Detroit Diesel 16v92 DDEC 1993 with 4,000 hours.....

[northshoreone]

So here we go, engine survey comes back great but, there is no previous service as it relates to a tune up ever being done during those hours. Do you think that the injectors are worn enough in 4k hours to warrant replacing? .......a question posed to the Detroit Diesel mech. ......which was meet with a, "well, would improve performance some and could cut start up smoke a bit" Or, do I have the valves adjusted and call it a day? Or, just continue to run it as is....?
FYI, engines smoke at first start for about a min. or so then clear up. Engines fire right up, of course with block heaters on. On sea trial they performed at rated RPM's and fuel burn was pretty close to what you would expect.
What do the Detroit experts here advise?

[Cricket]

I'm no longer a Detroit guy, but if it's me I would have the valve lash done and leave the injectors alone. Would be more concerned with the age of the fuel and gear coolers, heat exchangers, exhaust risers.

[Boatsb]

If I just had an engine survey done I'd be asking the surveyor not the guys on the forum.

If there's evidence of injector wear have them replaced.If they didn't test a few shame on them. There's only 32 of them. How did they miss them all. If there's a full engine survey to work with look over the results and follow what the guy you chose to pay for his expertise says.

[northshoreone]

Well there is the $2,500 survey and the $6k plus survey....I elected to go with the lesser of the two evils which didn't go into the injector investigation part of the survey.

[Pascal]

Seems to me like a lot of hours on motors that are very expensive to rebuild. Smoking for a minute after start with block heaters seems like a long time. Can you look at the liners on these ? Considering the hours and what s at stake, I d probably want compression checks.

When the boat I used to run was on the market, people were afraid of 5000 hours on 15 year old 3412Es! But these would scare me...

[northshoreone]

I already bought it! For the price I paid for it I could rebuild them and still be whole. I'm just trying to run it until it needs rebuilding. I'm attempting to do whats right to extend it's usable life as best I can at this point. With that said, I'm not looking to throw money out the window at anything that won't extend its current state usable life either. The WW Williams Detroit mech. said they would more than likely continue to run past the time I would use it! Fingers crossed that it makes it another 1k hours or so!

[krush]

Many of these DDECs smoke at start and even need a block heater to start in warm weather. Look at the compression ratio spec's. Don't forget to ask the diesel gods!

[saltshaker]

If these are DDECs then the need the block heaters for start up but they shouldn’t smoke and definitely not for a minute. If the injectors truly are original and never touched and there are 4000 hours and never overhauled, I’d send out all injectors and do a thorough inspection of each cylinder when the injectors are out. That’s a lot of hours for 16V92s so I’m guessing she’s been run very lightly. For $2500 you should have gotten the cylinders scoped. I’d even expect a compression test for that much

[northshoreone]

I really have not been impressed with what ww Williams did for the money. I was in FL during the hurricane when the survey was done and not present. Which I would never normally do. They missed the fact that the slow and fast idle didn't work correctly and engine rpms didn't match then as well. From the report all they did was send in oil samples, coolant samples......witch I knew would fail ...and variefy it reached rated rpm. Really not much for 2.5k!!

[Pascal]

How about temperatures? Creeping at high speed? The zurvey and sea trial should include a detailed chart every 100 or 200 rpm