Recently the Starboard unit suffers a catastrophic failure and piston No2 came out of the block, making a big hole. This engines are using heat exchangers, sea water cooled Charge Air Coolers and sea water self priming raw water pump. We contact the local dealer an the veredict was a "Massive salt water ingestion" that caused an Hydraulic lock and damaged cyls 6 and 2. They say that the water came from the deck covers, pass thru the air filter, then thru the turbocharger, the charge air cooler y finaly reached the cilinders, but there is no way for the water to reach the engine from outside. We suspect that the water came from the Charge Air Cooler, since it is using a sea water cooled unit. I want to know if the CAC can cause that type of failures and if anyone had a similar problem. The engine cost is about 66K and only had 2300 hours

Thanks

[kirkt]

The only way the charge air cooler could even remotely be responsible, is for the intake to have a large restriction on air flow before the turbocharger then the cooler would be at a small vacuum instead of boost during deceleration. Since this is a marine application, I cannot see that happening although stranger things have happened. There would have to be salt water present at the charge air cooler during all of this. You would also notice a loss of power, and black smoke as well as extra sooty engine oil if the cooler had a large leak, as it would allow much of the turbo boost to escape to the atmosphere. The charge air cooler is defined just as it is pronounced. Charge air. Meaning the air is charged after the turbocharger does it's job of compressing it. Did the shop check the air intake for signs of salt water both before and after the turbo? How much carbon was on the tops of the other pistons? An oil analysis is useful sometimes, and for an engine of this magnitude, $30 is cheap.