Diesel engine surveyor

J

Jon Martini

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exMember
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Nov 9, 2003
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12427
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Anyone know of a competent diesel engine surveyor in the Mass/RI area ? I used DePaul Diesel once and hey seemed very overpriced and alotta boiler plate verbage in their writeup's. Engine is a 5 year old Detroit Diesel.
Thanks
 
Call Detroit Diesel as if there is any way of getting an extended warranty? If they say yes, they will require a pretty complete inspection so they know what the current condition is & weather it will qualify for an inspection. Most times the list will be extensive of what they want to do as they only want to cover new type engines. If they say no (5 years probably no warranty) then ask for a qualified engine person to go through your engines condition. I'm sure they have people to do this.
 
Jon,

I agree with your assessment of DePaul.

If I were you, I'd contact Dennis Devoe at D.N. Kelley & Son.

http://www.dnkelley.com/

They live and breathe DDAs and, in my opionion, while they won't be "cheap", they will give you your money's worth.
 
DDs can be inspected internally, which is better than other engines however the cost is high for this time consuming work.
A few easy tests can tell if you have engines worth investing survey costs.

An engine in decent shape will:
Start promptly from dead cold, i.e. not started for 24 hours or more
Cold idle without excess vibration, smoke or fuel dribble
Run smoothly through the loaded range underway
Hit or better yet exceed max rated RPM after a warm up run
Not overheat or run excessively hot or show temperature creep at any rated load, e.g. cruise and WOT for 1 minute.
Achieve rated unloaded idle WOT rpm when hot.
Not smoke excessively under any of the previous tests
 
If I may add my .02.

While I am still learning about my Detroits and have sunk significant $ in maintenance and upgrades, I've learned a few things.

WHen started from dead cold, they will smoke at first if your block heaters are not on. This should clear up after a few minutes of warm-up. If it is cold (temperature), they will not like to start immediately. There is a cold-start procedure without block heaters.

Properly tuned, they all produce some soot. This should not be excessive. Since it gets everywhere and is hard to clean, you should be able to tell.

Last, black smoke, black exhaust water and soot are not necessarily "major" problems and a surveyor would be able to tell the difference. However, you may want to seek a price adjustment since nothing is inexpensive.
 
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