How to start a marine diesel engine?

I know this topic of how to run a marine diesl engine is certainly not going to interest many people,as in our daily lives the most relative thing we will do is to start a diesl car or a small genset,but if you want to drive a ship,or drive an oil rig,then this article is for you.

There are a great variety of systems on a ship,most of them are vital to the normal operation of the vessel,to both ensure the personal safty as well as the smooth running of the machines,we must always do the right things,as of a marine diesel engine,it is most important part of a ship,so let’s see how to start a marine diesl engine.

There are not many marine diesel engines that I had operated,nothing more and nothing less,is probably in a number of 60,but only a few types.As you know that,for a jack up and semi-submersible drilling platform there will be 4 to 8 main diesel engines that are equipped for the oil rig.The output power ranges from 2000-7000 KW,it seems that it is not too much but when it comes to the combination of eight engines working together,it’s not less.Let’s get back to the topic.

1.I’m not a man that strictly follow the starting procedure,the first thing I will do to start a cold marine engine is to check out the air pressure of the starting air tanks,and if it is of the normal value I will thereafter open the compressed air inlet valve to the air starter of the engine.Often times,the local control panel of the engine is not work since the 24V DC control circuit is offline,so I will need to turn on the switch the 24V is supplied from and wait until the self-check procedure of the engine is finished.

2.Open the ventilation of the engine room in case of poor combustion in cylinders and personal pass out due to short of oxygen,but it is OK not to run for a long period of time.

3.Preheat the jacket water,some types of marine engines has a independent preheater,and the thing you need to do is to turn it on and wait,sometimes you have to deal with the engines that are not equipped with such a thing,then it means it is integrated with a internal preheat procedure,so you can skip this step.

4.Turn on the sea chest valve and have the sea water cooling system running,for air cooling application,turn on the air coolers.

5.Start the fresh water cooling system for purposes of cooling the engine parts.It always consists of two different systems,low temperature cooling system and jacket cooling system.From my experiences it will not do harms to the engines if you forget to run the cooling system if the load of engine is in low level,but if not,it’s still not a big problem since the engine will be automatically shut down,but if a hurricane is coming,then,god bless you.

6.Do not forget the fuel supply system,turn the oil pump to on position,after everything has been done properly,push the start button,you will hear the air starter running to help the crankshaft rotate until fire speed is attained,then,the air motor disengaged and the diesel engine sustains to run.

There are some build-in protection for a marine engine such as the engine speed limitation,when the lubricant and the cooling water temperature are not in the preset value,the engine will not attain the rated speed.I’ve always been confessing that by just pushing the bypass cold engine and some other bypass buttons,engine is reaching the rated speed by no time.Operation procedure varys with different kind of marine engines,but three factors remain the same regardless of the types,the srarting air,the fuel and the cooling water.

Have you ever experienced to start a marine diesel engine?