Odyssey
Active Member
We must have. Do any of us "make the call" without trying to fix it ourselves? This story repeats itself many times over for us boaters.....Something is wrong or broken. We try to find out what caused it or where it is.
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth" or in this case, the cause of the high sodium level in the engine oil.
My last oil sample test had one of my engines with higher than normal sodium. There are a limited number of reasons for this in the CAT 3116;
1 coolant fluid (they checked for that so it isn't it)
2 leaking raw water pump (gear driven on the 3116)
3 sea water backing down in to the turbo from a faulty exhaust riser
the water pump shows no sign of leakage on the outside so I took off the riser to inspect it and the turbo. The turbo seemed OK, not clean as a whistle but no rust or liquid present. I sent the pics of the turbo off to CAT and they said "probably not but you better check the riser". So here is what I did......
set up a pumping station using my flush kit for the AC system and the engine water system.....
run water through the riser...
Check for water running down the riser back to where the turbo would be
I did 15 gallons and not a drop down the pipe. I guess the next thing to check is the pump.
Elementary!
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth" or in this case, the cause of the high sodium level in the engine oil.
My last oil sample test had one of my engines with higher than normal sodium. There are a limited number of reasons for this in the CAT 3116;
1 coolant fluid (they checked for that so it isn't it)
2 leaking raw water pump (gear driven on the 3116)
3 sea water backing down in to the turbo from a faulty exhaust riser
the water pump shows no sign of leakage on the outside so I took off the riser to inspect it and the turbo. The turbo seemed OK, not clean as a whistle but no rust or liquid present. I sent the pics of the turbo off to CAT and they said "probably not but you better check the riser". So here is what I did......
set up a pumping station using my flush kit for the AC system and the engine water system.....
run water through the riser...
Check for water running down the riser back to where the turbo would be
I did 15 gallons and not a drop down the pipe. I guess the next thing to check is the pump.
Elementary!
