Maintenance Tips

TO HELP YOU GET THE MAXIMUM LIFE FROM YOUR ENGINE

Coolant Care

Quality coolant is as important as the oil in your engine ( VW Beetles and other aircooled engines excluded)

Old coolant can kill your engine, once it's additives have been consumed it can no longer protect your engine, just because it is green does not mean it is still doing it's job.

Your engine produces a lot of waste heat ( petrol engines are approx 25% fuel efficient, diesels about 30%), this means 25% of the heat energy in the fuel goes out the exhaust, 25% to the cooling system and the remainder is lost from the surface of the engine. So if you have a 100KW engine the cooling system must be able to remove and disipitate the equivalent heat output of 40 x 2.5KW fan heaters, thats a lot - the radiator is only about 40cm x 50cm in a car with this size engine

Modern high power output engines have smaller capacity cooling systems for faster warm up to get your heater working faster and to reduce pollution, as a result the cooling system much work at peak efficiency if engine failure is to be avoided.

Tap water will no longer do, old engines with thicker iron castings took longer to fail, perhaps 50-60 years before they would rust thru, modern engines with hi-tech alloys can fail in 10,000km. Also radiators are now made from thin aluminium and plastic, a thin layer of aluminium oxide on the inside of the radiator will drastically reduce it's cooling efficiency.

To avoid costly and inconvenient engine failure it is most important that your engines coolant condition is checked at every lube service, and should be flushed and refilled with a mixture of clean water (preferably distilled) and a quality coolant as specified by the engine manufacturer every 1-2 years.

It is wise to have the service technician check the coolant hoses for cracks, leaks and hardening or softening as these are a frequent source of problems.

Careful regular maintenance will see your engine give you a long trouble free life. Most modern car engines should do 500,000km without major work!

These procedures should be performeed by qualifies personel only. They are offered as a suggestion only, use at your own risk!
These tips are taken from our regular bulletins to trade customers, some refer to our own experience or come from other sources, if in doubt please mailto:tech-help@engineservices.co.nz

Diesel engine Oil Consumption

Diesel engines should use oil, I have literature from several manufacturers representatives that specify oil consumption of 0.20 to 1.0% of fuel consumption, 100 litres of fuel=1 litre of oil. If you have a customer asking for an engine overhaul because it is using oil be careful. Ask lots of questions, how much? All the time or just near the end of a service interval. How much fuel does it use? Test it. Compression test. Leak down. Blow by, try and locate the manufacturers specifications. If it’s knackered rebuild it, if it uses just a little bit of oil you would be taking a risk with your customers trust if you spend $1000’s and it still uses a little oil. Not sure - ring me - PH. 03 308 1816

Isuzu Transmission

Nothing to do with engines. Isuzu 3.1 Big Horn auto trans not shifting into overdrive. Check the temp sender units- if there are 4 on the thermostat housing- one controls this function, disconnecting it will enable the trans to shift.

Turbo Failures

Have you had a vehicle that has had several turbo failures, blown manifold gaskets, cracked manifolds or cylinder heads? One cause that is often overlooked is the exhaust system. High back pressure ( over approx. 3 psi. ) will cause a rise in exhaust temperature resulting in damage to manifolds, cylinder heads and turbo bearings also the increased pressure overloads the turbo thrust bearing. Because of this we require the temperature and back pressure on all engines we recondition to be checked.

Nissan RD28 Hard Starting

Nissan RD28 hard starting ? Check the battery has 500 amps of current available for starting, it appears that even though the battery can spin the engine over at what seems a reasonable speed, if there is not this amount of current available the starter will draw power needed to keep the glow plugs hot enough to start the engine.

Marketing

Data base marketing. Most businesses have a computer and a list of past customers. Turn those infrequent shoppers into regulars, it won’t take too long to extract your debtor details from your accounting program and paste it into a database. Use this as a tool to remind these people that you still exist and can help them. It can even be used for reminders for WOF, lubes etc.

