Cummins Marine Diesel Repower Specialists Forums Cummins Marine Engines Idiot's guide to the 6BTA 5.9 Maintenance

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  • #18237

    Rick Pederson
    Participant
    Vessel Name: Trident True
    Engines: 6BTA 5.9 370
    Location: Everett, Wa
    Country: USA

    Hi everyone.  I’m new to this board, and new to owning a yacht.  I have a Carver 404 with twin 6BTA 5.9 370 HP engines.  It had a mechanical survey, but I am learning that the person who did this was not very good.  I recently had to have my port gear replaced, and during that, my mechanic let me know that the aftercooler needed rebuilding.  My point with this is I didn’t even know that aftercoolers needed regular maintenance until he told me that.  I am looking to find out if there is anything out there that will tell me for this engine, what needs to be done and at what intervals?  The boat did not  come with any manuals related to the engines.  I don’t want to end up stranded because I was not aware of a certain preventive maintenance issue that I should have taken care of.  Thanks for any help.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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  • #33445

    Nicholas
    Participant
    Engines: 1200hp Man d28 v12
    Location: Cocoa Beach, Fl
    Country: USA

    Go to cummins website and register your engines with your serial numbers. Once you have done that you should have access through their website to the owners manual and O&M manual for your engines. The O&M manual has the basic recommended service items & interval. I built myself an excel spreadsheet checklist using that basic data because it can be a little overwhelming.

    Keep reading the articles here and search for forum posts from people asking similar questions. You’ll find a lot of threads around the web that address the question you are asking. People here are polite and patient and helpful but it also helps if you do a search first on anything you are going to ask because chances are it’s been asked before.

    You will find that some items are more important than others maintenance-wise, and based on years of lessons learned some items need to be maintained in different ways than the manual recommends. The aftercoolers for 6CTAs and 6BTAs are an example.

    Be patient with you self and try not to get overwhelmed. As others have suggested, put a priority on establishing a maintenance “baseline” for everything on the engines.

    You are not alone in having a not-very-worthwhile mechanical survey. Same thing happened to me and as a first time diesel buyer I didn’t realize it until it was too late.

    I’ve only owned my boat for about 8 months (4 months of which the boat was 900 miles away) and am just feeling like I’m starting to get my arms around everything. But i still ask dumb questions (just search on my user name and you’ll see lol)

    Be patient with yourself – it takes time, and money. Even if you aren’t going to do the work yourself, try to get familiar enough with the job that you “could” have done it. Find a step-by-step guide somewhere – here, the manual, youtube, etc., – then walk through it looking at the engine. Over time you will find yourself getting more and more comfortable. Unfortunately it’s a fact of life that, all too often, you simply can’t just trust a mechanic’s word on stuff. It’s not often malicious – they often just don’t know better, and if you don’t either you won’t be able to tell the difference. Think “trust but verify”

    My quick suggestion would be, based on what I prioritized for my engines (again look for a more comprehensive list this is all off the top of my head):

    -all of your fluids changed – engine and gear oil especially along with the filters. Fuel filters as well.
    -Raw water impellers changed.
    -All belts and hoses checked for signs of deterioration. Change anything even remotely questionable. Change any clamp that shows any signs of rust
    -Get your aftercoolers serviced per the protocol on this site. Make 100% sure the protocol is followed – even “reputable” mechanics might not do them right if you just ask them to “service the aftercoolers.” You may even order the grease, o-rings, etc and supply it to them to make sure you know what’s being used.
    -While you are at it, have the heat exchangers, oil coolers, and any other saltwater cooled system on your engines cleaned and all zincs changed so they are fresh. Observe the condition of the zincs that are removed.
    -Make sure your engines reach rated WOT with room to spare. Look up Tony’s recommendation for your engines and be very wary of accepting “close enough.” You may need to have your props reconditioned, pitch removed, or even replaced to make sure you aren’t overloading the engines.
    -Get a look inside the exhaust side of your turbos to see if any signs of water intrusion through the exhaust system. Read the articles here on exhaust design carefully – they take a couple of times of reading, looking at your exhaust set up, reading again, etc., to really understand. At least it did for me.

    These are the highest priority things i can think of because they are things that if not addressed they will do more than just have you calling for a tow (something every boat owner does at some point) – they can make for much, much most costly problems downstream. Again I may have missed one or two items and there are other things you’ll want to do in the first year or two so keep reading.

