Cummins 6CTA Question

[Alex F]

Alex, I believe you have missed my point completely. Not sure why? And I am not just talking off the top of my head. I have been repairing and rebuilding Cars and Boats my entire life. Unless no preventive maintenance has been done on the boat and there are some glaring issues that need to be attended to, there is no way in the world that I would have a certified anyone at anything come and do a 600 hr. tear down, valve adjustment or whatever, and then just get in the boat and drive it home. And even if I did all the work my self I wouldn't do it. And especially if someone else came and did it, I wouldn't do it. Again, if it needs something fixed, then it needs to be fixed. That is a no brainer. But to have someone come down and just tears things apart that are not really broken or worn out on a new ownership boat before a big trip. Wouldn't do it. I would check out every single Impellar and put in new ones if any teeth are broken, fix any leaks, make sure all liquids are topped off and away I would go. You have to assume that the boat got to where it is under its own power and wasn't towed there. So it must have been alright at that point. and you have to assume that the person who is selling the boat knows that a Sea Trial is part of the process. And if you decide to buy the boat and you do a Sea Trial and all goes well, why take anymore chances tearing the engine apart to find any other issues is the point? I brought my first boat back from FLA. that way and fixed things along the way that needed repair and none of those things would have been caught in a 600 hr. service anyway. My statistic refers specifically to experiences I have had when I or others have repaired things. Sometimes bolts don't get torqued properly and eventually come loose, sometimes bolts are left off. For instance, I have completely torn some assembly down and put everything back together and when I am done I have a bolt left over. You think if a tech ended up with bolt left over at the end he is going to take more than a few minutes to put the bolt where it goes. Might? Might not? My point was to not chance it when the boat is not in your home waters.

Bill

Alex, do you do you own engine service? or do you have someone else do you engine work?

Bill, if I misunderstood it was not intentional. We don't always put exactly what we mean in the content of our posts, which makes misunderstanding quite common. We're here to help each other and I hope that everyone has the same agenda.

Every situation is different, every boat is different. But, we have some good facts in Russ's cases that help us and him to make some conclusions. No one said anything that something was broken or must be done. We're trying to find the best course of action based on the survey results and recommended 600hrs service. We all understand that some items (impeller, oil and fuel side, etc.) is best to do before the delivery trip and the rest can be done when she gets home.

I had exact same choices to make when I got my boat. I'm a conservative guy and if I don't have an answer for some maintenance item I assume the worst - it was not done and I have to do it now. A good example was impellers. BTW, I should say that my boat passed the survey just fine. However, going through maintenance records I couldn't find anything regarding the impellers, so I said to myself I have to change them, b/c it'll be stupid to take the chance to run on impellers that might have never been changed. Guess what? I wasn't too far off with my prediction. When I took the impellers out my jaw dropped. One of the impellers had around 55%-60% vanes left. This indicated couple of things: #1 I don't move the boat until I change those impellers. #2 I'm pretty sure that the remaining vanes are now stuck somewhere in the raw water cooling side.

Since my boat spent the winter at the broker's marina I got the feel for the type of service I'm getting and my decision was to do the bare minimum to get her home safely. To put it in simple words, I just wanted to get out of there ASAP. I think Russ's situation is not the same. He has direct contact and good relationship with the seller/PO where the boat is located. He has reputable and referred Cummins tech minutes away from where the boat is located. So, all Russ has to do is decide what he thinks is best to do before he takes the boat hope and what items he would like to his local techs to address.

BTW, yes I do all my maintenance myself, always did. But, I prefer to pay for big ticket items and let pros do it. Some things are just not worth the time or the hassle and some I just have no knowledge how to do.

 

[cod]

I now have Cummins 6CTA also, Sunday at the marina when i started them they smoked for a few minutes, seemed excessive to me, kinda light blue white color, seems it would be a probablem in a crowded marina. Any thoughts, thanks richard lewis

What was the air temperature? They will produce more smoke if the engines and air temp are cold. Can you see your breath in the winter?

 

[Four Suns]

BTW, yes I do all my maintenance myself, always did. But, I prefer to pay for big ticket items and let pros do it. Some things are just not worth the time or the hassle and some I just have no knowledge how to do.

This statement is like me telling my wife I am 100% faithful and never even think about cheating. Except for the 3 mistresses I have.

 

[Alex F]

This statement is like me telling my wife I am 100% faithful and never even think about cheating. Except for the 3 mistresses I have.

What can I say Gary, you just know how to read between the lines. :lol:

But, to clarify when I said "...I prefer to pay for big ticket items..." I meant items like heat exchanger or aftercoolers service. I never did those and there was no way I was going to experiment on a new to me first diesel boat. It shouldn't be too difficult, so maybe I'll pickup the knowledge in the next couple of years and might do it myself next time around.

 

[osd9]

I think all married men are limited to 2 mistresses....so you'll have to tell about the third.

