Engine Overhauling

Hello once again…
Hoping this article finds you in great condition.
The photo I will be showing to you today was during the last major maintenance we carried-out in our main engine.

We were scheduled to do maintenance on two units of cylinders. In one cylinder, we will be pulling out the piston and renew the exhaust valve while the other cylinder will be exhaust valve only. It is estimated that the overhauling job will be done within 16hours. The job was going smoothly. We removed the exhaust valve and piston on one unit without encountering any trouble. I thought we might be able to finish earlier than the estimated time. When we were trying to remove the other exhaust valve from another unit, there we encountered a major trouble. The exhaust valve seat was stuck to the cylinder cover. No way we can finish the task without removing it first.

We focused on finishing the one unit which piston was pulled-out first. We checked the condition and did some measurements then we installed it back to the engine and replaced the exhaust valve with a spare one. After we finished the one unit, we went on to solve the trouble we encountered. We tried several ways in order to remove the valve seat but to no avail. The last resort was to apply heating. We heated the cylinder cover and it did the trick.

After the issue was solved we continued the overhauling job and re-installed the cylinder cover it was thoroughly checked. Then we also renewed the exhaust valve with another set of spare. The task was completed way past the estimated schedule but all is well. The engine was tested and is ready again for anytime usage.

The task was carried-out in order to observe the conditions of certain parts on our engine as laid-out in our planned maintenance system.
It is important to carry-out such task and follow what is laid-out in the planned maintenance system so future troubles regarding certain machineries will be avoided… especially when we are navigating the deep seas… and it is us ship’s engineers that is tasked to maintain the engines in good working order.