a lot of resultant reputation is what you do with them.
Put an EMD as a gen set in a rig and they go forever, put an EMD as a main engine in an AHTS and they are a disaster
[QUOTE=powerabout;91716]a lot of resultant reputation is what you do with them.
Put an EMD as a gen set in a rig and they go forever, put an EMD as a main engine in an AHTS and they are a disaster[/QUOTE]
It’s how the engines are maintained. For small applications I’ll take the EMD anytime. If you want to see disasters, grab yourself a Nohab.
As for medium speed engines, I had good service with Stork and Wichmann as long as we could get spares.
I had good luck with Enterprise DMRV-16 medium speeds. Head gaskets were a pain and you get the occasional sticking exhaust valve due to the IFO, but otherwise a great engine. Took me half way around the world and back with no problems. EMD’s on the dredge I was on just ran and ran and ran.
I dont know how its done where you guys work, but we get by with bare minimal parts, zip ties, rubber patches and pro-poxy. Anything with a ecm, plc, or brain is going to give you trouble sooner or later, give me a 645-E6, with a falk gear and a 671 generator anyday.
I’m biased towards EMD. They are big and easy to work on, as opposed to Cat which requires much more knuckle whacks. I’ve worked one boat with Alcos and they gave us nothing but trouble.
[QUOTE=powerabout;91716]a lot of resultant reputation is what you do with them.
Put an EMD as a gen set in a rig and they go forever, put an EMD as a main engine in an AHTS and they are a disaster[/QUOTE]
It all depends on how your engineers treat the EMDs. Gotta make sure that the airbox drains keep free. I would check the racks and lash every time we shut down after a voyage, and then to a top deck inspection anytime I started them. A ring inspection every three weeks or so of steay running is also essential.
Idling an EMD for extended period of time is not a good thing. They need to be run at 600-700 RPMs to keep the stack dry. On one boat the Captain would want to run slow heading across the GOM to arrive at a certain time, I would bitch about it as he would almost always want it running right at the critical RPM. The damn engine would almost vibrate right off of the foundation. The same Captain would bitch about all of the sparks coming out of the stacks when he finally put the throttles back down. There is just no pleasing some people (meaning those that think they are better than those of us that dwell down below)!
When we get new mates, they freak out and call us when they see sparks coming out of the stack. It happens after we have sat in the cold Louisiana night or water washed the exhaust heat economizers. On the Wartsila’s we have to water wash every two weeks.