Engine checks under way

[Hawgwash]

I keep reading "hourly engine checks."

I have looked at some pretty cramped engine rooms lately. Ones where you enter on hands and knees and can barely turn around. I just can't imagine going in there every hour or so, while running and not be at serious risk of injury.

What is your space like and what is your routine under way?

 

[dhays]

To be honest, my engine checks are keeping an eye on the rpm and temps and noting any change in the sound of the engine. But my engine is sitting right behind the galley in the cabin so we are always rather intimate.

Great question and one I have wondered about for exactly the reasons you mentioned.

 

[RCook]

My space is big enough for an arm or two to reach down into.

I check oil and sea strainer, eyball the bilge, and sometimes feel the belts every morning. Sometimes start the engine with cover up. and listen/watch briefly. Then the engine cover typically stays closed until the next morning.

Every once in a while I hear something that doesn't sound quite right while underway, and up goes the cover to check it out. Sometimes it's a belt starting to fail. Most often it's nothing, maybe sounding a little different because things are placed differently on top of the engine cover, or just because I happen to be listening from a different position myself.

 

[psneeld]

The USCG used to do 15 minute checks on their small boats....I think that is a bit overkill...but they do sail with an engineer and he probably gets bored...

I usually lift my saloon floor engine hatch and do a quick peek. In 5 seconds I can scan fuel level (poly tanks), belt tension, drip pan for excessive oil/fuel leaks/coolant leaks and bilge water.

Usually that covers what the engine instruments/sound isn't telling me.

I should do it more...but sometimes due to navigating or moving the dog.....keeps me from taking a more regular peek.

 

[Ski in NC]

I do a crawl around inspection in the engine room before leaving on a trip. I can crawl and inspect each side of the main engine and all sides of the gennie. Check fluids, crank them up, look for leaks, listen. Then get under way. An hour or so later, lift the hatch and stick my head in and look and listen. Mostly looking for leaks. Generally do not actually jump in ER. Do this every few hours. Once day or so into a trip, I might not open the hatch at all during a day. Once at a destination and all shut down, got down and look for evidence of leaks and check fluids.

The basic guts of an engine room are very similar to those in a car. There are many cars that don't get the hood lifted for months at a time, and do just fine.

I am not anal about maintenance, but being in the engine business I know the weak spots and keep those handled. Try to do smart maintenance, and so far it has been successful. 2200hrs and 20,000nm and no trip interrupting failures. Just a few silly things replaced due to leaks.

 

[MurrayM]

I check the bilge, sea strainer, coolant level, belt tension, and oil level before heading out. Later, when I get an infrared gun, I'll take a Sharpie and mark some spots on the engine that will be checked while underway and logged, which hopefully will go a long way to giving early signals that something is going awry.

While on longer trips I'll check things out from the fan belt to the stuffing box every couple days while underway. On our last holiday I discovered a vent line to one of our fuel tanks had become completely plugged because the level hadn't dropped in the sight tube.

 

[Hawgwash]

I should do it more...but sometimes due to navigating or moving the dog.....keeps me from taking a more regular peek.

Thank you. That pretty much tells me all I need to know.

 

[menzies]

I believe that would be for long haul open sea trips, where you don't want to get caught by surprise out there.

If running coastal, a before-you-start , and after-shut-down check, along with close attention to gauges and sound, should suffice.

The previous owners of SONAS marked up certain parts of the engine with a sharpie so just had to open the ER door at either end and shoot the marks with the laser gun.

 

[psneeld]

Based on how many serious emergencies I have encountered in my days of assisting others...

Many of them the owners were surprised when the first obvious signs were severe flooding or fire. Many of these most likely had forewarning...some probably didn't.

On any trip over 2 hours I would think it prudent to be able to watch a high quality engine room camera (one that will show misting fuel or wisps of smoke as a minimum) or take a peek at least every 2 hours.

I have had misting fuel once, pulsing fuel from an injection pipe, serious oil leak from discontinued mechanical tach fitting. The fuel leaks could have been a bigger issue, but the oil leak I guess I would have seen fluctuating pressure on a gauge which on a single engine boat is never a happy moment. I also have had more issues on commercial vessels and deliveries where others were supposed to but neglected regular checks.

 

[Hawgwash]

I do a crawl around inspection in the engine room before leaving on a trip. I am not anal about maintenance, but being in the engine business I know the weak spots and keep those handled.

Ski, I religiously read and heed everything you write. Your post #5 aligns with my thinking and confirms that we don't need to be anal.

Best bud is a retired firefighter who is an over the top anal perfectionist; he must have all the proper gear, just to whack the wild salal on his property...he insists on hourly checks of his DD 8.2s that last probably 15 minutes. It's just how he is. But, he has V-drives and can do his checks via the cockpit, not on hands and knees. My gassers have always been easy to access from cockpit or salon.

