Perkins 100 series coolant failure

[Rhod72]

Hi,

I have a Perkins 100 series 3 cylinder diesel. The engine is cooled through the coolant passing through a shell and tube heat exchanger containing seawater. Recently I suffered engine failure that I attributed to old fuel/blocked injectors/pumps. Having thoroughly investigated this I then noticed the coolant seemed a little low. I topped it up and once the engine started running oil/water pumped out of the rocker cover breather pipe . I stripped off the cylinder head/ drained the engine oil/coolant hoping to find a blown head gasket or dreading a cracked cylinder block. I found neither. I was desperate for a sail so I put the engine back together and refilled the coolant, thinking a night's rocking in the pen would reveal any problems the next day. I found the oil sump full of coolant. Is there some seal I'm missing? Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Thanks,

Rhodri

[NoTies]

You need to specify what sort of engine failure you suffered and what you did to "thoroughly investigate" it.

[Rhod72]

I'd added some fuel additive engine/ injector cleaner whilst totally failing to recognise that there wasn't a lot of fuel in the tank. The engine stopped whilst I was preparing to return to my pen. I disconnected the fuel line from the filter after the tank and tried running the engine from a jerry can. I could get fuel to the injector pumps but not after the injector pumps. I removed the injector pumps and cleaned them and dismantled them as best I could. After which the engine would run for a short time and then die. I repeated this process a few times before noticing the low coolant level. I then topped up the coolant, cleaned the injectors once again and then cranked the engine until it started. Shortly afterwards water/oil started coming out of the rocker cover breather pipe.

[NoTies]

Sounds like you should have called a mechanic a lot earlier in the piece. Do the Perkin 100s have injector tubes?