Excess condensate in intake manifold of genset

[enginehead]

I have been rquested to determine the failure of two of five 'V16' diesel gensets. All five were commissioned in Feb '03 and failure occurred in Nov '03. Damages were confirned to no. 7 & 8 of A and B banks on both sets. Inspection revealed excess condensate had caused corrosion at the end of the the intake manifold by no. 7 & 8 of both banks. Corroded metals then flaked off, entered into combustion chambers and caused damages. Manufacturer had corrected the situation by drilling a hole to allow fitment of drain tubes at the bottom of all manifolds (5 gensets) by no. 8. Water was observed to have drip out of each drain when the engines were in operation.

My question is what cause such high condensate? I have never encounter such situation before.

 

[ferreiro]

Hi enginehead,
You do not mention where you are and what type of engine they are.I have come across this problem before but the weather had somthing to do with it.We improved the intake by fitting submicron filters...the same we use to filter the diesel and found an improvement.drilling holes.....well that does not say what was the cause ans is only a short term measure as what happens when the holes block up...what then
Best
Robert
robert_ferreiro@hotmail.com

 

[enginesrus]

Is this engine turbocharged? Does it run continuously or do they set for extended periods? What is the material the manifold is made of? Must be iron. And pretty massive flaking. Is this engine around salt air? High humidity?
Here is how the manufacture should fix the problem. They need to fabricate the induction system out of a 300 series stainless steel. I would say if it is a salt air environment
and high humidity. During compressability of the air, it will condense. And I would guess that the rear most part of the manifold is the coolest so that is the area the water would collect.
So are these gensets on a fishing ship in the north sea?
So what is the manufacture?

 

[fubar]

I ran into this on a twin turbo inter-cooled application. The air disch temp to the engine was running approx 80'f and carried condenced water to the cylinders. We regulated the cooling water to the inter-coolers to bring the air dish temp up a little at a time...at approx 90 to 95'f the condensation stopped! We now run the engines at 100 to 110'f air temp and have not had any moisture related problems since. associated problems we were seeing were:
1) water staining and excellerated wear on pistons, rings, and liners. 2) emulsified oil build up in the crankcase ventilation sys pump case and traps. 3) fluxuating crankcase vac while the condensation was flashing off.

 

[enginehead]

The gensets of the 4000 series were manufactured by Perkins and were utilized in Jakarta, Indonesia. It should be under the catergory of high humidity operation.

All gensets were in continuous operation everyday since commisioned. Each of the intake manifold had twin turbo.

Massive flaking was observed in one of the intake manifold.

I presume it is a common problem in high humidity environment but how does other major manufacturer address such problem besides raising the cooling water to the inter-cooler as mentioned by 'fubar'. Just curious.