    #33355

    Rick Smith
    Participant
    Vessel Name: Namaste'
    Engines: Twin Cummins Diesels 6BTA 5.9 330
    Location: Jacksonvile, Fl
    Country: USA

    Operation/Maintenance Manuals Cummins

    Rick,

    I also purchased a 2005 37′ Maxum with Twin Cummins 6BTA 5.9 330 Diesels. The guy I purchased from, the original owner kept very good records. In addition he supplied me with most all manuals. The one that is very helpful & detailed is the Cummins Maintenance manual B&C Series. I am sure with the popularity of these engines it is still available is:

    #18285

    Jim Boltz
    Participant
    Vessel Name: FLY'N FISH
    Engines: 480CE
    Location: Virginia Beach

    A cummins engine manual will have all the recommended maintenance items listed by engine hours. Combine that with what you can read here and you should be all right. I have been cleaning my aftercoolers every two years. Its a fairly simple job and Tony has a nice write up on how to do it.

    #18266

    Henry
    Participant
    Vessel Name: Bear Flag
    Engines: Cummins 6BT 210
    Location: Dana Point
    Country: USA

    All good stuff here. I’m probably stating the obvious but you need to get a “baseline” on these engines and the history you are lacking can now start with you. Do a thorough service and replace everything that needs to be replaced. Don’t overlook hoses, zincs, etc. Once you have done this you now can start fresh with your motors and will have some peace of mind. My mechanic (probably the best there is) Bob King wants to service my engines annually, regardless of hours. Most private boaters barely do 200 hours per year unless you are hard core fishing / cruising. So once you establish the baseline, service the engines annually. Hope this is one more helpful data point.

    #18264

    Rick Pederson
    Participant
    Vessel Name: Trident True
    Engines: 6BTA 5.9 370
    Location: Everett, Wa
    Country: USA

    Thanks.  I did spend a lot of time reading all the tips, etc. on the site and it was all very informative.  I guess what I was looking for is some sort of list of items and a general idea of how often they should be checked or replaced.  For instance, now I know all about aftercoolers after reading it on the site, and how long they should generally last before needing to be cleaned.  Mainly because I don’t even know a thing about diesel marine engines.  What goes out, what needs to be cleaned, what needs to be replaced prior to things failing?  Would all of that be in the manuals for the engines?  I don’t have any.  I do understand your points though.  I suppose next time I have my mechanic at the boat I can have him go through all of it with me in person.

    #18243

    Rob Schepis
    Forum Moderator
    Vessel Name: Tenacious
    Engines: 6BTA 5.9 330's - "Seaboard Style"
    Location: Long Island, NY
    Country: USA

    Hey Rick, Welcome aboard.  As part of a mechanical survey it should include “Recommendations.”  Usually there are two categories – 1) Fixing what needs fixing and 2) Required maintenance.  Was this not the case? Your “subject line” is an interesting one as with all the information that is on this site between “Technical Information” , “Tony’s Tips” , “How-To’s” , etc. there really is no all-inclusive, so to speak “pre-packaged” guide to maintenance.  But it is all here, either in the articles or on this forum.  Part of that reason there is no “master guide” here is that there are parameters specific to every install and every boat’s use (or lack of use) that effects maintenance requirements.  For example – fuel filter maintenance is gonna depend on what’s in your tanks that your trying to get out and what type of filtration setup you have – multi-stage with mud filter, just a Racor before the engine, etc.  And seawater side maintenance depends mainly on what type of waters you boat in and if fresh water flushing is implemented.  These are just a few examples of no one size fits all as to “an overall maintenance plan.”  Make sense?  Spend some time reading under those tabs I mentioned and do come back with some specific questions and, if possible, some photos as Corey mentioned.  How about posting that mechanical survey for starters?

    #18239

    Rick Pederson
    Participant
    Vessel Name: Trident True
    Engines: 6BTA 5.9 370
    Location: Everett, Wa
    Country: USA

    It’s really hard to get pictures of the engines because they are jammed in such a small space in the Carver.  There really isn’t an engine room to get in.  I can tell you the engines each have just under 1000 hours and the boat is a 1999.  I don’t feel like the previous owners did a very good job on preventive maintenance.

    #18238

    Corey Schmidt
    Forum Moderator
    Vessel Name: Rebel Belle
    Engines: Cummins
    Location: Oxnard, CA
    Country: USA

    Pictures

    Rick, let’s start out with as much history of the engines as possible… do you have any pictures of the engines you can post? Current hours, etc?

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