www.maritime-executive.com/article/maib-faulty-engine-overhaul-caused-catastrophic-fire

Nice job on the engine rebuild...
Just cut on the rods to get the bushings in, eh ?

Maybe a phord mechanic doing the rebuild?

I’m sure some of you recall seeing the locomotive that launched piston after the jug came loose from the crankcase.

My father was a engineer and later got his Chief engineer license for medium ship diesel engines, those engines are HUGE
Very low speed RPM wise also, maybe 1200 RPM max, maybe less or a little bit higher

Cutting to the chase, in the little things do matter column:

""The introduction of notches, probably caused during the bush removal process, introduced stress [risers] into the small end, increased the likelihood of fatigue crack initiation and therefore fatigue failure."

Referring to the Con rod rebushing screw up by a hand angle grinder that was likely the cited cause of the calamity.

Yikes.

Hopefully that rebuilder doesn't offer Mopar crate engines.

Should of had a man standing beside that mess t show the size of engine

I think all the large ship diesel engines have removeable inspection plates into the crankcase large enough for a man to walk into and have to look up to see the wrist pins
The comment about a man standing beside one is a good example of the large sizes

Strictly from a business viewpoint
the small sum of money saved by having a cheap rate crew overhaul the engine
is far less than the $ damage.

Years ago I needed an EMD diesel rebuilt out of a GP-38 locomotive.
We got bids from several shops, one of which located near New Orleans did mainly ship service diesels.
This shop sent one of the owners to “sell us” on why his business should get the job.
One of his arguments was:
“Our marine customers hold us to much higher standards than railroad customers because if an engine goes bad at sea it is much more of a life or death situation.”

We gave that engine rebuilding shop the job and they delivered an engine that performed well and very noticeably leaked less oil than even factory new GM EMD engines did.

They probably torqued by feel, because experience you know.

In the marine world, that is considered a high speed diesel.

The big ocean going units are slow speed, in the 80-120 RPM range.

Kevin

The utility I worked at had a number of '40's era diesel generating plants. Rating was about 2.4 MW per unit IIRC. The plant manager started one up for us on a visit and it was chugging along at about 800 rpm and I asked him when he would take it off idle. He looked at me funny and said that it was already at governed speed.

The engine in this ship from what I can gather, is a MAN 12V 48/60 .

A medium speed diesel. Just over 19,000 HP @ 500 RPM.

Torque at peak HP is just over 199,000 ft/lbs. Not sure what peak torque is but I suspect it's approaching the outer limits of a 727 Torqueflite .

Kevin

delete

Given the size of that engine. If they can't take the block out in pieces I can't see a way to fix it that would be cheaper than a new boat.

Even if you can remove the block in pieces I think your gonna have a big, big, problems getting pieces that size out of the hull.

I don't know but it seems like they totaled a ship.

Not at all, cut out the deck(s) above, hoist it out, put new one in, weld decks back in. Not uncommon in ship repair.

They won't total a ship that size. They'll cut a hole in the side and out it goes. Saw them do that in a documentary on TV one time. Crazy amount of work/time/money but that's what they do. Here they are doing a cruise ship in the same manner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw6-82YVIbE

Wow I guess if there is a will or a paycheck there is a way.

That just seems like a crazy repair.

Of course anything is doable, but there are of course many other factors involved in deciding what is the best solution/repair, like age of the hull, cost of a replacement engine, market that the ship serves, overall environmental footprint of the ship in regards to current or future expected regulations, its cost to operate relative to the competition, and the depth of the pockets of the owner or who ever foots the bill, and lastly, how close is the ship to Bangladesh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_breaking

We replaced a feedwater heater in the plant I used to work at. We used a heavy lifting firm whose primary business was removing diesel engines from ships to remove the old heater out and the new heater in. They had a modular skidding arrangement that pinned together to form a track. Each rail of the track had cross pins and they had a hydraulic apparatus that was fastened to the heater. The hydraulics engaged the cross pins in the track and literally pulled the heater along the track. Looked like a small railroad. In talking to the foreman what they typically did in ships was have an access hole cut in the side, they'd assemble the track, and then skid the engine(s) sideways out of the ship. I looked for some pictures of the setup but I must have lost them over the years.

Jack and slide. They use the same equipment to move big transformers.

Kevin

Here's a couple

Piston check

Crank replacement

Piston replacement

Engine removal

That was fascinating Thank you.

Curious as to what rod ratios are in play here, with that one crank, I'm guessing in way over the 5:1 range.

That crank change out rigging dance looked to be a bit sketchy, but they got it done.

The red suited crews definitely are trained for safety awareness.

The last video, piston swap crew, not so much.

Impressive.

Ship will go into dry dock and the yard will cut out whatever is needed to remove and install a new block. I worked in ship repair for 20 plus years, granted on much smaller vessels, we gained access to the DC motors by cutting the main deck right above the motor room. We also on occasion removed ship service generators the same way. I never saw the deck above one of the four V 16 engines cut open on any of our ships to remove them. The machinists would remove power packs using a overhead trolley. They would replace main bearings through the crankcase side covers. All the welding and fit up is inspected by American Bureau of Shipping. All the welders have to pass ABS tests.
When I first started there I was told all repairs were done in house at one time. They had a armature winding shop and the last armature winder had just retired and he was not replaced. All the valves that leaked were rebuilt, babitt bearings were repoured and machined. I found moulds in a storage building and I was told many decades ago they even made parts from those moulds
No matter how much a [censored] a guy was, how much a lazy worker he was the work done was done to a high quality. Nobody wanted anything they did to fail. The last thing anyone wanted to happen was have a ship lose power while underway. Or have anything happen to put the thousands of passengers in peril
I think to some degree that's all changed