Tuning-up my miserable KAD300

Lord Farringdon said:
Scary stuff. :smt119 I feel a bout of gastic bleeding coming on like Melida!
Click to expand...

That was a few years ago, small 130 HP 4 cylinders... I'm sure things have changed in the meantime... anyway there are a lot of Volvo owners quite happy with their engines (expecially the big ones).
 
Pietro,
You made my blood pressure 15/9 and increasing and ofcourse pulse.
Best regards.
Melida
 
Hi all with a little update.
Yesterday the weather was cold and rainy and the Volvo Penta mech said he was able to get onboard.
I cruised 20 minutes from my summer place (island) to my winter marina. The wind was blowing 5 Beaufort from north which I was going towards; engine difficultly reached 3000 rpm while there were ¾ fuel and ½ water and only me onboard. A few minutes after reaching cruising speed I hammered down the throttle and engine reached 3300rpm and I raised the drive to +5 and reached 22knots. Boat was cruising nice until hitting the wake of speedcat and revs dropped to 2800. Lowered the drive to -8 and deployed fully the tabs engine gradually reached 3100rpm and got on plane.
When Volvo Penta mech came onboard and he disassembled aftercooler, air inlet and air divider for compressor and turbo, turbo and injectors.
As seen in the below picture aftercooler seem pretty clean although he will clean/wash/flush it.
http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/af108/melida315/aftercooler%20and%20turbo%20maintenance/050920101130.jpg
He removed the air filter and checked air intake while the engine is running at 1500rpm idle was no air intake restriction.
http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/af108/melida315/aftercooler%20and%20turbo%20maintenance/050920101131.jpg
After removing the air intake side of turbo it is visually seen oily and dirty.
http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/af108/melida315/aftercooler%20and%20turbo%20maintenance/050920101132.jpg
http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/af108/melida315/aftercooler%20and%20turbo%20maintenance/050920101133.jpg
Also he drained the coolant/antifreeze which is nearly 2 years old and disassembled heat exchanger and will clean it.
Today he brought the injectors for test and cleaning to Bosch service and called back. Injectors made mammas at their edges and cleaned. According to the engineer at Bosch the injection pump could cause a failure, but the replacement parts of it takes a month to bring. So it will be fixed later if this whole repair dissatisfies me although I have to wait for the parts.
Also turbo went to the turbo shop. Mech said it is cleaned and repair kit must be replaced, but there was no major wear on the prop shaft of turbo.
Tomorrow he will put together all of the disassembled parts and fill the fresh water cooling with new coolant then gonna do sea trial at 6pm.
Do I miss or forget something to do about performance recall?
Hope to hear from diesel experts.
Best regards.
Melida
 
Melida...first sorry for scaring you!!! :grin:

I take for granted that you put in new diesel filters before testing!

I remember that there was also a small filter right in the fuel pump and that also needed to be cleaned sometimes. It was really difficult to reach tough.
Good luck!!!
 
Pietro sorry accepted and thanks for luck wishes:grin:
You're right about the diesel filters. The pre filter in the racor/separ I replaced 9 hours ago before refueling and the last chance filter on the engine is for 42 hours old, also will replaced tomorrow.
I'm so sensitive about the diesel filters which from suffered too much on my previous boat.
Best regards.
Melida
 
Things looked pretty clean to me.

I'm curious to see the water test after you get it back together.

Doug
 
Back again.
VP mech is now onboard and called me.
He put back all the disassembled parts. And filled the coolant with antifreeze.
Started the engine and it ran fine at idle. He is running the engine for half an hour to observing if there is a leak of oil, water, air and diesel.
After work at 6-7pm I'm gonna be onboard and he'll bring Vodia tool to watch the engine parameters on sea trial.
Wish me luck, too curious and impatient.
Best regards.
Melida
 
Thanks Pietro,
I should go to church and burn a candle before sea trial.
Best regards.
Melida
 
Last edited:
Hi all with good and bad news.
Good is the engine is came back.
I did the sea trial and boat ran perfect. After 2600rpm turbo started and engine reached to 3000 rpm fast with no problem and got on plane at 20 knots. Also hit to wot and did 3900rpm but speed was low then it would be beacuse of the little barnacles on the props which I'm gonna scrub them tomorrow.
The weather was windy and sea was choppy. When on plane at 3000 rpm came on a mid size wave and rpm fell to 2900, but I lowered the drive and without deploying the tabs engine reached to 3000 rpm and 20 knots again.
Tomorrow is half day work and thursday and friday is holiday of "Ramadan feast" and the weather report says good, so I'll do better sea trials on good weather.
The bad new is injectors must be changed, all of six will cost me between 1000 and 2000 USD. But I'm still have benefit from doing 100 hours yearly and saving 13160 usd at least because of having diesel engine instead of gas engine.
(100hours x 65 LPH gas consumption x 2.44 USD per liter price = 15860 USD yearly gas price
100hours x 13.5 LPH diesel consumption x 2.00 USD per liter price = 2700 USD yearly diesel price
15860-2700=13160 gain)
As a sum of what the mech did helped to came back the performance of my engine. This week I'll have 4-5 people onboard including my family and gonna test the performance of my boat with that load.
Best regards.
Melida
 
