I attended the Annapolis School of Seamanship (Annapolis MD) for their Basic Diesel and Diesel II classes in January 2012. Each class is 2 days, and I was able to get into the back to back classes (Saturday-Tuesday).
The basics class covers the theory of Diesel engines, engine part identification (so is that an oil filter or a secondary fuel filter?), basic maintenance (oil change, fuel filter change including how to purge the high pressure side, coolant change) and some basic diagnostics on what things can happen. For example what does brown milky oil mean, what are the causes of the oil level rising in the engine. We took apart a 4 cylinder engine to see the inner workings of the pistons and valves.
My Basics class had 4 powerboat owners and 12 sailboat owners. The demo engines were 3 and 4 cylinder Yanmar and Generals. (Theory is the same, just easier to reach around the engine).
The Diesel II classes was focused more on trouble diagnosis and repair. The 4 people in the class were the power boaters. We were given engines that had broken down and had to get them running again.
We dealt with electrical problems like slightly bad battery sets, dead starter, blown fuses in the starter circuit, bad glow plug circuits, and a corroded ground on the electrical fuel pump.
Fuel problems were: clogged fuel lines, broken mechanical low pressure fuel pump, crimped high pressure line, clogged fuel tank vent (engine runs for 3 mins and dies, after 10 minutes starts and runs for 3 until the vacuum becomes too high).
Cooling: Blocked inlet, spun raw water pump, carbon buildup in exhaust riser
We replaced starters, fuel pumps, impellers. We also did valve adjustments. We looked at injectors that were good, had bad spray patterns, had pressure issues and what they did to engine performance. Lots of bleeding of high pressure lines.
All in all I learned four key things:
I thought it was worthwhile. While it didn't make me into an "Earl level mechanic", but when he comes and talks to me about "low injector pop pressures" I'm not going to have a blank stare on my face.
I will admit that I went through many cycles of "I can do that" to "OMG, sell the boat now while that's still working". I have a much higher comfort level of what is going on below my feet.
There were people from Alaska, Florida and Maine in the class. They said there was not similar classes in their area, which prompted me to write this article. If you've been looking for some hands on training on your diesel this may work out for you.
The basics class covers the theory of Diesel engines, engine part identification (so is that an oil filter or a secondary fuel filter?), basic maintenance (oil change, fuel filter change including how to purge the high pressure side, coolant change) and some basic diagnostics on what things can happen. For example what does brown milky oil mean, what are the causes of the oil level rising in the engine. We took apart a 4 cylinder engine to see the inner workings of the pistons and valves.
My Basics class had 4 powerboat owners and 12 sailboat owners. The demo engines were 3 and 4 cylinder Yanmar and Generals. (Theory is the same, just easier to reach around the engine).
The Diesel II classes was focused more on trouble diagnosis and repair. The 4 people in the class were the power boaters. We were given engines that had broken down and had to get them running again.
We dealt with electrical problems like slightly bad battery sets, dead starter, blown fuses in the starter circuit, bad glow plug circuits, and a corroded ground on the electrical fuel pump.
Fuel problems were: clogged fuel lines, broken mechanical low pressure fuel pump, crimped high pressure line, clogged fuel tank vent (engine runs for 3 mins and dies, after 10 minutes starts and runs for 3 until the vacuum becomes too high).
Cooling: Blocked inlet, spun raw water pump, carbon buildup in exhaust riser
We replaced starters, fuel pumps, impellers. We also did valve adjustments. We looked at injectors that were good, had bad spray patterns, had pressure issues and what they did to engine performance. Lots of bleeding of high pressure lines.
All in all I learned four key things:
- If you look at each subsystem (Fuel, Air/Heat, Electrical, Cooling) as a standalone component you can figure things out.
- If you know how they interrelate and symptoms they cause (white smoke, black smoke, blue smoke, steam) you can figure things out.
- Begin at the source and trace the entire way through the system, don't jump around. There may be more than one problem, take the extra 10 minutes to look at everything.
- Most problems are simple ones. The complex and expensive problems have been warning you for awhile, you just were not paying attention.
I thought it was worthwhile. While it didn't make me into an "Earl level mechanic", but when he comes and talks to me about "low injector pop pressures" I'm not going to have a blank stare on my face.
I will admit that I went through many cycles of "I can do that" to "OMG, sell the boat now while that's still working". I have a much higher comfort level of what is going on below my feet.
There were people from Alaska, Florida and Maine in the class. They said there was not similar classes in their area, which prompted me to write this article. If you've been looking for some hands on training on your diesel this may work out for you.
nthego:
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