[christian.hess]

blackstone is the standard for oil testing...might try them as a second opinion as stated...

to me you have all the possible causes already mentioned here...its an obvious leak into the oil from one or 2 sources...I have my mind set on coolant leak from the exhaust manifold.

you already accepted you overheated...all it takes is one time...even if it starts fine and works fine after it doesnt mean it wasnt enough to blow a little head gasket or pinhole a passage, etc...

btw! of course the yanmar rep is going to say the oil is beatiful...deny deny deny until you have no other option is what he is being told to do or thinking.

good luck

 

[christian.hess]

"btw! of course the yanmar rep is going to say the oil is beatiful..."

Was it not Senior Enzo Ferrari himself who said "The aesthetic beauty of oil should not be mistaken for superior lubricity." ??

In France, these things matter. In the US, we rarely take the time to admire the wide range of colors and scents, the tingle on the fingertips and tongue, of truly fine motor oils. I do not think this should be overly held against us, as we are, however slowly, coming to appreciate the difference between extra virgin olive oil, and lard.

One thing at a time, eh?

VERY true...

I did this every ride on my old air cooled motorcycle...you can tell a lot from smell, taste, and feel....

however it would take quite the gourmand in france to tell by look only wether the oil has potassium or coolant or salt or whatever...

 

[christian.hess]

now! its such a new engine...now if it were really old and on its last legs I would say some egg whites iin the heat exchanger for the mean time and very frequent oil changes...

dont risk destroying such a nice and expensive engine...

GOOD LUCK!

 

[christian.hess]

I agree completely, the issue is this isnt an old honda anvil its a very expensive yanmar that is near new...

yes I bet the damage is is so minor its not even registerable on the oil level or coolant check

this would be a great question to ask

is the coolant dropping any every oil change and is the oil milky and or rising at each oil change, if so what hours between oil changes?

very frequent say every 10 hours or so for the next months will be enough to prevent any further damage...you can also baby the engine at low rpm(even though this is not good for most diesel as you will soot up) and then when circumstances allow you do the gasket change and fix properly

you could also simply not use the engine(sail or hip tow) till you get to a place where you can get better parts stock and mechanics or whatever you feel like.

lastly and I agree with krazz here, if everyone with an inboard diesel did blackstone lab oil anyalis on their engines even more people would never ever ever leave the dock EVER! plenty of old ratty engines with issues that last forever.

 

[christian.hess]

thats a good update man

I do think you hit the nail on the head regarding engine use...

Im not familiar with that prop but lugging diesels which is effectively what you are doing and especially a turbocharged one(whats the point of the turbocharger if you are not hitting those higher rpms right?) can be a factor in increasing deposits, sludge and or minerals in your oil some of which can be "salts"

now all things aside like the shafts seals mentioned above of the water pump if all is kosher it could simply mean that your oil is sludging more than normal from slight "lugging" and this is normal

just change your oil more often, and if it where me and like most diesel marine engines reccomend every week or so do high speed load run for an hour or so at max sustainable speed with correct pitch from your prop

in other words yeah gun it properly and load it properly and you will decarbon and clear out any real bad stuff

you can also do this in combination with your favourite fuel stabilizer...

good luck

honestly I think you are fine...

ps. regarding the intake you can make a shield or secondary "AIRBOX" if you will to protect the intake even more from humidity and or slosh or whatever...however you have to be smart about it and have enough volume for when the turbo kicks in...

 

[christian.hess]

guys a lot of oils are recycled...so its easy to see where the "engine wear" theory might come from a new bottle of oil

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanywhooooo

OP think your doing the right things

stop the overdrive use...and if it where me give the engine a couple of runs for its money...you know balls to the wall.

however and we have not forgotten...you still have the one overheating incident which hopefully will not rear its ugly head anytime soon...

if you have a very good coolant temp gauge pay atention to it METHODICALLY after a long run and at max rpm etc...when really warmed up...any flicker should be considered abnormal.

regarding oil capacity on engines you can never have enough...pump capacity provided. jajaja

 

[christian.hess]

here is some good info on how to read oil analisis reports:
Stateline Marine Surveyors, James T. Seith, SAMS® AMS® , Winthrop Harbor, Illinois, USA - Understanding An Oil Analysis Report

have you by chance been adding an oil additive? abusing stuff like zddp can and will show up on oil reports and also do damage if used excessively

the height of the vent btw does seem a bit low for the size if your boat....2.5 feet isnt that high up

just a thought

ps. here is a basic answer to your question...
http://www.justanswer.com/boat/4njdi-oil-analysis-indicated-high-sodium-marine-diesel-engine.html

something happened in that second analyis thats a huge spike

almost like you got a big splash in your exhaust and or fuel etc...

you also say its after the crossing which makes perfect sense, a combination of things will get that huge spike...open exhaust tube, vent too low...air intake to close to a source of heavy salt ladden air.

again just a thought

 

[christian.hess]

Fuel vent is on the stern about 2 1/2 ft above the waterline. Possible, but no water has shown up in the fuel water seperators (there are two between the tanks and the engine fuel filter) and the water alarm in the engine fuel filter has not gone off.

Re quantities of salt (sodium):

Sample 1 with 63 hrs on the oil was ~ 250 ppm
Sample 2 with 215 hrs on the oil was ~ 5200 ppm (end of season, after the crossing)
Sample 3 with 85 hrs on the oil was ~ 840 ppm

First two were by Blackstone, the third by a French lab.

the thing with saltwater is its the salt water crystals(after evaporation per se) that do the damage not the liquid unless its enough to hydrolock the engine

 

[christian.hess]

hmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[christian.hess]

potassium is the clearer indicator of a coolant leak

but if you read back on the first pages most of us went with coolant leak too...simply because of that one overheating incident that can or could lead to a slight pinhole of the head gasket or a pinhole leak in the heat exhanger etc

also the water pump if its shaft driven

honestly there are still many possibilities

HOWEVER when one does an "ocean" crossing" and after that one seas a spike, a heavy spike in sodium its hard to not tackle that first, versus say looking at the engine side of things

anywhoo