Modern engine oils and Older DIESEL engines

[cuz]

Or just buy a magnetic drain plug then the magnet comes off with the metal on it.

[jjefferson]

On the topic of old diesels and oil.

This is the port engine of the ship I work on. The engines (2) are old Cleveland 12-278A’s. These engines were a transplant from a Canadian mine sweeper on to a newer ship. I forget all the details (off the ship for the winter) but I believe that each engine / lube cooler holds about 300 gallons of lube oil. That’s the lube oil cooler in the foreground.




Heres a photo of a cylinder sleeve / piston replacement - takes about 4 to 5 hours each. Takes two of us to move the sleeve around the engine room. The chief engineer always has a laugh when he gets me (the captain) to help him move the sleeves around. I think he enjoys getting my "captain" pants all oily.



We do one oil change per summer and at 10 to 14 dollars a gallon it is no small oil change. Before we left for Alaska this past summer we loaded up 1000 gallons of lube oil in Seattle and that was 11,000 dollars alone, not to mention the 20,000 gallons of diesel we hold. Glad it doesn’t come out of my pocket! If I have the ship hooked up I think I am burning something like 40 to 50 gallons an hour per engine, and putting out one heck of smoke screen out of the stack.

Last summer we had a pin hole leak in one of the piston sleeve walls that let salt water fill the engine and the cooler. – one oil change later (and a new sleeve) and we were off and running. Not bad for a 50 year old engine. By the way the engines are all stainless and cast bronze construction– no magnetic signature – for sweeping for mines.

Here is a picture of what happens with a bad batch of oil scaper rings on the pistons - lots of oil over the decks. And lots of Simple Green and oil sorb diaper clean up. All the engine parts are surplus or custom made, so sometimes your not sure what you will get. We had one batch of piston rings last about 10 hours. If I remember correctly its about 10,000 dollars for a set of rings for all 12 cylinders.



Jim Jefferson
1954 M-37

[T. Highway]

Great pictures jjefferson,
I looked at the pictures first and was wondering what the Gulls had been eating to leave that kind of mess topside, but then I read your post.