I spent many years in massive steam plants with acres of instruments and a circus of sounds; turbines, steam engines, wood and bunker fires, screeching, clanging banging conveyors. I could fall asleep against a guardrail on a catwalk and waken at the most miniscule change of sound. My belief; watch and listen.

I have felt if you keep everything up and do as you do, there should be few surprises.

Thanks again, Ski, for all your contributions.

 

[psneeld]

I agree with the anal part...but the way I cruise...


I am so bored most of the time driving...getting up and doing a 5 second peek to keep from going nuts or letting something small develop, then so be it.


If I couldn't easily peek or operated a vessel that was fast enough I would have to slow to leave the helm...a camera would be high on my to do list.


For me it sorta still is because when it's rough enough to hang on...the checks do get neglected occasionally and that's the time they are most needed.

 

[No Mast]

Although not truly a stand up engine room, you can slouch around and have good access to the main and genset. The get home is just slightly less accessible. We do engine room checks every two to three hours while out. On overnights we stretch it to four hours so we check at shift changes. I'd like to have an engine room camera someday, but we haven't gotten there yet. We use a checklist I've posted in the past. Keeps us from forgetting something. I'll track it down and repost it later or tomorrow when I get back to my laptop.

We've found oil and water leaks before they became serious problems in the past, so we'll continue with our engine room check routine for sure.

 

[caltexflanc]

One of the most important keys when buying our Hatteras to cruise full time was easy engine room access, as in walk in, full stand up and walk around. ER checks were an absolute snap. ERs were very brightly lit. When offshore I did them religiously about hourly. Inshore, maybe every two or three hours when I thought of it. Wore ear protection, brought my hand IR temp gun and shot about 6 spots every time. The generator was in it's own room, if it was running I'd check it too, which was easy by just lifting a hatch in the galley just above and to one side of the genset.

 

[bayview]

With a good light I do a in the er check and fluids check all around before start up.


After an hour or so I open the hatch and shine light on everything visible looking for leaks or smoke or weird noises. I may do that again before departing near shore if the next step is an open water passage.

 

[rwidman]

I check the oil and coolant level each morning when cruising. I'll give the engine and bilge a quick look as well. That's usually it until the next morning. Sometimes I'll open the hatch while underway and listen and look around for anything unusual.

 

[dhays]

For those of you who use a laser temp sensor, what are the spots that you check, when do you check them, and what type of variances are you looking for?

I have one I have used for checking tire temps between auto cross runs but just might take it down to the future boat.

 

[Portage_Bay]

In addition to gauges, sight and sound don't forget smell. I've caught before major problems overheated electrical, an engine running to hot, a fuel leak and scariest of all the gen set oil filter gasket had developed a pin hole leak and was spraying oil on the Maine's turbo.

 

[Codger2]

If I couldn't easily peek or operated a vessel that was fast enough I would have to slow to leave the helm...a camera would be high on my to do list.

For me it sorta still is because when it's rough enough to hand on...the checks do get neglected occasionally and that's the time they are most needed.

 

[No Mast]

For those of you who use a laser temp sensor, what are the spots that you check, when do you check them, and what type of variances are you looking for?

I have one I have used for checking tire temps between auto cross runs but just might take it down to the future boat.

We check:
Alternators
Oil pan
Coolant tank
Stab. Hydraulic tank
Valve cover
Heat exchanger
After cooler
Drip less seal
Exhaust riser

We check them every two to four hours.

Variances: we look for deviations from an established baseline really. In the after cooler and heat exchanger were also looking for even temp spread from cool side to warm side. For the valve cover we are looking for even temps along all cylinders.

 

[ksanders]

Like others we visually check things before startup.

After that, we rely on sensors.

We of course keep track of the common ones like coolant temp and oil pressure, but we have more.

• Boost and pyro gauges (pyro will tell of a cooling issue long before coolant temp)
• Fuel consumption (found a broken rigid fuel line with this that could have resulted in a fire I suppose)
• Engine room smoke detector
• Engine room temperature
• Engine room camera

Plus I use my ears. I know what my boat sounds like, and anything amis is quickly noticed.

 

[Hawgwash]

We check:
Alternators
Oil pan
Coolant tank
Stab. Hydraulic tank
Valve cover
Heat exchanger
After cooler
Drip less seal
Exhaust riser

What IR do you have and at what distance does it lose reliable accuracy?

 

[mbevins]

Like others we visually check things before startup.

After that, we rely on sensors.

We of course keep track of the common ones like coolant temp and oil pressure, but we have more.


