Single diesel engine failures

[Mako]

Would be interesting to see how the numbers pan out for newer and older, then single owner versus multi owner boats. Also who performed the maintenance and what parts were used.

I'd be interested to see numbers comparing electronic engines versus mechanical. They're much more sensitive to fuel issues so I would think alot more shutdowns for that reason.

 

[Datenight]

Since 1973 one in an outboard (1991) leaky gas cap let water into portable tank. Was able to walk back. One in 1997, transmission failure in 23’ Penn Yan. Came home at the wrong end of a rope. None since, all single engine boats.

Rob

 

[O C Diver]

Mine was an electronicly controlled engine.

In 8 years, 6,000+ hours, 39,000 miles I had one failure of the ECU (Electronic Control Unit). Ended up moving it aways from the engine and completed the season. The unit had become temperature compromised. I was towed in.

Early in my career, I had a raw water pump bearing failure on my charter boat. I needed to be towed in. Didn't have a spare complete raw water pump. In 10,000+ hours over 20 years, that was my only tow in. 2 years after I sold it, the new owner broke a valve spring, dropped a valve, and pushed a connecting rod through the oil pan. $hit does happen in spite of your best maintenance.

Ted

 

[Don L]

Thanks guys. Sounds like a rare thing on a properly maintained engine. My experience on a sailboat was I motored my Yanmar 4JH3E around 2500 hours of my ownership and it never had an underway failure. The closest was a crack on seawater flange to heat exchanger. I shut the engine down and sailed while coating it with some 5200 caulking. The engine ran fne that way for 1.5 months till I could get a replacement (heat exchange had to go to machine shop to get te bolted bolts out)

 

[rslifkin]

Purists with twins and twin fuel tanks never fill/top off both tanks at the same time/fueling station. Then a fuel related shutdown of twins would be rare unless fuel system maintenance was sketchy.

That's not a bad thought, but I've never felt the need to go to that extreme. I figure with twin engines feeding from separate tanks, even if they both end up with bad fuel, it's unlikely that both engines will quit at the same time.

 

[tiltrider1]

In 40 years I have had a few fuel starvation issues which were not the engines fault. I have had a few accessory failures (water pump impeller, belt) and one engine circulation pump bearing failure. All these failures would have been prevented if I had been more familiar with the boat. Some of these failures were on singles and some on twins. The common denominator was less than a year of ownership.

 

[jimdavi]

Newer 6.7 L single elec controlled Cummins. 5 years, 500 hours. Zero issues.

 

[Mac2]

In 20 years with a single and twins, all failures (knocking on wood) have been self inflicted-a pattern with others here. Forgetting to turn raw water seacock on. Used brass instead of hydraulic fitting on oil polishing system which snapped off due to engine vibration. PO installing fuel line to copper pipe with no barb. Knocking off/ breaking an electrical connection while maintenance was being done to the engine etc.

 

[psneeld]

Mine was an electronicly controlled engine.

In 8 years, 6,000+ hours, 39,000 miles I had one failure of the ECU (Electronic Control Unit). Ended up moving it aways from the engine and completed the season. The unit had become temperature compromised. I was towed in.

Early in my career, I had a raw water pump bearing failure on my charter boat. I needed to be towed in. Didn't have a spare complete raw water pump. In 10,000+ hours over 20 years, that was my only tow in. 2 years after I sold it, the new owner broke a valve spring, dropped a valve, and pushed a connecting rod through the oil pan. $hit does happen in spite of your best maintenance.

Ted

As an assistance tower and working as a delivery captain moving factory fresh boats regularly, this is key....

Great maintenance combined with sheer statistical probability, and it still can go either way for anyone.

 

[Laredo]

Never had a failure. When you have one you tend to really stay on top of maintenance. Maybe if you have two you slack off....

Most commercial vessels, container ships, tankers, etc. Are single screw.

I don’t think comparing commercial vessels to pleasure craft that most Captains own on this forum is a valid comparison. The commercial boats have larger, heavier duty, low rpm engines maintained by the onboard mechanic with significant spares. The pleasure crafts have medium duty diesel truck engines that have been marinized. Most Captains on this forum are not professional merchant mariners and don’t have the experience or space for spares necessary to have the same reliability as commercial vessels.

 

[Pascall]

Jeff Merrill did a youtube vid with a DD owner who went from Hawaii to California. His engine stopped mid ocean due to a cracked hi-pressure fuel line. He scrounged around and salvaged some from another part (generator?). I don't have a spare line set but probably should.

