C32 Aftercooler Maintenance

Look in your maintanence schedule. But they should be cleaned every 1000 hours, as well as heat exchangers, valves adjusted, injectors checked, I believe according to cat, but look it up.

That is correct and if you do not put 100hrs in 2 years it needs to be done every 2yrs. I just did mine and only put 400hrs in a 2 yr period and the after cooler was half clogged with corrosion.

You might notice the engines running a bit hotter than usual. I have 3412s and can verify the top of the aftercooler condition just by un-bolting the cover. Heavy, but not as bad as lifting out the aftercooler from the manifold. If the fins are thick with oil and gummy, time to get them cleaned.

The aftercoolers are due every 1000 hours along with the other coolers, heat exchangers and turbo's as well as valve adjustment and injector test/ adjustement. A visual inspection of the after coolers can be done by removing the compressor housing from the turbos and looking at the top of the aftercooler. Excessive oily residue in the compressor housing, face of the turbo or on the top of the aftercooler needs to be addressed. A raw water cooled aftercooler also needs more attention paid to the water side than a jacket water cooled system. Any water leaks from an aftercooler can cause major engine damage. Signs of a excessively clogged aftercooler on the air side are increased smoke from the exhaust, higher air inlet temperatures, loss of engine power.

the water side will not effect performance and your loss of rpm. You should get 2410 RPM no load if your control system is requesting 100 % throttle. 200 rpm loss is quite substantial the most common cause is a dirty bottom, running gear, or added weight to the vessel. Based on your other post you have MPD displays which will show any sensor/ injector fault that would be causing a loss of RPM. before the sea trial replace all fuel filters and clean the air filters to rule out any chance of those being a problem. A full performance sea trial should be performed to determine the cause of the RPM loss.

I dont see why you would have to force them to remove the aftercoolers for cleaning it is a maintenance item and you will be paying for it. I am guessing you are out of warranty anyway unless you have an extended warranty. Iehter way I think a better use of your time/ money would be a performance sea trial done by the local CAT dealer to determine the cause of the RPM loss instead of guessing or troubleshooting this yourself.

We are just about to use a new product that we got in last week. It may be perfect for this sort of thing.

Anyone used it yet?

http://www.rydlymemarine.com/

In the old days we used to use muriatic acid dilate in a big drum. Not very 'green' but it worked.

I have seen companies that use this or a similar product to clean the raw water side of the cooler/heatexchanger with much success. But it does not clean the air side of the aftercooler nor the coolant side of the heat exchangers. Even more important is the pressure testing of the after cooler to be sure there are no leaks of water into the engine.

Quick question.

Do you know if the OP has been using CAT's Extended Life Coolant? This should keep any performance loss to a minimum.

What do you think about this product? Volvo have just launched their own one too.

ELC is a very good product it has a life of 6 years with regular sample analysis and an extender added at 3 years. ELC provides better metal corrosion protection than regular coolant. Any engine that has had regular coolant in it must be flushed thoroughly before refilling with ELC. I have also noted that it will expose leaks that were not there with regular coolant. Not sure why maybe someone else can explain this.

My guess is it's not the ELC that exposes the leaks, it's the results of the "thorough" cleaning before the change over.

Bill,

I think C32 ACERTs come filled with ELC from new by all boatbuilders. Most dealers tend to change it after the hours and how the boat is used, rather than just the year. If you spend hours just trolling, I would change it quite often, extender treatment or not.

On the commercial fishing boats we used to change the oil every two weeks and the coolant about every 6 months but those suckers were running non-stop for weeks on end.

I have heard from the local CAT dealer to never use it in C18's, for some reason some of them don't cool properly with it.

I have heard from other CAT certified mechanics not to use the extended life as when you get to about the 2 year mark the PH gets very acidic in it and it leaves a lot of scale in the coolant passages.

Take it for what it's worth.