A Turn For The Better

I’ve just realised it’s difficult to remember where we are or where we were the day before now.  We tend to load/unload cargo during the day (while we are working our shift), then at night we travel on to the next location.  So every time I wake up, we are in a different place.  Until yesterday evening when I took a short but exhilarating run, I hadn’t stepped on dry land for a few days.  I ran in the evening, coming up to 10pm (as the ship wasn’t leaving until after midnight), and it was a great feeling to be running down the deserted roads of the port.  Apart from the people unloading the cargo and port security by the ship, I only saw a cat the entire time – even that was weird as there seemed to be no housing even nearby, just a lot of industrial buildings. 

 

Yesterday we were in Bilbao and it was time to fix the fuel cam that was nine degrees out.  It was fantastic to be there and help out, as this is not the sort of thing you see done regularly at all – a fairly major adjustment to make.  Raj and I took off the engine covers while the Chief took apart the necessary parts on the fuel pump and adjusted it so it wasn’t going to get in contact with the cam.  We brought down the hydraulic gear and then the second engineer (Cristi) and the Chief screwed an adaptor into the cam which would allow hydraulic fluid to fluid to be pumped between the cam shaft and the cam, thus separating them enough to move the cam round to a different angle.  This needs a huge amount of pressure (it took 900 Bar, or roughly 13000psi in old money) to actually force oil in between the two surfaces so they can be adjusted.  This took a while to achieve as the nozzle seal kept giving up before we got to enough pressure to force the oil in.  But after a few different nozzles and efforts, it finally began to seep out from the middle of the cam, meaning we could move it.  The chief then turned it with a special tool made to fit into notches on the cam.  After three or four small adjustments, it was back where it needed to be.  The engine was then turned using the turning gear (an electric motor turns the flywheel) and the position of all fuel cams was checked.  They were measured to be correct, so we disconnected the hydraulic gear, checked no tools were inside, then put the engine covers back on.

 

After lunch the main engine was started, to check it had worked – after the Chief adjusted the amount of fuel being delivered by the fuel pump, the exhaust temperature of cylinder 4 was similar to the others, so the problem was fixed.  I took a few photos which the Chief is using to send to the superintendant to show what we did.  I’ve attached three to this. 

 

One photo shows overview of the cams (one on the left is the fuel cam, the one on the right is the exhaust cam).

One photo shows hydraulic oil pipe attached to pump in the oil.

One  photo shows the chief turning the cam with the special tool.