[Jen Wren]

Tony Athens wrote:

You are past the life of your earliest version ” Smartcraft 1.0 Diesel View” electronics.. They are done..

Plenty of options out there, but IMO, repair/fix is not one of them–sorry….

Ours solution is here:

https://www.sbmar.com/product/smartcraft-to-smx-digital-display-upgrade-kit/

Tony

I can’t argue that my Smartcraft Diesel View is dust and have been lucky to get more life out of them than most.
I’ll call Corey to help figure out what I need.

[Jen Wren]

Thanks

[Jen Wren]

Tony, Not what I wanted to hear but thanks for telling me what I needed to know. My motors take care of me and work too hard for band-aids. As much as it hurts I’ll junk the core and install a new one. Like my father always told me “they don’t make them like they used to”.

[Jen Wren]

Thanks for the suggestions. The pitting is not very deep but if I machine the end down not only do I need to find the right 0-ring, next year I have to remember which end of which core was machined. Seems too easy to mess up and would rather keep it standard.

The Weilcon steel that Andre suggested seems to be a european product and hard to locate in the US. I was thinking about JB Weld but am hoping someone can offer a 100% fix. Can’t see inside while under operation and it could get expensive if not repaired correctly.

Another thought is taking it to a radiator shop and having it brazed. I’m just afraid if it is over heated it could effect the integrity of the whole core.

[Jen Wren]

Having a little trouble posting the photo. Hope this works

[Jen Wren]

Kraig, I’m in a similar situation with my QSC 540’s. One thing I have found to be help is being certain the boat is trimmed to be perfectly level. The starboard motor always burns a little more fuel but I can get the burn on both motors very close. Anglers are always moving around and sea conditions changing. Keeping an eye on how the boat is riding has helped me.

Gary at Wilmington Propeller does all my prop work and I have all the confidence in the world in him.

[Jen Wren]

Thanks again Tony. Operating in Mexico sometimes “home made” is by necessity not necessarily preference. You probably don’t remember but you designed my exhaust risers after we burned a valve and Cummins was no help. That was back in the boat deisel days. I’m on my own here and you have bailed me out several times and helped me keep my head above water.

[Jen Wren]

Tony, Thanks for making me do the work and take the photos. Just had to read between the lines to figure it out. Now I don’t believe that motor is near the end. The problem is my vent design is flawed. A little rise in the vent hose where it comes out of the valve cover won’t allow the oil on the top end of the head to slosh out in rough seas or when the boat is at attitude before coming on plane.

[Jen Wren]

There is about 10 1/2 inches from the top of the valve cover to underside of the engine box.

Yes, it is home made. I just completly dumped the airsep system. The set up is similar to my mechanical motors except they vent out of the side of the block.

[Jen Wren]

Tony, here are some photos of what I have done.

Day before yesterday I discovered the turbo gasket to manifold on the port engine has a small leak and have put the boat on the hard to do the repair and clean the bottom. After pulling the boat I discovered exsivie conch growth that I’m certain is impacting performance. We must be experiencing some kind of bloom because I have lived here 28 years and have never seen anything like this. Also the bottom was painted just 2 months ago.

Anyhow, I will do my best to get the rest of the info you asked about when we get her back in the water.

[Jen Wren]

Thanks Rob. Yes the cooler was mentioned but I truly believed this motor didn’t have one. I have been climbing all over and servicing it for more than 10,000 hours and never discovered. My wife tells me all time that I need to pay more attention. Thought to admit she is right.

[Jen Wren]

Yesterday afternoon we got the new head and heat exchanger installed and went for a sea trial. To my dismay nothing had changed. We still had a vapor trail and making temperature at high rpm.

The mechanic helping was able to get the ace Mexican Cummins tech on the phone. On speaker we went over whole history and everything we had done. He patiently explained what each component did and the symptoms we should have if there was a problem. Finally he got to the fuel cooler. I told him the motor didn’t have one. It was an eye opener to learn that it does.

In the life of the motor the fuel cooler has never been looked at or cleaned. Upon removal we discovered it was full of barnacles and clogged. Bingo! We cleaned it and ran the boat WOT for ten minutes. No vapor, no temperature.

I’m more than a little embarrassed but so happy the motor is heathy again

[Jen Wren]

No, I have not. We have very limited resources here and finding help is almost impossible. I’m replacing the head and heat exchanger so that will eliminate those components. I might try to cobble somthing together this morning to test the manifold but it looks good. I was told that if it was cracked coolant should leak into a cylinder when the motor was not being operated. I didn’t remove the turbo from the manifold this time because we just installed it a couple weeks ago. I do have a spare turbo though.

