2.5DI Boat Engine - Problems

[KeithB1973]

We have a 2.5di boat engine with turbo, intercooler and yellow spot injectors, we were getting a lot of black smoke at higher revs and a lack of power,
we thought this was just because the hull is dirty and the engine was struggling to get the boat on the plane.
Last week the revs died and the engine cut out, if we crack the injectors the engine will start but cuts out after a couple of seconds.
Any ideas lads?

Cheers!

[DodgeRover]

Air leak in the fuel system somewhere or a blocked fuel filter, maybe a failed lift pump if it has one?

[KeithB1973]

Thanks for the reply, yeah it has a lift pump.

We'll try that. We have a filter before the lift pump that has blocked a few times lately so maybe the problem has extended to the lift pump or the engine filter is blocked.

[TripleSix]

Any luck?

Can you do a compression test on it?
Could be a failed head gasket causing smoke.

check the inlet system for blockages too

[yasser]

I had a pair of those in a Sun fury, replaced the petrol pentas. They did quite a good job apart from at full throttle. The heat exchangers were a tad on the small side and they would overheat if you pushed them for to long. If I can remember correctly, Lancing Marine of Brighton used to marinize these and I think Sabre in Ferndown Dorset did a few. Both were very helpful when I needed help

[KeithB1973]

Cheers lads!

We got the boat running, the glass bowl on our CAV filter had smashed so the fuel wasn't getting through.

Still getting a lot of smoke though, lifted the boat out of the water now for a clean up so we could try a compression test.

Thanks!

[Murv]

Did you get this sorted out?

[KeithB1973]

Still out of the water, been cleaning the hull and renewing fuel lines.

[Murv]

Good luck mate.

I've got one of those in a 22' Fairline. If you nee any specs or whatever, feel free to drop me a pm or post back.

[KeithB1973]

Cheers Murv!!

It was marinised by Mermaid Marine, we have a manual from them.

We have changed the engine (used a Transit turbo engine) from the one that came with the boat (23ft Wilson Flyer) so not sure it has uprated bearings.

We weren't sure how to set up the fuel pump for the yellow spot injectors so we just took the pump from the original engine.

[KeithB1973]

Still having problems, the boat struggles to start, we've had to use easy start to get it going, but once going we get full power. It will run all day but if you stop it even when warmed up it struggles to start.

We are thinking of investing in a new set of yellow spot injectors but don't want to spend £260 if it's not that.

Any ideas lads?

[knighty1981]

sounds like an air leak on the fuel system to me ?

[dieselhead123]

Hi there, have you still got the 'black smoke' problem?

It is a simple task to check the condition of the chargecooler core, if this were leaking into the intake then it would cause poor starting issues, particularly with a re-start soon after turning off. A seawater leak into the inlet manifold would also cause seawater to be drawn into the LDA, (manifold pressure compensator), on the top of the injection pump when the engine was 'throttled back' during the shutdown phase. Seawater in the LDA will cause corrosion of the internal parts resulting in the inability of the pump to match fueling to boost levels. At full throttle the preasure in the intake side would be greater than in the seawater side of the cooler so any leak would be 'held back' until shutdown. What sort of boost levels are you achieving?

A simple test would be to run the engine at idle from cold with the flexible pipe between the chargecooler and inlet manifold removed, if the chargecooler core is faulty you will see water emerging from the open end of the chargecooler. Testing like this for a period of about ten minutes would be all that was required to establish if the cooler core were faulty.

I can supply a new set of genuine Stanadyne injectors if needed, but at this stage I would say that this was unlikely.

Let me know the outcome of the 'test' and I will happily advise further.

TIM

[yasser]

that engine will be pressurised fresh water cooled. it will be put through a heat exchanger for cooling by sea water. the only way sea water will get into the engine is if the tubes in the exchanger have split (very unlikely) or somebody has put sea water in it.

[dieselhead123]

Hi there, the chargecooler core was leaking into the chargecooler and therefore into the engine on this one;
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=137839

You can see the red silicone hose in Murv's avatar pic, we removed this hose and observed water filling up the chargecooler.
The chargecooler is fed water from the Jabsco, so it was river/sea water that entered the engine.

We replaced the chargecooler core and solved the problem, Murv got the part from Lancing marine.

TIM