Monkeywithawrench
Senior Member
Our engines were set for 800 rpm..............maybe 820 rpm rack trip out for overspeed. We cruised at 720 rpm. We had a couple of shaft generators set behind the reduction gears. That was beautiful, because we could shut down the scream'in detroits gen sets. It was such a relief to be able to switch to shaft gensets after we were offshore and stretched out (barge on a long wire). Cool the gensets down at idle and then such satisfaction shutting them down. A kind of peace settled over the whole boat. Firing up one of the detroits in the middle of a cruise, without being close to an expected port...........that was usually a good sign of trouble and caused the whole boat to turn out. If we got into the crap and needed to slow to a jog or a walk to keep the barge from getting beat to bad then we had to fire the gensets up. Amazing how tuned in you got to a boat and its usual noise, shudders, and vibrations.Turned 900 RPM, had twin fuel injection pumps per cylinde
Was that an upper or lower rod that broke?? Still remember setting up the chainfalls for the up crank removal. Used 6 of them spread along that crank, marking the vertical drive, disconnecting all 10 rods...................10 cylinders.............20 pistons!!!
We didn't have problems with fuel dilution because we just burned No. 2 fuel. Changing out an injector was pretty easy.........as I recall........just pull the old one, put the new one in, and set the shim height with the pump stroke gauge...............only easy if you know how to do it. Man..........I haven't thought this much about those engines in a long time. Fairbanks Morse.........suck, squirt, squish, bang, blow...........repeat hundreds of times a minute!! Those engines were just about bullet proof. We had made a run up to Levi, Quebec through the St. Lawerence. Coming back we had exhaust gas coming out of the FW expansion tank. Cracked liner............kept getting worse as we chugging south. Company wanted us to keep going, because if stopped in O'Canada again then that meant a pilot in and out of whatever harbor we chose, shipping agents, and dealing with customs. Finally talked them (das company) into letting us stop in Shelburne, Nova Scotia to change out the liner. We were heading down to Pascagoula, Mississippi from O'canada. Ahhh..........good times...........ohhh, we had really crap weather forecast for going across the gulf of Maine...............hence, NO WAY, JOSE!! We stop and fix!!LOL
Joke I usually played on the new guys. Mid watch........put survival suit on.........show up in pilot house ......."I've got good news and bad news.......whadda wanna hear first??" The good news!! "Ok...........the fires in the engine room are being put out!!" what's the BAD news??!!! "We're sinking!! That's what's putting the fires out!!" Quick shine of the flashlight on my chest showing the bright orange gumby suit............"I'll see you guys back at the life raft. Last one out don't forget the EPIRB!!" LOL