steamy perkins 4108

[philipio]

hello everybody im new to this site i don't even know if im on the right page, my name is phil im from dublin ireland, i have a 25 ft fishing boat with an perkins 4108 inboard diesel engine, small prob with a very steamy exhaust has anybody got any ideas on what it could be, im not into the mechanical end of things myself, no a bit here and there, any ideas or sollutions would be of help , thanks folks,

[PorFin]

Originally Posted by philipio

hello everybody im new to this site i don't even know if im on the right page, my name is phil im from dublin ireland, i have a 25 ft fishing boat with an perkins 4108 inboard diesel engine, small prob with a very steamy exhaust has anybody got any ideas on what it could be, im not into the mechanical end of things myself, no a bit here and there, any ideas or sollutions would be of help , thanks folks,

Hi, Phil from Dublin!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that you've got a fresh-water cooled 4.108M (i.e., it's got a heat exchanger or h/x). The older 4.108's had the h/w on the front of the engine, while the "New 4.108" have the Bowman PE that is incorporated with the exhaust manifold on the side of the engine.

I'm not a diesel guru, so take this as friendly guessing. Short of a great stroke of luck, there's no way to diagnose this with certainty based on the initial symptom of steam in the exhaust. You've got some troubleshooting ahead of you -- time to break out the reference books and dig in.

First thing to check is to see how much coolant you're losing -- if it's none, then your freshwater cooling system is likely not compromised and you can forget about the first two issues below.

Steam in the exhaust could mean several potential issues:
- Failing head gasket.
- Cracked cylinder head.
- Heat exchanger issues.
- Exhaust mixing elbow issues.

Something you may try early on is to retorque the cylinder head per the maitenance manual. If you haven't done it in a while, it's probably due.

Hope you figure it out, and that it winds up being a minor fix.

[philipio]

thank you porfin for your reply, a few things have come to mind when i read your reply, for instance the loss of coolant i have noticed, has been increasing latley, the head gasket was change about 1 year ago, which also may need to be te torqued , i dont know, il have to get an expert to have a look at it, thanks again for your help , regards phil,