Through all of this the only part I have had to buy was the coolant pump. Everything else has come from my parts inventory. It is impossiable to get parts here timely so I have had no choice but to stock pile so we can operate. Cummins is worthless here, I guy couldn’t buy a washer without them having to order it. I live in the land of manana.

The problem has slowly gotten worse to the point I was confident we would be able to eyeball something.

The boat has work Thursday and the show must go on so we need to get her back together and see what we have.

[Jen Wren]

We worked until after dark last night installing the new head. I will try to post some photos later this morning after the sun comes up.

It was a restless night for me. I have gone as far as pulling the top end down and still have fear the problem with this motor is not completly solved.

The last few days of operation we were loosing a quart of coolant a day. Where did it go?

A couple weeks ago when changing the coolant pump we completly drained the cooland and replaced it with blue Fleetguard. Yesterday when draining the system the coolant came out a forest green color. I’m not talking a little green, it looks strong and you can’t see through it more than an inch. How could that happen?

Weeks ago we cleaned the coolant tank and now are changing the heat exchanger becuase of contamination of the coolant side. What about the block and all the coolant passages in the whole motor? Could there be more contamination that needs to somehow get cleaned up?

I’m operating 3 twin engine cruisers with Cummins motors. All of them work hard and are high hours with 2 boats having more than 10,000. With care and good service I have managed to keep them all running and believe they still have lots of life. Guess I finally got that curve ball. This one has me stumped.

[Jen Wren]

Yes, of course the the heat exchangers and after coolers were pulled off the motors for service. I bought a 20 ton press to push the core out of the aftercooler so we didn’t have to bang on it. This is a hands on service completly supervised by me. I have tought the local mechanics a lot from your posts. We use metalube and all your kits and go step by step for service per your instructions. The info is invaluable for an operator in a rural area without resources.

We pulled the head off today and I am sad to say we didn’t find anything worthy of a photo. Looking around I went back to the heat exchanger. I went back to what Bill Desmarals said about the coolant side of the heat exchanger. It is something that is easy to over look. When I hit the coolant side with a water hose black water came out. That is after running with new coolant for 2 weeks. I broke out our spear cooler and could instantly see the difference in water flow from the garden hose. I put a little degreaser in the old cooler and it came out black. Mind boggling to me. That black crud that was in the coolant pressure tank also has hung on to the bundle in the cooler and restricted flow.

Now the motor is getting a new head which I don’t believe it needed and also a new heat exchanger which should solve the problem. If not I might shoot myself, this has been my biggest nightmare since I started boating.

[Jen Wren]

Tony, vacation? That guy works harder than anyone I know.

God bless the good people of Florida. One of my best buddies live in the keys and has elected to ride it out.

I agree the lost coolant is the vapor trail. Today will be the last day the boat works. If the motor doesn’t come apart we will will pull the boat and start taking it apart.

Thanks the comments on this. I will post what we find.

[Jen Wren]

This morning the coolant reservoir tank is down almost a quart. Looks like maybe a head gasket?

[Jen Wren]

With a storm just passing our sea temp dropped 5 degrees but out engine temp rose 5 degrees today. Now cruising at 2200 rpm we are running 185 degrees. When we throddle up just a little the temp climes.

Last month when we R&R the turbo we also did the heat exchanger and coolant pressure tank.

Tony has not asked any questions or made any comments on this thread. He without question is the best in the business at diagnostics, Maybe his plan is to just let me self destruct and sell a re-con?

[Jen Wren]

Thanks to everyone that has replied and tried to help with this but I am still nowhere. We live in a very rural area where it is impossible to find a good mechanic. Cummins is 65 miles away and when they came and took a look their ace walked away without a solution.

I’m not really much of a mechanic but have to work on my motors out of necessity.

Looking at the fresh water/coolant side of the cooling system is it possible there is a blockage somewhere? When we pulled the turbo and changed the gasket the coolant tank on top of the motor was full of black crud. We removed and cleaned it and then ran the motor with Simple Green. After a good flush I put in automotive coolant in and ran it for a couple days before replacing it with Fleetgaurd coolant.

[Jen Wren]

Tony’s impellers are probably better and something I will consider for the future. It is a stretch to think it would solve this problem. I posted the exhaust photos so you could see the volume of sea water coming out. It appears the sick motor has better flow than the healthy one. Somthing is going on here and I don’t think it is the raw water cooling causing the problem. I can put my hand on the mixing elbow at speed and it is not hot.

[Author]

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