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I was told that once I reach my desired speed I should then activate the Glendenning Syncronizer, and that starting off from idle with the syncs activated causes stress to the system soloids (or something). Can anyone shed some light on this please?
Bill
i have the manual (marked 1982), it says that it can be operated from idle thru the normal cruising speed range.
under operations it says...
advance speed slightly above idle, switch on, move slave engine lever to maximum speed position which eliminate undue strain in moving the entire control system.
guess i should have read the manual.. never done that before.
You can do either, BUT you are overloading the master engine SEVERELY if you use it to come up on plane quickly.
That is, the time it requires to advance the throttle of the slave engine is significant.
You won't hurt the sync, but you might hurt the engine.
Really? I doubt that overloading an engine for the 30-60 seconds it takes for the other one to catch up would have any effect at all. If you think about industrial/commercial applications, diesels are momentarily overloaded everyday. There is the truck driver who has to downshift while pulling up a steep grade, the front-end loader pushing into the pile to fill the bucket, or the rock crusher that has too much material fall into it before the operator slows the feed rate down. All of those scenarios last longer than the time it takes for the Glendenning to catch up.
Our mechanics used to say that a boat is the best application for a diesel-- It gets clean air, it has constant load, and you always get a warm up and a cool down period (going into and out of port).
Well, you can run yours however you want, but I don't slam throttles around - figuratively or otherwise - except in emergencies.
The way I see it, there's no reason to. Bring 'em up slowly, let the turbos spool up before you ask for real power, you get no black smoke, no burbling and no complaints - and no excessive stress.
I just don't see the value in doing the glendinning thing coming out of the hole. Why? Just bring up both levers and then once you're on plane turn it on.
Works for me but YMMV.
I agree in not "slamming" the throttles. My point is that if you leave the Glendening on and advance the one lever at a gradual rate as you would with the two levers, you will not be overloading the slave enough to cause any damage. The sychronizer can be used at any RPM and if used "responsibly", you will not have any problems. In fact, when you advance without the sync on you are not moving both engines faster at the same identical RPM either. You invariably will have one lagging engine until you are reach your desired cruise.
Look at boats that rebuilt one engine at a time and most of the time it is the lead engine. Also almost all the Glendinning clutch problems I see are because the limit stops are not set correctly and the unit is on at idle. Make sure it shuts itself off at dead idle and wide open. I always bring both up to speed and then turn the synch on. I also do not bother with it in the ditch. I love the people who have the synch on when docking then need to give one engine a shot . I always feel that there are things people can do to lessen stress on the equipment. This is one of them.
What's even funnier is when you run into a solenoid that sticks on - it happens guys, I've had it happen myself.
Think about that one in close-quarters......
I run mine all the time when I'm not manuevering. When I plane, I bring it up slowly, letting the controlled engine catch up with the master slowly as I go up. Same thing coming down. With a synch available, there's no reason to have the engines fighting the rudder a little because they're unbalanced, and no reason to have that extra thrumming noise of unsynched Detroits. I just like the synch. Also amazing how accurate it is. No digital chips in it, just pure mechanical function, but it gets within 2 or 3 RPM all the time.
Even though I have no facts to back it up, it also seems reasonable that if you move the throttle in moderation that the engine should be fine with that. Every time you accelerate, synch or no, they're temporarily more loaded, but I doubt that it's overloaded, given the length of time it takes for them to even out. Karl's probably right about ramming the throttle up fast, but that's hardly necessary. I'm not trying to get a skier up out of the hole.
Doug Shuman
i usually turn it on after i have the boat out of the slip, for a simple reason, i don't have switch on the FB to turn it on... there is an numarked switch i've been too lazy to trace which could be for the Glenn. but it's just as easy to turn it on after i rotated out and before i head upstairs. Otherwise, I've taught my 11 year old daughter which switches it it and a good yell normally result in imediate action on the switch :-)
I always accelerate gradually, 100rpm at a time and don't go over 1500 anyway.... so no risk of overloading the port engine! if i accelerate or decelerate faster there is a slight lag time which can be felt with the bow inching over one side mometarily, not even enough to compensate.