Cummins Marine Settlement

That's interesting...

My aftercooler has a plug on the bottom for a drain but I've never pulled the plug to see how much condensation ended up in the thing...
 
I thought the 3196 had structural/leak problems. This lawsuit is about condensation collecting...
 
"ish"

I'm not saying that the specific defects are the same......just that the whole 'issue' has a very similar 'feel'....
 
This suit is also certified as a class action in Louisiana state courts.........it is not a Federal class action do don't get in a hurry downloading clams forms.

Bottom line is that nobody's diesel tolerates ingesting moisture. The engines involved in the shrimp boat suit were 6CTA's that had 2800 hours on them when they were repaired for the water ingestion.
 
According to the FAQ it's not just the 6C's...


The Class includes all past and present owners of recreational and commercial Cummins 6B and 6C marine diesel engines (including the QSM-11 model) purchased in the United States on or after January 1, 1996 with Seawater Aftercoolers having no drain hole or valve at the time of original manufacture, whether the engines were operated in fresh or salt water, who:


  1. Originally purchased their engines from Cummins or an authorized Cummins dealer or distributor, or
  2. Originally purchased their engines as factory-installed original equipment in a boat purchased directly from a manufacturer which purchased directly from Cummins or an authorized Cummins dealer or distributor.
So Gary, since you have drains from the factory, you're not involved....however, you may want to start 'draining' that valve.
 
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I said "the engines involved in the shrimp boat suit", but the class action extends coverage to all seawater cooled Cummins engines with aftercoolers.

I wonder why the attorneys didn't try to get this one in Federal courts where the class would be a lot bigger? Likely because there is no huge cash settlement.
 
So...two questions:
Does Cummins mention draining the aftercoolers in the maintenance manual?
What is different about Cummins' aftercoolers that causes condensation, that doesn't (or does it??) in Cats?
 
Cant see any reference to the drain plug in my manuals, and won't be at the boat for a while. Anyone got a picture of the plug?
 
There's a full page ad in the new Power & Motoryacht. If I read it correctly, it seems all the owner gets is a "free" retrofit/installation of the drain plug if their engine was not equipped with one.

What if these engines have already been damaged (premature cylinder wear as alleged in the lawsuit)? Anyone heard of or know someone with one of these engines that's had the problem?

Tapping a drain plug NOW into an engine's aftercooler that could be as much as 13 years old seems to be avoiding the main issue of damage that may have already occured. Would you need a boroscope to tell, or would the engine lose compression?

I'd be a bit concerned if I owned one.
 
Condensation? I was thinking it would be for vibrating bolts loose.
 
Here's the plug on the bottom of the QSM-11 aftercooler.

IMG_2580-1.jpg


I've never taken that thing out... I've had the aftercooler apart before (fixing a broken bolt) and there was no water in it though.. I believe that aftercooler housing is made from aluminum so having any water in it would eat the thing up eventually. It has some sort of black coating on the inside of it and then the heat exchanger that has the raw seawater sits inside of the aluminum housing. The heat excahger is some sort of beefy bronze like thing.

A few things come to mind with this. First, I also have had a big condensation problem (in general) in my engine room during the winter months here because the temps fluctuate all over the place. It's common here for them to fluctuate plus or minus 50 degrees some days. The big block of cold iron sitting there can't change temps that fast so it causes condensation issues. That's a laws of physics problem and the only way to address it is keep the engine warm in those times. I put Wolverine heaters on the engines and my condensation problem completely disappeared. If you are having condensation problems in the aftercooler housing, I would bet you are also having it inside other areas of the engine that have air as well (oil pan, cylinders, head, etc.).

I guess one can check the plug on the aftercooler housing but I can't imagine that much water accumulating in there if the boat is brought up to operating temps... but I'm not a lawyer... who knows how this guy was running the boat.

For those interested, the raw water enters that heat exchanger in the top shiny stainless tube and exits in the bottom stainless shiny stainless tube. The heat exchanger cartridge (the big bronze part with all the tiny tubes) is essentially a "sideways U" for the raw water flow. That cartridge sits inside that big white aluminum housing and the engine intake air flows over the cartridge before entering the head/cylinders. On the side of that U configuration, there are small 2" holes in the cartridge for the water to enter and exit. There is no way one can take rods to the thing to clean out scale/debris. As the water enters the 2" hole in the cartridge it expands and goes in the tubes and the thing is all welded up in a single piece.That makes the cartridge literally impossible to clean with anything other than flushing with something like Rydlyme. The other bad thing is if impeller pieces get inside that cartridge, it's a bitch to get them...

Did I mention it's good to change impellers before they fail? Oh wait... he's gone...
 
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Very nice explanation.

The drain plug.....I would think that it would be further towards the bottom of the housing in order to drain fully.

Oh, and what are you hiding behind the red dots....loose bolts maybe?????
 
osd9 said:
The drain plug.....I would think that it would be further towards the bottom of the housing in order to drain fully.
Click to expand...

I think it is on the the very bottom on the inside. Notice that the bottom of the housing tapers to the plug. That's a thick casting also...

osd9 said:
Oh, and what are you hiding behind the red dots....loose bolts maybe?????
Click to expand...
Porn.
 
The vast majority of these aftercoolers are Pre QSM-11's. The aftercooler on my 6CTA M3 has no provision for a drain other than moisture would collect in the bottom of the verticle air side of the aftercooler. I'm mentally challenged as to how a drain would be retrofittted in the aluminium cast housing.

Need to watch this one ... with long ideling in the ICW and no turbo heating the air ... water build up could be very possible with warm air and cold sea water.

Ummmmm
 
Four Suns, thx for the picture.

My local dealer has no idea when, how or why I should pay attention to this drain plug. It certainly hasn't been touched by all the services I've had done so far. What do you all think - Is this a once a trip/month/year thing?
 
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