At the thermal energy plant at UTSA we have a big DeLaval Enterprise DGSR-8 4500 HP dual fuel engine generator (diesel/nat gas), puts out 3500 KW and is used to power two of the biggest A/C chillers during the summer. Old beast has been in service for over 30 years now.

Over the past 3 years, they've swapped out all the cylinder heads with rebuilt units, some because of their age and some because the valves went south - burnt, stuck, seals worn out, etc.

We usually run it six days a week 18 hours per day starting June 1st thru Sept 30th.

Just got a call this morning, about an hour ago, one of the first heads swapped out 3 years ago has apparently developed a burnt or stuck valve. This seems to be getting to be a habit with this engine.

Most of the reps with the companies that supply parts for these engines seem to be more interested in selling parts, or talking us into a multi-six figure overhaul, than actually giving advice on how to keep this beast running long term.

Anyone with experience running/working on these engines, that can give some advice without the added agenda of trying to sell us parts?

__________________
Just say "NO" to Ethanol - Drive Diesel

Mitchell Oates
Mooresville, NC
'87 300D 212K miles
'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

Call Wartsila North America in Houston. They have a shop and some very knowledgable folks there who deal with big engines. They don't sell Enterprise parts but they may be able to figure out what's not in spec with your heads.

Rgds,
Chris W.

Could this new low sulphur Diesel fuel be the problem? Although, now that I think about it you are probably running your engine on NG.

Injection timing and poor upper cylinder lubrication come to mind. Are both inlet & exhaust valves failing?

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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

Cooling water flow good ? Thermocouples/RTD's calibrated and telling you the right story ?


-John

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

^^^^

He beat me to it.

Ran into the same problem, confused me for a while. (different engine)

Turns out the sensors and gauges were not reporting the real temps of the engine.

Do you have a secondary way of getting the temps ?

Second I would think lubrication issues if valves / guides are a common problem.

And poor quality parts being sold to you, so they can sell you more sooner.

__________________

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Jimi Hendrix

Looks like this time around it was a water leak in the intercooler or water ingestion problem.

Pulled the head, hard brown water scale on the underside and up inside the intake valves, up to 1/8" thick. Water scale thick enough to catch your fingernail on the seating area of the valve discs.

They were running under 3/4 load and 75% nat gas, suddenly started hearing a popping that said unburnt nat gas was getting into the muffler. They checked cylinder temps, and a couple were up to 1020 F, then suddenly the cylinder in question dropped to 250 F under load - same symptoms we had last year when one head not only burnt the valve, but also stuck open.

Cheap rebuilt parts may be to play as well. They've been going with the lowest bidder the last 3 years, swapping out the original 30 year old heads with rebuilt ones. We've had to send 2 back right out of the shipping box in the past year I've been here - one had a crack in the jacket water passages (apparently they didn't magnaflux the head), the other had both inlet valve seats machined over 1/8" off center!

Bloody thing needs a good overhaul and modernization - half the parts for the control system are listed as obsolete - but try convincing UTSA that it's cheaper to spend 200K now for an overhaul, vice waiting for it to completely fail and spending 3 mil for a complete replacement.

__________________
Just say "NO" to Ethanol - Drive Diesel

Mitchell Oates
Mooresville, NC
'87 300D 212K miles
'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

Just curious are you still having problems with these engines.
If so i have some more question.
How often do the power cylinders get balanced and what method do you use
This should be done weekly using the Peak Firing method.
Another not about these engines is the fuel valve. Rebuild shops have very little experience with these engines and they tend to set the valves wrong.
This can cause the engine to have one cylinder very lean causing burnt valves.
Another note you might be able to narrow down the cause by running a recip trap on the engine. Vibration trap this will allow you to determine what is happening inside the engine.

From experience with these engines you need to use as many OEM parts as possible. The engineering behind these engines is crazy. For example if you ever mic up the con rods with the baring in place you will find that it is not round. You have to use precision OEM bearings.

If you are still having problems please let me know.

I operated a DeLaval 650PSI uncontrolled superheated steam modified D-Type boiler 40 years ago.

Are you still having problems with your Enterprise Delaval Engine?

I work for a company in California that specializes in Enterprise Engines.
We offer Engineering advice, Technical advice along with Field Service and replacement parts.

We would like to discuss and you can contact me at 661-829-5333

Hello,
I work for a company called reciprocating technology services in Houston, I worked for OEM out of houston and worked with enterprise engines quite frequently I would be more than happy to assist you if you are still having problems with this unit if you need any assistance with your unit please feel free to contact me anytime.
Email- matt.woody@reciptech.com
Phone- 713-898-1965