Log XLV - Bacteria in the Diesel?

It has been a very long time since my previous post. That is because I can finally keep myself busy, not with repairing the boat but to enjoy the boat... at last. However the boat can never be perfect and once a while Artemis 1 will catch a cough or cold, which when given some treatment, she will be healthy again.

Artemis 1 was feeling very lethargic a few days before the virus strike and finally on one fine day, the engine just slowed down. It did not stall but it just simply could not go fast. There are hundreds of reasons to cause an engine to slow down, but the first thing that came to my mind was the turbo charger. Base on the RPM where it hovered around 2,400 and could not go up, I suppose that the turbo might not be working and hence the engine could not receive sufficient power.

And so, I started to dismantle the turbo charger to look at the turbine fans. This was what I saw.

One of the fins was chipped off and a few others had crooked edges. It took me about 4 hours to take the whole turbo charger out from the engine. When I brought it to the turbo servicing shop, the mechanic upon further dismantling the turbo, found that actually many of the parts were worn off and leaking engine oil. The repair would costs as much as a new turbo. And so, I ordered a new turbo from them and installed it back myself.

This was the turbo charger taken out and put inside a NTUC plastic bag for transportation to the turbo service shop.

The installation process of course took longer than the dismantling. And when it was finally done, I took Artemis 1 out for a sea trial. Even before I could go one nautical mile from the marina, the engine slowed down again. That was a new $1,800 turbo and it did not solve the problem. So I decided to consult someone with more experience this time, and also to shorten my down time of using the boat.

No more approaching independent mechanics from unknown sources, I decided to call the official Volvo Penta service agents to diagnose my engine. There were many rumours of how expensive the agent will charge, which was the main reason that keep putting me off from calling them. This time I decided to try it myself to experience it personally.

So the agents came in a team of two. First difference, independent mechanic is usually solo, they will only bring an assistant along when there is a major operation. Volvo Penta sent two mechanics down just for diagnostic. I had roughly brief them on my engine conditions before the appointment was fixed, it definitely would not constitute to a major operation, but Volvo Penta assigned two person to come down to get the job done faster.

Second difference, independent mechanics often dive straight into the part that they thought might be causing the problem - just like I dived straight to replacing the turbo charger. The official agent follows a standard protocol of checking all the basic operations of the engine before diagnosing the problem. This will strike off the possibility that the engine fault is not caused by external factors. And this was exactly what happened in my case.

Some independent mechanics which I consulted on the phone told me that the problem might be the fuel pump, the fuel injector or the turbo charger. The agent however, said that there can be too many possibilities, so they started to check right from the fuel source down the fuel pipe lines, to the filters, to the pumps, to the injectors, etc. in a very systematic manner.

It did not take long for them to discover the problem. The agent found out that the fuel filters were full of slimy stuff which was caused by water infiltration into the diesel, which provided a suitable environment for bacteria to grow, and flourish in this case. The slimy stuff was actually bacteria.

They were kind enough to advise me on what are the steps that I needed to do next. First, I have to establish that the fault is really caused by the bacteria. Second, if that is the case, I will have to flush out all the bacteria from the fuel tanks. If not, they would come back to diagnose the engine for me again. They explained to me step by step on how to test the engine on whether the bacteria was the culprit and how to flush the tanks if it was.

They could of course do all these for me but that would burn a hole in my pocket. Needless to say, as usual, it was time to get my hands dirty again. In my next post, I would show you how we tested the engine and what we found in the fuel tanks!