Nissan CA18 Head Gasket

Nissan CA18 ( probably all Nissan CA engines) when replacing the head gasket have the head resurfaced and thoroughly check the top of the block, you may be able to dress it up a bit with a flat plate and some emery paper. If you check the block with a straight edge in the usual manner it may not show the distortion around the bolt holes etc., if in doubt remove the engine and have the block resurfaced

Perkins Head Gasket

Perkins 4-248 head gasket. Last week I was called out to help with a head gasket failure on one of these engines which was fitted to a Massey 290. The engine had been run for 15 minutes since a new gasket was fitted. The gasket had failed due to a loss of clamp load (the bolts were quite loose) although the engine had not been overheated. The gasket had been compressed 17% (most composite gaskets compress 10-13%) which indicated that it was torqued correctly, our immediate thoughts pointed to the aftermarket gasket, even if we had used plenty of these ourselves without problems. Another make of aftermarket gasket was obtained (couldn't get a genuine one in time) and fitted. We measured this before fitting and then the head to block clearance after fitting, this gasket compressed 13% but after 10 minutes running there was a slight water loss. The engine was stopped and the head re-tightened, the gasket collapsed another 7 thou. which meant a total compression of 23%. It would appear that these engines will need their heads re-torqued as soon as operating temperature has been reached and then a few hours later.We have been recommending this for some time for Perkins 3-152 & 4-203 engines.

Mitsubishi 4G63 DOHC Timing Marks

Mitsubishi 4G63 DOHC :- there is apparently a change mid -92 to the crankshaft sprocket/flange plate, if you are replacing any of these parts be careful because the timing marks have been moved.

Debt Collection

“I’ll pay you next week”, although it’s not legal unless you have a suitable credit form signed, when you get this proposition made get their name and run it past a debt collector, they should know most of the bad debtors, it saved us $500 recently.

Vintage Spark Plugs

A simple one, we all know someone with a vintage engine that fouls plugs every so often, the plugs are not worn, just sooted up. These plugs can be expensive, an effective cleaner is Mr. Muscle oven cleaner, spray it on & wash it off.

"It's All Gone Wrong"

What do you do when it all goes wrong?

1:- don’t stress, take 5-10 minutes to calm down.

2:- analyze what’s wrong, list all the possible causes

3:- look at the most obvious first, this usually saves time. (it’s not the head job or the fitting, the owner has ran over something and knackerd the radiator)

4:- devise a plan to get your customer back on the road with the least disruption to them

5:- if in doubt contact your insurance company, they don’t charge directly if it turns out not to be your fault, but you are seen to be doing the right thing

Spark Plug Fouling In Forklifts

Plug fouling in forklifts Many workshops have a forklift, unlike warehouse machines, these rarely get up to operating temperature, may have a suspect carburettor, may use a little oil and run under light load. These conditions can lead to plug fouling. Converting to LPG maybe the most environmentally acceptable cure, but most likely won’t suit the workshop budget. Solution:- try a fuel mixture of 25% avgas and 75% 91 or 96 Octane

Mitsubishi 4G63 Timing Belt Slippage

Mitsubishi DOHC cam belts. We’ve seen a few of these slip lately soon after being replaced, if you follow the procedure in the manual or cambelt book you won’t have a problem, it’s that simple. Ring me if you haven’t got a book. ph +64 (0)3308 1816

Crankshaft Pulleys Coming Loose

Crankshaft pulleys coming loose. We frequently get calls to help repair crankshafts when this has happened.The easiest way to fix this is to eliminate the cause. Usually the vehicle has done 100,000km without the pulley coming loose, it then has a cambelt changed and 20,000km later the pulley comes loose. Another customer has been lost! If we ask the person who fitted the belt how tight the bolt was, the answer is something like "real tight mate".

Get it right, keep your customer coming back satisfied, torque the bolt to the manufacturers specifications. If you have not got the spec's fax me the vehicle & engine details +64 (0)3308 2064 and I will fax back the torques.