Engine Parameter Logging

[Hyperion]

I took Nigel Calder's Diesel maintenance seminar at Trawlerfest in Baltimore a couple of weeks ago and he mentioned that a good technique for keeping an eye on the health of your diesels is to note a few data points from time to time and compare them to see if something is different or changing. As I understood it the points were RPM, Oil Pressure, Coolant Temp. Does anyone have any real world experience with this practice? How often do you take the readings? Do you do a set to vary the RPM and get a few readings at different RPMs? Do you all do WOT runs to check against RMP? I would appreciate any help with this. Thank you.

 

[rslifkin]

I don't necessarily write things down, but I have developed a good mental model of what's normal for coolant temp and oil pressure at various speeds. Coolant temp is affected slightly by seawater temp (especially under heavy load), so that factors into what I expect to see as well.

After a while of being observant it stands out when something isn't normal.

 

[Flatswing]

I don't necessarily write things down, but I have developed a good mental model of what's normal for coolant temp and oil pressure at various speeds. Coolant temp is affected slightly by seawater temp (especially under heavy load), so that factors into what I expect to see as well.

After a while of being observant it stands out when something isn't normal.

I enjoyed his course several years back. Since many of us cruise at a relatively constant speed & engine temperature and oil pressure shouldn’t ordinarily change much within a few hundred rpm’s of your usual cruising RPM’s, a simple trick is a very thin strip of electrical tape on the gauges at or just above your usual setting.

Checking WOT weekly (while cruising) is always a useful stress test.

 

[Bmarler]

Agree with what’s been said so far. Cruising rpm’s should generate consistent gauge readings.
But paying attention to things like idle temp, or how long it takes to reach operational temp, exhaust temp, etc…is a valuable tool for heading off problems before they occur. I don’t need to write them down, I know exactly what my engine does and how it responds to various situations. Any change at all is investigated and fixed.

 

[lwarden]

As noted, probably not super valuable to actually log coolant temp and oil pressure, but if you have a turbo engine adding and keeping track of EGT and boost at certain RPM and load is quite valuable. These values can show a number of factors such as turbo health, prop fouling, after cooling issues, boost leaks, etc.

 

[DDW]

I think your boat may predate common rail electronic engines. For later engines, logging is relatively easy. I'm using a Yacht Devices Voyage Recorder, this plugs into the N2K backbone and records pretty much every piece of data that goes by. Since all the engine data is pushed onto the backbone from the engine N2K interface, nearly everything you can imagine is recorded. Engine data every second I think. I have several years of this now and can troll back through it and look for specific things.

Without that (even with that), I make an effort to observe the gage readings, they should be pretty stable over long periods. Departures from what you know to be normal should be investigated, it has been my experience that if something seems not right it is best to investigate sooner, not later.

 

[kapnd]

An old trick from stock car racing is to rotate your gauges so that “normal” is at the 12:00 position. A quick glance is all it takes to verify that all’s well.

 

[jimdavi]

I have the 5 gauge Cummins smart craft and for the 4 dial instruments I have a thin red piece of tape over the glass for the normal reading. Works great.

 

[klee wyck]

I use a white Sharpie to make a mark on all gauges at normal operating spec. I originally did this for my cruising partner on her watches, but it immediately made it much easier for me on my watch to scan the panel and see the needles matching the marks.

 

[OldDan1943]

+
Learn your engine via sound, temp and pressure.

 

[stone beach]

keeping a log is absolutely standard real world marine engineering practice, be it with paper and pencil or electronic means.
as things degrade system parameters change slowly over time, you probably wont notice the changes week by week without a written record.
marking or rotating the gauges as suggested are both good ideas for quick reference .
typically there are very few instruments on our boats, so not a lot to log anyway, if you are going to do it you might as well log all you can, you need something to normalise the readings from one time to another, engine rpm and sea temperature are usually best for this, once a day would be more than enough if you typically operate at same engine speed, building a record at different speeds and loads can also be useful.

 

[kapnd]

If you’re really interested in keeping tabs on your motors health, exhaust gas temperature, manifold pressure, oil temp, transmission oil pressure and temperature, raw water pressure, fuel vacuum, system voltages, will give you a significantly improved overall picture.
It may take a bit more real estate off your dashboard, but is relatively cheap insurance!

