USCG Icebreaker Woes

[JK]

So, who put the ring pack in wrong on the ALCO 251F main engines?

Alco's are notorious for liner failure if the rings are mixed up, put in upside down, chrome rings in chromed liners and so on.

I googled the engines and found the public solicitation for engine power pack parts in April . That's a cool 300k. Now another order for 7 sets, another $150k.
It is staggering that it will take 6 months to repair two 16 cylinder engines!!


USCG is having a bad week, I'd say!

The U.S. Coast Guard announced an unexpected engine casualty aboard Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea, one of the service’s three polar icebreakers, will prohibit the icebreaker from getting underway for its fall 2010 Coast Guard Arctic patrol and will most likely keep the cutter from providing standby capability for Operation Deep Freeze to support the resupply of McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

Polar Sea will likely be in a maintenance status and unavailable for operations until at least January 2011. The Coast Guard’s other heavy, polar icebreaker, the Polar Star, is in the process of being reactivated for service, but will not be ready until 2013. The Coast Guard Cutter Healy, a medium polar icebreaker, remains operational.

Inspections of the Polar Sea’s main diesel engines revealed premature excessive wear in 33 cylinder assemblies. A root cause failure analysis to determine the underlying cause of the excessive wear is underway and expected to be complete in August. The Polar Sea was commissioned into service on Feb. 23, 1978, and has exceeded its intended 30-year life; in 2006 the Coast Guard completed a rehabilitation project that extended its service life to 2014. The Polar Star was placed in a caretaker status in 2006 and is currently completing a seven to 10 year, service life, extension project that is expected to return it to an operational status in early 2013.

The Healy is capable of conducting a wide range of Coast Guard missions in the Polar Regions including supporting scientists working in the Arctic. The Healy is the most technologically advanced polar icebreaker in the fleet.

[Wyatt]

Not only ALCO's, but Cleveland EMD 645's will have the same outcome if the rings and liners are mixed up. Do you know how to tell a chromed liner from a non chromed liner? I attended the Cleveland course at Hatch and Kirk many many moons ago and even the instructors sometimes had a hard time telling them apart, especially new ones still covered in oil and paper. We had a complete set of spare liners on the vessel I worked on, and upon close inspection, they were the chromed liners. Guess what spare rings we had on board? You got it, the chromed ones. Very easily passed over if you were not made aware of what to look for. But what a drag for those guys if this is the problem. Bet they are waiting for the required parts, and that is the reason for the long layover.

[Big Pete]

A lot of Engine Makers offer the option of Chromed Liners, Pistons and Ring Packs. The general rule with these (as well as with bearings/ shafts and Gearing) is that you always have a hard surface running on a soft surface. Never hard on hard or soft on soft.
The makers always explain that Chromed rings must not be used with Chromed Pistons or Chromed Liners, and (if I remember correctly) Chromed pistons should not be used with chromed liners.
Unfortunatly, not everyone reads the Instruction Manuals, and then as has been pointed out there is the problem of correctly identifying what components are made off!
Personally I think if manufacturers supply incompatible parts for the same engine, then they should ensure that they are clearly and unmistakeably identified.
I wonder if any heads have rolled?
BP

[JK]

I wonder if any heads have rolled?

When the root cause analysis is done in August, then it will be, "Off with their Heads"
The timelines blow me away. A little more involved then merely opening the engine up, looking in and stating, "she's F'd Byes, pass the wrench."

One of my co-workers was telling me yesterday about liner failures on the same engine make, but the "E" types on another ship.
The rings have a DOT on the topside so they are installed correctly.
When there was indications of excessive wear, the engine was opened up for a look-see.
The ring for the top ring groove also has TOP on it, on the opposite side to the DOT. All of the rings with TOP on them, were installed with TOP up and the DOT down.

We've run into the chrome ring\chrome liner problem as well. Usually the first indication is the chrome levels in the LO sample going sky high.