perkins 18hp dirty cylinder?

[alexonsoleil]

hi everyone!
I think my engine has swallowed particles from a wearing belt through its air intake manifold. it has been more difficult to start the engine lately and a squirt of oil through the manifold the other day did the trick, but my maintenance bible says it is only a short term solution. How could i flush/clean the cylinders?
Does the engine need work?

[bizzy]

if its only you belt it will eventually go through the system
not sure what a belts doing there anyway ,,,,but if anything else goes in the intake the engine may not give it back........

[alexonsoleil]

thanks bizzy!
My belt got worn out (whistling a lot) and the perkins doesn't have an air filter, only a grid… When i checked the air intake box, it was crusted with belt powder! had trouble starting the engine again this AM, had to squirt some more oil into the manifold, hope there isn't permanent damage...

[Sailmonkey]

About the only fix I can think of would be hard extended running to burn out all the ingested rubber bits. This will work for your engine too.

[a64pilot]

Squirting oil into the cylinder is a trick to (temporarily) raise the compression on an engine with either stuck, worn or broken piston rings, used sometimes to diagnose if the loss of compression is from leaking valves or leaking rings.
I'm only guessing here, but maybe it's possible the rubber may have caused your rings to stick? If so, it may just "go away" on it's on, probably best thing to do is as Sialmonkey has suggested, run the snot of it once it's warmed up and that may re-seat or un-stick the rings

[alexonsoleil]

thanks guys, i have a mechanic here in nazare who reckons i need to change the rings but that would be an expensive job! I will try to run the crap out of the engine on my next leg and see if it changes anything… thanks again for the advice!

[a64pilot]

I'm afraid he may be right, but running the snot out of it first can't hurt.
This is where I'm probably going to have some people jump on me for pushing "snake oil", but you might want to give Marvel Mystery oil a try, both in the fuel and in the oil. I didn't believe it until I saw it, but I have seen it free up sticking valves in a 1340 aircraft engine more than once. Put it in the can't hurt, doesn't cost much to try category.

[DeepFrz]

Do rig up an air filter.

[gjordan]

If running it hard doesnt fix it, you might do a differential compression test before you tear the engine down. That can tell you if it is rings or valves. Burnt materiel deposited on the inside of the engine is just as likely to be causing a valve problem(small deposit not letting valve seat) as it is to have hurt the rings. A valve job is much cheaper than a ring and valve job. Get a second opinion before handing your credit card to a mechanic. Just my 2 cents worth. ____Grant.

[alexonsoleil]

Thanks guys! the guilty part ended up being the relay that sends electricity into the glow plugs. It had corroded and I was trying to start my engine on cold diesel. Since I have reconditioned the relay it starts up as usual!!

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by alexonsoleil

Thanks guys! the guilty part ended up being the relay that sends electricity into the glow plugs. It had corroded and I was trying to start my engine on cold diesel. Since I have reconditioned the relay it starts up as usual!!

Alex... ALWAYS awesomely appreciated when the OP takes the time to post the resolution

Congrats on a simple fix!

[DeepFrz]

Much better and cheaper fix than rings, don't you think. Good going.

[a64pilot]

Good, I like cheap fixes