[*]Boost and pyro gauges (pyro will tell of a cooling issue long before coolant temp)
[*]Fuel consumption (found a broken rigid fuel line with this that could have resulted in a fire I suppose)
[*]Engine room smoke detector
[*]Engine room temperature
[*]Engine room camera


Plus I use my ears. I know what my boat sounds like, and anything amis is quickly noticed.

I'm with you with the exception of the extras that you have added of late. Getting into my ER is a huge pain. I have to roll up a pc of carpet in the saloon.
I'm very anal about monitoring gauges every 5-7minutes on average.
I caught an oil leak last fall just by seeing a slight drop in pressure.

 

[BandB]

If I couldn't easily peek or operated a vessel that was fast enough I would have to slow to leave the helm...a camera would be high on my to do list.

We do thorough checks before leaving the dock working from a check list. We service regularly and thoroughly. We also have more than the standard guages and instrumentation to monitor things. Still, every hour, someone does a visual check and on a boat without a full stand up ER or even areas of one with, cameras are invaluable (and with audio even better). We don't use them to replace checks in person but to augment them. Most things that can go wrong have very early warning signs. Water in the bilge but not to the level of setting off an alarm yet. Other fluid in the bilge or on the exterior of the engine or hoses. Fuel filters starting to show signs of something. Belts just a little loose. A strange sound coming from somewhere.

Cameras have become so inexpensive that we're of the philosophy, the more the better. For security. For docking. For keeping an eye on the engine room. I think it's one of those things that has snuck up on us, both the view they can give you and the modest cost. They also are of tremendous help if an alarm goes off in allowing you to quickly see the area and know what you're dealing with as you head down.

 

[kchace]

I don't *think* I'm anal, but before a long cruise I'll make sure fluid levels are good, check belts,etc. after maybe an hour or 2 into the cruise I'll actually go down and sit in the ER for a bit. From there I can listen to make sure the engines sound right, check all strainers, look for leaks and check that the stuffing boxes are dripping properly. I might hit a few spots with the temp gun. Every few hours after I do about the same check. I'd love to get an ER camera. After I get my new electronics set up (this spring) I'll look into it further.

Ken

 

[caltexflanc]

In addition to gauges, sight and sound don't forget smell. I've caught before major problems overheated electrical, an engine running to hot, a fuel leak and scariest of all the gen set oil filter gasket had developed a pin hole leak and was spraying oil on the Maine's turbo.

Yes indeed! I discovered a suddenly leaky fuel pump, and a chafing power cable to one of the air-cons that way.

With the IR gun I checked the oil filter (engine and transmission), the shaft packing gland, the coolant temps coming out of the heat exchanger, the alternator, the exhaust before and after the shower head.

I also checked the mechanical gauges that were in there for engine temp, oil pressure, and drive oil pressure/ plus the fuel filter vacuum and pressure and the pressure and temp gauges on the Naiads.

 

[FlyWright]

Another big +1 for the ER cameras. I keep a regular eye on the cams that are wired to the HDTV. A simple selector button allows me to change cameras for a view of each engine. I might add more cameras for added perspectives.

They don't replace the need for ER checks, but I find that I do the ER check less often as I can easily see the engines now. I still like a pre- and post- ER check to confirm fluid levels and general conditions.

ER Lights on:

ER Lights off:

 

[O C Diver]

I do pre and post cruise checks. The pre is like everybody else's looking for leaks and fluid levels. The post is for smells and smoke. If you open the hatch with the engine room vent running, the odors are contained in the ER. I'm looking for oil haze, coolant odor, burnt rubber (hoses and belts) smell, and diesel fuel odor. Many of these can be gone or less noticeable by the next morning.

Underway for only a few hours, I'm probably not doing an engine room check.

All day cruise, I try to do a check every 3 hours. Engine for leaks, belts, drip pan under engine, coolant reservoir, sea water strainer, and the Racor (fuel separator) are mostly what I check. I have an IR temp gun that I may or may not use. I cruise solo much of the time. So there are places where it's not realistic to do ER checks. I'm also an opportunist. If I'm waiting for a lock, bridge or other navigation blockage, time for a quick check.

I think ER checks are good but one can take anything to extreme (I've been known to). I would rather be more OCD about preventative maintenance than ER checks. Never did one on any aircraft while I was flying it.

Ted

 

[Ski in NC]

The thing about ER checks and monitoring gauges is that things can go from all-ok to bad in a matter of minutes if not seconds. Some failures give hints, but not all. Chances of catching something during the check is pretty low.

For that reason I put good effort in keeping machinery in top shape, and having a good alarm system monitoring four points on the engine.

And I still do the checks!!

 

[Old deckhand]

I wait until the "check engine" light comes on. That is what it is for, right?

 

[menzies]

I wait until the "check engine" light comes on. That is what it is for, right?

Is it yellow or red?