 

[Jay N]

It's easy to go overboard on this, if you're not that interested. However, every data point is important, not only for it's own information, but how it relates to other conditions.

[FONT=&quot]WESTERLY - OPERATION LOG[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Make operating inspections every 2 hours. Log inspections every 5-10 hours, or when appropriate. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]BLUE[/FONT][FONT=&quot] heat readings are not recorded.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]NORMAL OPERATIONS ([/FONT][FONT=&quot]GAUGES[/FONT][FONT=&quot] at 1600-1800 rpm):[/FONT][FONT=&quot]WLD%[/FONT][FONT=&quot] (wet load percentage based on Status Log calculation), [/FONT][FONT=&quot]CT [/FONT][FONT=&quot](coolant temp from aft engine sensor):170F, O# (oil pressure):min20# (idle hot) - 65# (cold) – 55-56# (cruise/hot), FOV (fuel oil vacuum):<4 in, Pyro:400-500F, TRB (turbo boost pressure):2.6-4.2#, ERT (engine room ambient air temp): <110F, B1 Temp:60-85F[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]NORMAL OPERATING TEMPS ([/FONT][FONT=&quot]HEAT GUN[/FONT][FONT=&quot] at 1600-1800 rpm): [/FONT][FONT=&quot]RWI[/FONT][FONT=&quot](raw water inlet temp at center of strainer): 50-70F(for waters cruised), RWI (at HX):Max 20F above RWI at strainer), RWO(at HX): Max 10F above RWI at HX, RWO(at exhaust injection can): Max 45F above RWI at strainer,ME Exh Surge Chamber:<125F, CT (coolant temp at expansion tank top):188F(measures max coolant temp and depends on thermostat), HO-ALT (mid-case):180F (max charging w/blower on @ 1600 rpm),OT(oil temp at filter, depends on thermostat): 175-200F,ME Oil Bypass Filter (housing):155-180F,TM[/FONT][FONT=&quot](transmission top of case):[/FONT][FONT=&quot]90-105F[/FONT][FONT=&quot], [/FONT][FONT=&quot]IB[/FONT][FONT=&quot](intermediate bearing - top):90-110F[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]VISUAL INSPECTIONS: [/FONT][FONT=&quot] Steering pump reservoir - ER Bilge - Shaft Brush - Shaft Seal - Rudder Post/Steering Ram – Lazarette Bilge [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]TIME[/FONT][FONT=&quot] DATE EHRS RPM WLD% CT O# FOV PYRO TRB ERT RWI RWO CT OT TM IB[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]1615 08/12/23 1556.3 1650 70.1% 170 55 <1.0F 460 3.0 106 66 106 188 200 106 104[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1155 08/10/23 1545.3 1650 64.2% 170 55 <1.0F 475 3.0 95 67 98 187 198 96 100[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1125 07/18/23 1535.2 1600 59.7% 170 55 <1.0F 440 2.7 98 63 101 187 198 97 88[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]0915 07/14/23 1523.0 1600 66.5% 170 55 <1.0F 430 2.6 106 68 105 188 199 105 101[/FONT]

 

[Caballero II]

An old trick from stock car racing is to rotate your gauges so that “normal” is at the 12:00 position. A quick glance is all it takes to verify that all’s well.

That's a great idea! Not sure it's practical, thought. Not sure how I could easily rotate the gauges.

 

[Caballero II]

I have the 5 gauge Cummins smart craft and for the 4 dial instruments I have a thin red piece of tape over the glass for the normal reading. Works great.

Where do you get tape that thin?

 

[Caballero II]

I use a white Sharpie to make a mark on all gauges at normal operating spec. I originally did this for my cruising partner on her watches, but it immediately made it much easier for me on my watch to scan the panel and see the needles matching the marks.

Damn! What's a white sharpie?? I've never seen one. It marks on glass? This is a great thread. Somehow marking normal would be a great addition to my cruising partner/girlfriend, who is not of a mechanical mind, and no great friend of our "mechanical partners" (engines, generators, windlasses, radios, navigation gear, etc.) Nonetheless, I wouldn't run the boat much without her.

I wonder how I would easily lift the glass over the gauges on a 1982 GB 36 fly bridge station to mark them? The glass cover should be hinged, but I have never opened up that space to see if I could do that. It would be nice to be able to clean the space in any event. There are dead flies in there.

 

[ksanders]

Where do you get tape that thin?