@psneeld mentioned damper plate failure. I worry about that one as I've heard around five people who've had the same failure. I'll bring a replacement damper plate to Weebles in Chiapas MX and replace it proactively before heading through the Panama Canal.

Summarizing, failures are rare but they do happen. >98% of the time they are operator error and/or fuel related.

Peter

Fit a Centa damper plate, which will keep working even if it breaks down. These have a backup.

 

[Pascall]

13,000 hours on the hour meter once experienced one when the engine would not start.
We were in the lock when the engine refused, the neighbour we were lying next to took us away.
The start-stop magnet was burned out.
With today's knowledge, I could have fixed it on the spot.

 

[Ithaka7]

A couple of points. The average reader here is more educated and more handy than the average boater. Then, it does not matter if the failure was self inflicted or not. A failure is a failure. I agree that a well maintained diesel (or gas) engine is very reliable. However, a well maintained engine costs a lot in service bills.

In my case, over five years, I had two major failures on the small Yanmar 13 hp diesel on the sailboat. Once it slipped a bearing (total loss of the crankshaft), the other time it overheated due to a clogged raw water supply). It was a small engine, that was easy and inexpensive to maintain. On the big Cummins 6CTAs that I have today, I have never had an incapacitating failure but things do happen regularly (a shutdown solenoid will burn out, the starter will get stuck and would not disengage, the aftercooler hose will come off (limiting rpms to 1,500), the water pump impeller will give way). You cannot address all these issues unless you replace impellers once a year, replace hoses every five years, etc. and do a ton of preventive maintenance. This will take the fun out of boating. The diesel genset on the other hand finds many excuses, multiple times a month not to run, and it is always for some silly electronic protection reason.

 

[DDW]

Two failures in 1200 hours on the sailboat, Volvo diesel. One early on, apparent air leak in the pickup from one tank. After returning from cruise using the other tank, disassembled the whole fuel delivery system, did not find anything, reassembled and it worked. Same engine, now with 1100 hours, shut down due to low oil pressure. Turned out to be a faulty sending unit. Wired in a spare at anchor, proceeded on.

One failure on the trawler, Cummins QSB. At about 1600 hours, shut down due to fuel lift pump failure. Was able to restart and limp at slow speed into Petersburg AK. 4 days in port waiting for delivery of new pump, then R&R.

 

[Mako]

As an assistance tower and working as a delivery captain moving factory fresh boats regularly, this is key....

Great maintenance combined with sheer statistical probability, and it still can go either way for anyone.

… the new owner broke a valve spring, dropped a valve, and pushed a connecting rod through the oil pan. $hit does happen in spite of your best maintenance.

Wow. I can see carrying spare cylinder kits, maybe a spare head also, for a global cruiser. But I would never think to carry a spare oil pan.

I suppose it could relatively easily be temporarily repaired. JBWeld and an aluminum beer can could make a nice makeshift patch.

 

[psneeld]

Wow. I can see carrying spare cylinder kits, maybe a spare head also, for a global cruiser. But I would never think to carry a spare oil pan.

I suppose it could relatively easily be temporarily repaired. JBWeld and an aluminum beer can could make a nice makeshift patch.

Absolutely...but if those failures required shutting down an engine quickly (which they all do unless the oil pan was just a drip)... those are engine failure in my book and putting along on a second engine in many, many situations would be great, even if only a convenience.

That was my point in my more recent posts that seemed to cause confusion.

 

[darkside]

I've had 8 diesel engine shut downs over the years.
Probably only the last one you could put down to poor maintenance, the belt was tired but still working fine. Mind you the engine only had around 200 hours at that stage,

Cat 3160 V8 (remember them? morphed into the 3208) air ingress from aftermarket solenoid fuel shut off. Used the manual over-ride, bled and off we went.
Luckily, we got the anchor down before hitting rocks.

Volvo 3GM fuel lift pump intake valve fell out of the housing, we found it sitting in the little bowl underneath. A decent smack with a dot punch kept it there until it could be replaced.
Sailed away from the approaching ferry and anchored to affect the repair.

Yanmar 3JH2E overheat with light plastic bags sucked into the sail drive water intake.
Happened three times, all close to the Straits of Messina.
I developed a special tool, half inch copper pipe with the end shaped like a drill bit to extract the bags about a foot up into the sail drive.
We got pretty good at that, stopped the boat, dived in to clear from underneath.

