Volvo Penta IPS water ingress

I have over 2,300 hours between 2 IPS powered boats. 2013 powered by twin IPS 600’s had water ingress in each pod after moderate grounding. Water came in through shaft seals. 2016 powered by triple IPS 1200’s had water ingress in one pod from failed steering seal. No idea why it happened. Total of more than 30,000 nm so overall I am pleased

Are you using Volvo zincs exclusively and changing the zincs when they get to 50% or below? Are you servicing the pods annualy? Through a Volvo dealer? Do they sit for long periods of time without being run and exercised? 50 hours per year really is not enough hours and you should be using the boat more.

Where the seals sit on the shaft, a tiny ridge is worn into the metal and lets water in. We made a special tool to push the seals a few MM back away from the ridge after machineing down the seals a few MM.

Do a search, there's lot of issues with these motors and drives. Don't look for any help here, according to a few loud voices the problems are all your fault and volvo only builds superior ground breaking products.

Manufacturing water proof seals that are durable is not difficult or new technology. We run 4000 psi hovers for pressure cleaning concrete driveways ( lawnmower using water). They spin at several hundred rpm and get banged around pretty good and last a long time. Well drillers and directional boring rigs same thing. This is not rocket science, it's the bean counters overriding the engineers.

I think it has more to do with the bearings allowing the output shaft (propeller) to move around too much and that damages the seals.......the joystick and being heavy handed with it and drive switching directions quickly probably has a lot to do with it also.

Bearings and seals all work together, if one part of the system is flawed they both fail. My examples above all have bearings and seals, deal with much higher pressures and last a very long time, even with heavy handed operators. Engineers know how to make stuff work, the bean counters demand they make it cheaper so they can sell parts for life.

I feel for the OP, but it's really a Volvo problem that is not easily corrected - except by a very good VOLVO shop. One on my crew ran an IPS 600 up onto a reef, tearing off the lower unit right off. Upon examination - the seals held, but were worn out.

We went with Zeus after that and pretty much did the same thing again - without doing nearly as much damage -and the seals held. It would have been the same result with the Toahtsu or the Mercury o/b

P.S. - both crew were fired

There was a seals recall for the pods, changed from bronze to steel in around 2012-14. Did you ever change these?
I think seals change is every two years as per service manual.
Not changing the seals is a costly gearbox change of about 12k a pop.
Beside that there was also the clutch upgrade, as the original clutch was not designed for Joystick use and the pressure of change direction this creates.
Each clutch is about 3500 a pop. Apparently they made another clutch upgrade in 16/17.
All prices are in Euros so make the rate of exchange of your liking.

Well, I am using those two vp engines as my anchors now. The Cummins diesels are backup gensets. And we back to using o/b for our 12m fishing boat.

Flame spray welding may be an option to build up the seal landing on the shafts. Read about this in another forum. http://www.flamespray.us/
Build up is with ceramic back to original tolerances. May last better than new.

You can imagine different weights of fouling on different sides of the prop leaves when it’s docked and still .
Spin that up and minute vibrations might develop , too minute and absorbed into the drive train for the helmsman to ever notice .Theses eccentric forces pull away at the seal fit surface as the shaft (s) wobble about = water ingress .
Forward facing facilities the water being pressed in as opposed to the DP 290 rear facing outdrive seal .

Reverse the thing around on a std shafts , the cutlass bearing takes the vibration which is no consequence except slightly shortened life if that ?
Or the main seal perhaps starts a drip .....again no real consequence.

The machinery’s dry .

So back to the OP I would be examining the original prop balance.

Try posting on the UKs MBY forum there are a lot of IPS love in there who as MapishM says end up flaming anyone anti IPS .