 

[Alex F]

I think all married men are limited to 2 mistresses....so you'll have to tell about the third.

I'm in the "exceptions" category, so we're allowed to have 3........and how do we manage to steer all these threads in to a sex theme? I think Gary is just trying to have it blocked.

 

[Hampton]

When I bought my boat (Chicago), my local SR dealer encouraged me to cruise home (last Spring). I wanted the boat trucked, assembled, and fully serviced by my local SR dealer before Sea Trial and delivery. That's what we did. I couldn't see taking delivery of a boat at a 3rd party dealer (who's taking a loss) and then cruising 1500 miles right off the bat. My dealer did full services before we took her out.

Even so, I did my own impellers last month just to be sure they were in good shape. The impellers were still like new. In the first year, I've done the zincs 3 times, belts, impellers, fuel filters (both) and will be doing oil changes soon. That's about all I can do for now.

On the genny, I've done 2 oil changes, 3 zincs, fuel filters, and one impeller. The impeller was missing 3 1/2 vanes. I used a shop vac to draw out 2 1/2 vanes. 1 is still in there. I guess I need to do the belt soon.

Question: How long before I need to have the coolers cleaned? This boat was in fresh water for about 2 years and has now been in salt for 1 year. It has almost 400 hours. How involved is the process? I had a friend who spent a couple of boat bucks having hoses and buckets hooked up to his engines over night (or maybe longer). This process cleaned out everything and fixed his overheating issues. Thanks.

 

[Alex F]

....Question: How long before I need to have the coolers cleaned? This boat was in fresh water for about 2 years and has now been in salt for 1 year. It has almost 400 hours. How involved is the process? ....

John,

I was told that the interval for heat exchangers and coolers is about 3-5yrs. The hours only make it better, so no worries there. My approach was to do all necessary preventive maintenance and "sleep" well for the next 3-5yrs. I was able to see few stages of the project when my local Cummins shop did the job. It's pretty much involved. Besides the knowledge you'll need necessary tools. To do everything (complete 600hrs service, I also replaced all the hoses and belts) it took the shop (with the boat being right there) about 4 days. These guys were great, they showed me everything that was going on, answered all my questions and showed me parts from other boats as an example where the owners kept postponing the service and those that did in 3 yrs.

Russ,

We keep talking about the mains, but make sure you don't forget about necessary service for the generator.

 

[Russ Calasant]

John,

I was told that the interval for heat exchangers and coolers is about 3-5yrs. The hours only make it better, so no worries there. My approach was to do all necessary preventive maintenance and "sleep" well for the next 3-5yrs. I was able to see few stages of the project when my local Cummins shop did the job. It's pretty much involved. Besides the knowledge you'll need necessary tools. To do everything (complete 600hrs service, I also replaced all the hoses and belts) it took the shop (with the boat being right
there) about 4 days. These guys were great, they showed me everything that was going on, answered all my questions and showed me parts from other boats as an example where the owners kept postponing the service and those that did in 3 yrs.

Russ,


We keep talking about the mains, but make sure you don't forget about necessary service for the generator.

Thanks Alex, even though not mentioned I always includethe Gen

 

[Morgan Jane]

[Question: How long before I need to have the coolers cleaned? This boat was in fresh water for about 2 years and has now been in salt for 1 year. It has almost 400 hours. How involved is the process? I had a friend who spent a couple of boat bucks having hoses and buckets hooked up to his engines over night (or maybe longer). This process cleaned out everything and fixed his overheating issues. Thanks.[/QUOTE]



John, my boat was a salt water boat for its' first 4 years of life. Been a fresh water boat ever since. At then end of last season, I decided to tear the After coolers and heat exchangers apart and clean them out. I would not decribe it at complicated, but there are a few things that you just have to ensure are correct or you could grenade your engine. I did a decent write up about it the Diesel engine section. The number one issue is to make sure that you install new O-rings and to pressure test the assemblies to confirm the O-rings are doing their job. My heat exachangers looked like new inside. However, 25 to 30% of the cooling tubes in the After coolers were blocked. It appeared to me that this was completely due to it's time spent as a saltwater boat. Another interesting thing is that my local Cummins dealer would not touch them. The head service manager stated that once you tore them apart, there was no way to test them that he knew of so therefore, he did not allow his mechanics to work on Aftercoolers or Heat exchangers. After giving it some thought, I fabricated some block off plates and air tested the assembies at 40 psi for 2 hours and found no leaks. Again, there is a write up in the Diesel Section. Regardless of who does the work, the assemblies should be pressure tested before being installed back on the engine.
As far as when to do them, the reason I figured I needed to do them was because every time I would run the boat at full throttle for more than a few minutes, the temps would creep up to 180 or so. Now, I can run them as long as I want at full throttle and the temps don't even move off of 160 and both engines are always within a degree or two of each other at all times.

Bill