Red electrical tape and scissors

 

[OldDan1943]

+1

 

[Marco Flamingo]

There are free phone apps that can help. Make a decibel graph from a convenient place at idle and at cruising RPM. Some of the graphs can show whether there is a new high (or low) pinging. Make a vibration graph at various RPMs. It can tell whether the prop has taken a hit. Keeping records allows one to answer "Is that new?" prior to a failure.

 

[OldDan1943]

There are free phone apps that can help. Make a decibel graph from a convenient place at idle and at cruising RPM. Some of the graphs can show whether there is a new high (or low) pinging. Make a vibration graph at various RPMs. It can tell whether the prop has taken a hit. Keeping records allows one to answer "Is that new?" prior to a failure.

Which app do you recommend?

 

[Marco Flamingo]

Which app do you recommend?

No recommendations really because too many choices and they seem to be always changing. Plus, I have an android phone. I just found a few apps that made sense to me and went with them.

While recording apps are nice for a big picture, one can also just save a representative screen shot and label it according to what was measured. For decibels (when I was working on reducing cabin sound), I also kept a simple page in the log book that is RPM vs. Db.

 

[costalive]

Where do you get tape that thin?

Striping tape or use a paint pen
you can get both at amazon and local craft and automotive stores

 

[GoldenDawn]

We log: RPM, engine temp, oil pressure, DC voltage, water temp (from transducer thermocouple), and stuffing box temp (using a remote temperature gauge strapped to the stuffing box. Also vessel speed. It gives the helm something to do and requires the them to look at the gauges.

From this we have established typical trends for a voyage. Like typical running temperature, oil pressure falling slightly throughout the day (52psi to 48psi), decreasing charge rate (14.1vDC to 13.2vDC) and warming stuffing box (65F to 80F). All normal trends. Seawater temperature also affects stuffing box temperature.

We also do remote temperature checks on alternators (house alternator can get up to 120F), heat exchanger (inlet and outlet), oil and transmission coolers a couple times a day so we a good feeling for "normal".

 

[Capt Ray]

What I have done for years...

Don't laugh at this old IT guy... but I keep a MANUAL maintenance log... standard fare as you can buy at West Marine or online. Two pics show examples of virtually every project and observation that gets done on our boat. You will also see the work order/invoice for the 2000 hour service done to our CAT 3126 a couple years ago. (Its time for the 3000 hour service soon!)

I also make a habit to use my mobile phone's camera to take note many things. SEE PICS uploaded. Each pic has a date and time, and the information for that date: e.g. differential pressure at the Racor primary fuel filter, engine hours every day we are underway, along with the GPS's "odometer log" for each day, fuel status, and all that together with NEBO reports I have an excellent running total of stats. Mobile phone camera is the best, fastest, easiest way to log my information.

The Weems & Plath maintenance logs soon become EXTREMELY VALUABLE to you and even more to the next owner of the vessel when it comes time for you to buy your next bigger boat! LOL

I honestly do not find it an onerous task to update it after every project. It also has a place to list all your part numbers and serial numbers and sources for spares etc. It really does not take a lot of time, and within a few months, you'd be surprise at the wealth of information you have amassed. Then imagine the value after a few YEARS!

 

[gilbertpark]

I trained as an anaesthesiologist in the UK. Monitoring was routine, when a patient was anaesthetised every 5 minutes you recorded several vital signs, every hour urine output etc etc.

After a life time of monitoring patients I am now retired and monitor my boat, notice boat not engines. Every hour I will record in my log book various engine parameters and also the speed (GPS and through the water), lat and long, heading, distance, wind and sea state.

If something is starting to go wrong with the engine I should pick it up quickly hopefully before any damage is done or an alarm sounds. If I don't have the discipline of writing it down then I can go for several hours without noting what's going on (I have done that in the past). It also proves useful when looking at fuel consumption, planning the same trip and just reliving a trip.

As for the navigation variables I like to think that if all my charts etc disappear from view on my MFD (incidentally Google have just decided to remove a marine navigation app with no warning and take it off your tablet also without warning) then I might stand a chance of knowing where I was and from the other data work out where I am.

One further feature of a log book with this data in when I came to sell several boats the broker loved having a page or two copied to show to buyers.

Yes engines and electronics are very reliable - but they do go wrong. As I was told as Boy Scout half a century ago - Be prepared