Restoring water damage
Restoring water damage in engine rooms
After pumping out a flooded engine room, dirty, slippery conditions mean that access must be limited. The top priority is to clean, dewater and protect valuable machinery as quickly as possible without compromising on safety.
We have found that the best approach is to clean walkways and working areas but to leave cleaning the rest of the engine room until later so that it does not interfere with the top priority – preserving the main and auxiliary engines. Considering the limited space, humidity from high-pressure spraying and constraints on the maximum number of people who can work in the engine room, this is the most effective method.
Our working procedure
1. Safety:
- Ensure there is sufficient lighting at the entrance to and inside the engine room
- Clean and degrease the floor plates to create a safe working area
2. Engine room:
- Use fresh water to clean above the flood level as the water is pumped out
- Spray fresh water under high pressure to wash the outside of the main and auxiliary engines
- Remove rocker arm covers and injectors
- Drain the inlet and exhaust manifold
- Open all covers
- Pump out water / emulsion from the cylinder combustion area
- Pump out water / emulsion from the crank casing
- Check (preferably in advance) where the lubrication lines are located on the main engine and how the bearings / gliding surfaces are supplied with oil
- Decide how to flush the bearings and make the right connections
- Spray fresh water under high pressure inside the engines
- Spray a coating of our deeply penetrating preservation oil with outstanding dewatering properties …
- … into the injector holes using a dedicated spray tool
- … onto the rocker arms and cylinder cover
- … onto the cams and shaft
- … onto the cranks / gear, etc.
- Avoid contaminated lubrication lines as far as possible by connecting to the system at the closest point to the bearings.
- Flush bearings of the engine (new or overhauled turning motor needed)
- Recheck cylinders for preservation fluid on top of the piston
- Repeat internal spraying
- Close all covers and spray the outside of the engine
In addition to preserving the main and auxiliary engines, the overall remediation process also includes taking care of the purifiers, intermediate bearings and starting air compressors.
After inspecting e-cabinets, (main) switchboards and starter cabinets, etc., we assess whether reconditioning is still feasible.
Starter cabinets
Financially speaking, it is best to install new starter cabinets because most components, including the actuators, switches and fuses, need to be replaced after being inundated with seawater.
Switchboard
If the client wishes to salvage the cabinets and bus bar system, it is possible to restore the main switchboard, but the breakers, actuators, meters, switches and internal cabling will still need to be replaced.
E-cabinets
In the event that the client decides to retain the existing e-cabinet or the main switchboard, we wash it with fresh water, dry it with compressed air and heaters and preserve it with dewatering oil. It is important to remember that seawater penetrates soaked cabling and cannot be removed.
Printed circuit boards
Printed circuit boards can likely be saved. After lifting them out, we use an alkaline soap to remove seawater residues and rinse them with tap and demineralised water. The final step is drying.
In cases where we need to treat over 100 printed circuit boards, we expedite the process with a dipping bath and a vacuum oven for drying. We take precautions to prevent electrostatic discharges (ESD), which could damage the printed circuit boards.
Alternators
Whether we can salvage alternators depends on their design. As a rule, we open them up as far as possible and wash the windings with fresh water.
Whenever possible, we then dry the alternators with heated air or dehumidifiers. Typically, e-motors cannot be repaired on site. Only after opening the motors can we drain and wash them with fresh water.
