Caterpillar marine motor d333 overheating

[Federico Cooper]

The engine has a keel cooler enclosed freshwater system. the problem is I had a leak in the transmission oil cooler and needed to break the cooling system, lost a fair amount of water. I fix the oil cooler issue and refilled the cooling system, started the motor and had problems with overheating. I then took the thermostat out check to see if it worked and it did, I left the thermostat out to check the system and is still overheating, having a problem with the reservoir tank on the engine being to hot along with the water pump area on the engine is hot but the pipes to the keel cooler at the engine or cold, at in idle the engine will slowly warm up to the boiling point. I'm thinking either an air lock or possibly the water pump but the pressure gauge reads 160 pounds of water pressure, I also drained and refill the system and tried bleeding all the higher lines but after a week no success.

 

[kshansen]

I never touched a marine engine application but that 160 pounds of water pressure sure sounds strange, maybe a typo?

Not sure if this is of any help but it's the only thing I can find right off on keel cooling and D333

 

[partsandservice]

It sounds like to me the water is not circulating for some reason. There is a blockage, air lock, or pump failure causing loss of flow. The pressure you are reading could be created by steam in the system, only speculation. Also how do you bleed the system? Seems it would have some charge ports to fill and bleed the system.

 

[Spud_Monkey]

You got a blockage whether its air or not, there is no charge ports to bleed the air off. Could be air locked.

 

[Federico Cooper]

I never touched a marine engine application but that 160 pounds of water pressure sure sounds strange, maybe a typo?

Not sure if this is of any help but it's the only thing I can find right off on keel cooling and D333

View attachment 191234

Thanks, the diagram helps. The water pressure is 160, not a typo. In my thought the water is not circulating properly...not sure how to check the performance on the water pump.

 

[Mobiltech]

You will need to put the thermostat back in or it will always bypass.
Looking at that diagram it would be easy to airlock that system. With the cooling coil water lines both very high on the tank . You will need to fill the tank right to the top and then bleed the air off at the top line from the thermostat at its highest point or you will never get the coil full of water. There must be another tank above that in order to get it completely full

 

[kshansen]

Does the 160 pounds of water pressure sound "normal" to anyone here? As I said never been around a marine application so maybe that is "normal".

Any chance of a S/N for this engine so better information could be found?

Agree that if engine is over heating but keel cooler pipes are cold it is obvious there is a lack of circulation.

Trying to understand the way this system is configured.

Does the "standard" water pump on the engine circulate engine coolant through the engine and keel cooler or is there a separate pump that circulates water through the keel cooler and the "standard" engine just circulates the engine coolant through a heat exchanger?

 

[Nige]

Does the 160 pounds of water pressure sound "normal" to anyone here? As I said never been around a marine application so maybe that is "normal".

In a word, no ........... you don't even get that much pressure from a turbo at full load...!!
That type of pressure should also be exploding coolant hoses IMHO.

Any chance of a S/N for this engine so better information could be found?
Trying to understand the way this system is configured.
Does the "standard" water pump on the engine circulate engine coolant through the engine and keel cooler or is there a separate pump that circulates water through the keel cooler and the "standard" engine just circulates the engine coolant through a heat exchanger?

Absolutely. All that info "should" be revealed with a Serial Number. I say should because I'm not sure an engine of that era will have full details in the system. Worth a shot though.

 

[Kurly]

In my 30' boat with a small block Chevrolets the engine water pump circulates the closed system antifreeze/ coolant through the engine block. The sea water pump circulates the sea water through the engine and transmission heat exchangers. no idea what setup he has.
Curly

 

[Tones]

Kurly, what you have is a water- water heat exchanger. The OP's system uses pipes laid in the hull to transfer the heat to the colder hull. Iv'e never seen it but have heard of it quite often.

 

[ianjoub]

You may ask here:

https://www.sailnet.com/forums/

 

[Spud_Monkey]

Think of it like a giant radiator without the fins on the bottom of the boat since the boat can't go fast enough to cool it by air and too dangerous to put a circulating fan on a boat. It doesn't pump raw water in it at all. Imagine sea water pumping though your engine block to cool it off and how long that would last.... Running 160 PSI and you got partial blockage or full one, should be just as much psi as most vehicles on the road.

 

[kshansen]

Imagine sea water pumping though your engine block to cool it off and how long that would last....

I know just what it would be like! Had a boss many years back that had a small boat with inboard/outboard motor. Motor was basically a 4 cylinder Chevy II gas engine. It had spent some time running in salt water and was having some problems traced it down to a rotted out water cooled exhaust manifold. Not sure how the rest of the cooling system was, block and head?

 

[Spud_Monkey]

I know just what it would be like! Had a boss many years back that had a small boat with inboard/outboard motor. Motor was basically a 4 cylinder Chevy II gas engine. It had spent some time running in salt water and was having some problems traced it down to a rotted out water cooled exhaust manifold. Not sure how the rest of the cooling system was, block and head?

Rest of that engine should be fine, worse damage I would see is if it leaked backwards into exhaust ports, depends on the set up.

 

[Tones]

Rest of that engine should be fine, worse damage I would see is if it leaked backwards into exhaust ports, depends on the set up.

Usually these setups the engine cooling is through the pipes as shown in the diagram but the exhaust is raw water cooled. Even if the exhaust has a problem it shouldn't have 160 psi in the engine water system. A rotted out exhaust allows water to enter the combustion chamber when the engine it is stationary and lunches it when it's started.

 

[kshansen]

Usually these setups the engine cooling is through the pipes as shown in the diagram but the exhaust is raw water cooled.

I hope I did not confuse this discussion by bringing up the story of the little Chevy boat motor.

I would be very interested in a couple pictures of this D333 engine set including the gauge that is showing 160 psi and a serial number would also help on the chance it is one that shows up in SIS!

 

[63 caveman]

If you are building that much pressure in water jacket, I would check compression, look for blown head gasket or cracked cylinder head.

Wet or dry exhaust?