CRAKED LINER

15th Aug 05

In one of the bulk carriers where I worked as Chief Engineer, the ship was equipped with MAN main engines. The breakdown of main engine related here occurred at open sea around 0330 hrs.

I was asleep and woke up due to a change in sound & vibrations of the vessel. When I saw the ME remote tachometer in my day room showing zero, I immediately rushed to the engine control room and found ME in stopped position with one AE running.

I saw the third and second engineers running around the Main Engine. My investigations revealed that the 3/E noticed ME rpm fluctuating with a knocking sound. Suspecting some problem with ME he started an A/E to take any additional load. Meantime he noticed the rpm fluctuations increasing and unit temperature going up.

Instead of calling further help or stopping ME he tried to find out the reason for the sudden changes. During that time he noticed Jacket Cooling Water gushing out through no 6 unit tell-tale hole. Not knowing the purpose of this hole as the indication of a leak, in trying to control the leakage he shut off JCW in/out and to No.6 unit.

In this process due to lack of CW & then liner temp, the liner got cracked and CW started flooding the scavenge under-piston spaces. At that juncture 2/E came down and stopped ME totally.

On opening up ME unit we noticed the ME liner cracked around combustion space and scavenge space area. Liner had to be replaced and it took about 30 hrs to complete the job.