Volvo KAD43, saltwater ingress killed the fuel pump and some injectors.
New to me boat, on the delivery trip home, had the fuel tank breather on the outside of the hull, facing forwards…..
Anchored and got a tow back to Gisborne, new fuel pump and a set of injectors.

FNM HPE 250hp ECU failure, instant shut down.
Drove home on the other engine.

Yanmar 4LHA 230hp overheat from snapped an auxiliary alternator belt which took out the on engine belt on the way past.
Fixed underway on the other engine in about 30 minutes.

After that we are happy to have twin, mechanical injected engines with keel protected props

 

[psneeld]

I've had 8 diesel engine shut downs over the years.
Probably only the last one you could put down to poor maintenance, the belt was tired but still working fine. Mind you the engine only had around 200 hours at that stage,

Cat 3160 V8 (remember them? morphed into the 3208) air ingress from aftermarket solenoid fuel shut off. Used the manual over-ride, bled and off we went.
Luckily, we got the anchor down before hitting rocks.

Volvo 3GM fuel lift pump intake valve fell out of the housing, we found it sitting in the little bowl underneath. A decent smack with a dot punch kept it there until it could be replaced.
Sailed away from the approaching ferry and anchored to affect the repair.

Yanmar 3JH2E overheat with light plastic bags sucked into the sail drive water intake.
Happened three times, all close to the Straits of Messina.
I developed a special tool, half inch copper pipe with the end shaped like a drill bit to extract the bags about a foot up into the sail drive.
We got pretty good at that, stopped the boat, dived in to clear from underneath.

Volvo KAD43, saltwater ingress killed the fuel pump and some injectors.
New to me boat, on the delivery trip home, had the fuel tank breather on the outside of the hull, facing forwards…..
Anchored and got a tow back to Gisborne, new fuel pump and a set of injectors.

FNM HPE 250hp ECU failure, instant shut down.
Drove home on the other engine.

Yanmar 4LHA 230hp overheat from snapped an auxiliary alternator belt which took out the on engine belt on the way past.
Fixed underway on the other engine in about 30 minutes.

After that we are happy to have twin, mechanical injected engines with keel protected props

As I would be too on a next cruising boat as long as it was also the right boat.

And that's only because I would be changing my cruising areas to more remote places that where I had been for almost a decade and thought the single was fine.

 

[O C Diver]

Wow. I can see carrying spare cylinder kits, maybe a spare head also, for a global cruiser. But I would never think to carry a spare oil pan.

Don't think the oil pan would help if you didn't also bring another connecting rod also.

Look below the raw water pump, forward of the transmission cooler.

Ted

 

[DDW]

It's pretty rare to drop a connecting rod with only damage to the oil pan. I think for that eventuality, you need to bring a spare engine.

 

[Portage_Bay]

Late to the party but here's my experience with single engine failures. I'll start off by saying it was never the engine itself that failed. That doesn't mean I wasn't dead in the water. I'll also say for the most part these were heavier duty engines than most of us run in our recreational boats. And I was fortunate, never had a failure that was life threatening.

Cat 3306 and Twin Disc transmission. Hydraulic hose failed on the tranny. Failed approaching a dock. Ghosted in, now hose installed and back in business.

Cat 379 and Twin Disc Transmission. Numerous failures over 30 yrs and countless hours and miles.
1 - Flexible vibration adapter (for lack of a better word) between flywheel and tranny. Complete disintegration. Launched the RIB and towed the mother ship to save anchorage. Mechanics came out with the new adapter and back in business.
2 - Moon key on transmission actuator worked loose. Lost control docking in heavy currents. That was a bad one. Real ugly.
3 - Propeller shaft backed out of it's coupling. Managed to avoid any negative outcome beyond getting towed to the shipyard.
4 - Overspeed protection tripped for no apparent reason. Rest in a jiffy and avoided getting a problem in the shipping lanes. Tested, rebuilt and reinstalled at first opportunity.

Other problems that ended control of the boat, dead in the water or wouldn't start.
Old skool chain and cable steering. Chain broke at the quadrant. Single engine, no rudder, that's it. Towed in and fixed it.

True antique 1924 build running her original 1923 Atlas Imperial diesel. Numerous failures on several repositioning trips between the Salish Sea and La Paz Mx. For that boat we always had an experienced engineer or at least mechanic intimately familiar with the old Altlas to get her running again. Wouldn't have left the dock without that critically important crew member.

In the for what it's worth column I've experienced electronic engine problems on twins on deliveries. One shut the both engines down. There is always some risk taking a boat away from the dock. Know your system. Be ready to deal with problems. Try not to put yourself in harms way single or twins.

