Load at Idle in Neutral?

[QSCIsMe]

2004 QSC540s with the Diesel View displays showing 24% load on the port engine and 19% load on the starboard at idle in neutral. Also noticed fuel burn was worse than usual.

What could be causing such a load in neutral at idle?

Topic

[QSCIsMe]

Also I’m not sure about the prop shafts spinning. Didn’t check for that when I was on the boat. If they were spinning it would have been very slowly since I was anchored with the engines on all day (didn’t want to risk a battery failure before I have that figured out) and would have noticed if they were spinning enough to move the boat.

[QSCIsMe]

Sorry–no work has been done since it was working fine the last time I had the boat out. Four months ago I had the engine oil/transmission fluid and filters changed, as well as the spin-on fuel filters and Racor filters. Also serviced aftercoolers. As I mentioned, been a couple years since I’ve had the airseps cleaned.

[Philip]

Can you expand on “maintenance history is up to date”? Tell us exactly what’s been done, how, and when. Trying to help here and short answers doesn’t give us anything to help you with.

Have you done anything to the fuel system lately?

Do your shafts slowly spin while in neutral?

Doubtful a battery issue is the culprit especially since your showing 13.5v.

Phil

[QSCIsMe]

Don’t have any recent pics. Will be a week or two before I can make it down there to take some.

Maintenance is all up to date, but I haven’t cleaned the airseps in about 2 years (wondering if that could cause this).

Another potentially relevant fact–the morning this happened the batteries were low and I needed to run the generator to get the batteries to the point where the engines would start. Something’s wrong with my charging system and I’m having that looked at. Left the boat running all day while fishing (didn’t want to shut them off and risk another battery issue) and the attached pics of the Diesel View displays were toward the end of the day before heading home from Catalina. Could something with the batteries affect this issue?

[Philip]

Any recent maintenance history?

In idle do your hafts slowly spin?

How about some pictures of your engines?

Phil

[Author]

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