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Engine run fine and injectors need replacement? How can it be? Did you experienced smoke or have fuel sludge from the exhaust???
 
Pietro said:
Engine run fine and injectors need replacement? How can it be? Did you experienced smoke or have fuel sludge from the exhaust???
Click to expand...

+1

Can't they be rebuilt? If they need to be new, are they going to be the same or can they be larger to get more HP out of the engine?
 
Hi Melida
I am pleased you have seen some progress.
With the injectors, ask your mechanic or go direct to Volvo Penta and ask about the exchange scheme on these parts, this will be much cheaper. I dont think they are serviceable by any Bosch diesel / truck specialist as they are quite complicated 2 stage units, so you have to replace them
 
Pietro,
Mechanic said that not the whole injector just nozzles have to be changed. I checked from marinpartseurope.com site in the exploded sheme nozzles each cost 114€=145$ and its cost in USA is 125$ per.
There is no visual smoke or smell and no fuel leakage onto sea from exhaust.
Best regards.
Melida
 
David,
Glad to hear from you again.
Mech said after yesterday's cleaning of injectors should do as they've never infected but they have no guarantee to not fail again.
To clear my mind and feel myself comfortable he strictly recommends to replace the nozzles, don't think he wants to sell parts and get my money whilst I don't by the parts from him and order from USA and he charges me very low labour since he is my friend.
I'll ask about getting extra HP about the injectors.
Best regards.
Melida
 
Chris,
I have the whole part list of my engine, and check regularly them online for updates from volvopenta and marinpartseurope.com (Sweden)and if needed order from marinpartsexpress.com (USA).
One good thing is my engine is direct injection not common rail, the parts are cheaper and not have to buy whole injector set.
Best regards.
Melida
 
Hi Melida,

Sorry to hear you are having to replace the injectors at 283 hours. Did the mechanic tell you why? Is this a KAD300 weakness or is it perhaps a fuel thing? One of the reasons I purchased a boat with this engine was because the engine had done such low hours and I assumed that expensive maintenance (given appropriate routine maintenance)wouldn't be required for a while. Some people have suggested a diesel isn't run in until its done 500 hours, yet here we are looking at dirty/clogged turbos and knackered injectors at under 300 hours! What chance does the rest of the motor have I wonder? Gastric bleeding starting again!:smt089


Terry

PS I note the maintenance schedule for the KAD 300 doesn't specify cleaning turbos until reaching 1200 hours.
 
Terry,

Mechanic told me that not the whole injectors, only the nozzles should/must be changed. They're ended up their lifes due to bad fuel. The diesel fuel is a chance to buy always clean in my country, altough I buy always from my marina's gas station and its the same holding's brand of my marina, so they don't want to fall their reputaion.

The circulation of the gas station is very high and their tanks are clean and always checked because of bad fuel compliants of boat owners, maybe I bought the fuel just arrived to the station without rested and the contaminants were not drooped to the tanks' deepest level.

Anyway, my boat runs perfect now as before this problem arised.

In owners manual of KAD300 maintenance schedule page 40-41 says that;
every 600 hours/at least every five years inspection/cleaning as necessary Turbo.
every 1200 hours/at least every five years inspection/cleaning as necessary heat exchanger and intercooler (aftercooler).

Best regards.
Melida
 
Last edited:
melida said:
In owners manual of KAD300 maintenance schedule page 40-41 says that;
every 600 hours/at least every five years inspection/cleaning as necessary Turbo.
every 1200 hours/at least every five years inspection/cleaning as necessary heat exchanger and intercooler (aftercooler).

Best regards.
Melida
Click to expand...

Thanks for clarifying that Melida. Your absolutely right! My fingers were typing faster than my brain was working. And I'm a slow typist!!!:smt043

I'm a little happier now you have indicated that bad fuel (rather than a bad design) was the problem. I'm going to be extra careful where I get my fuel from now on. Gastric bleeding subsiding for now :grin:.

Above all, I'm really glad your boat is up and running again. Now go boating!!

Terry
 
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