 

[rslifkin]

In the for what it's worth column I've experienced electronic engine problems on twins on deliveries. One shut the both engines down. There is always some risk taking a boat away from the dock. Know your system. Be ready to deal with problems. Try not to put yourself in harms way single or twins.

That's one of those things that drives me crazy on some boats. If you're going to have 2 engines, there should be an effort to avoid anything that can be a single point of failure that could take out both engines at the same time. That means separate starting batteries, at least 2 fuel tanks, etc.

 

[SteveK]

Old skool chain and cable steering. Chain broke at the quadrant. Single engine, no rudder, that's it.

My twin screw GB36 with chain and cable had an emergency rudder arm in case chain/cable failed. Add carry emergency rudder.

 

[Portage_Bay]

My twin screw GB36 with chain and cable had an emergency rudder arm in case chain/cable failed. Add carry emergency rudder.

Yeah, good tackle to have. If you can rig it and manage it.

 

[SteveK]

Yeah, good tackle to have. If you can rig it and manage it.

Mine was rigged by previous owner. I never had reason to test it.

 

[Greg QS]

With Diesels I think 4 times.
Detroit's , got to the fishing grounds and stopped. Moved at some point and black smoke everywhere. Maybe 3000 hrs on engines but 30 years. Repowered after that.

Replaced my fuel tanks and some how Green antifreeze had found its way into the brand new tank. We think someone dumped antifreeze into my diesel storage drums behind the boat. Hopefully thinking they were waste tanks. Anyway shut me down, I had 2 engines and 2 independent tanks so got home fine.

Cummings 450c's . Got to the anchorage and smelled diesel. Found 5 gallons of diesel under the engine. I had just had the injectors replaced by a shop and they forgot to tighten one.

Last year on the east river. 2000hrs on engines and lost throttle controls ( electronic) followed by engine shutdown both sides. I manually lunched the anchor and it bit in way to close to a sunken barge. Wound up being the external voltage regulator had failed for my 24 volt system. I drained the battery bank to dead , turned on the genset and popped the fuse to the Charger witch i did not know at the time. I pulled my 2 genset batteries and wired in for the start bats and got going again.

 

[Sababa]

Cummings 450c's . Got to the anchorage and smelled diesel. Found 5 gallons of diesel under the engine. I had just had the injectors replaced by a shop and they forgot to tighten one.

I had a similar experience when I had the injectors replaced on the Cummins 6BTA in my old Nordic Tug. I was doing a WOT run to test out the performance of the new injectors when I smelled diesel. I dropped down into neutral and opened the hatch into the engine room to see diesel seeping out around several of the nuts connecting the feed lines to the pump. The whole engine room was coated in diesel that had been sprayed at high pressure from those fittings while I was running hard.

Just like in your case, the mechanic had forgotten to tighten those nuts. I tightened them down and made my way back to the marina with my whole engine room a smelly mess. The shop (Hatten) was very apologetic and sent someone down to clean up the mess. But I don't like to think about the fire hazard from all that fine diesel mist getting sprayed all over my engine room before I recognized the problem.

I was only able to do so quickly because the pilot house is right over the engine room in the Nordic Tug 37. I probably would not have smelled it for a long time if at all while underway in my current Maritimo 52, with the engine room two decks away from the helm and accessible only from the cockpit. A reminder of how important it is to double check all the work that you don't do yourself before casting off from the dock.

 

[High Wire]

Don't think the oil pan would help if you didn't also bring another connecting rod also.

Look below the raw water pump, forward of the transmission cooler.
View attachment 162964


Ted

Ted was that crack on the inlet elbow?

 

[O C Diver]

Ted was that crack on the inlet elbow?

Crack?

The failure occurred from a broken valve spring (post #33).

Ted

 

[Caballero II]

I was reading a recent single or twin engine thread that apparantely has been asked many times, so I understand the answer is "it depends", which is the answer to most choise questions

So let me ask this of readers of this thread: If you boat has a single DIESEL engine; how many times has it failed underway and how many hours do you have on it?

In 1,000 hours on this engine (Ford Lehman F-120), it failed once due to an impeller failure shortly out of the harbor. It has 2,500 hours. Actually, I shut it down pre-emptively when I saw the engine temp gauge approach pegging. So close, the Harbor Patrol came out and towed me back in, and we replaced the impellor. Pretty much another enjoyable day one the water, with not much harm done.