ISUZU engine

[blackrose]

38 minutes ago, lazyboy said:

A hire fleet operator had Isuzu 55 engines that were overheating and causing cylinder head issues throughout their fleet. HMisuzu tried to put the fault back with the fleet operator claiming their skin tanks were to small. This was proven not to be the case. HMIsuzu were unable to find a solution to the engine failures. The hire company became very dissatisfied and claimed the Isuzu 55 was not fit for purpose and threatened to take legal action if the issue was not resolved. HMIsuzu replaced under warranty every Isuzu 55 engine (4LE1) in the fleet with an Isuzu 42 (4LC1). 

 

Ok, that's an interesting anecdote, but it's not really answering my question, re. What exactly are the known cylinder head problems with the Isuzu 55 (i.e. what's wrong with the 4LE1 cylinder head)? 

 

Or could it be that the problem isn't actually "known" after all?

 

Threats of legal action resulting in replacement of cylinder heads by the mariniser does not in itself definitively prove that there was a problem. It may have been cheaper and easier for HMI to fit 10 new cylinder heads than deal with the legal action. Who knows?

 

Also, which hire fleet uses Isuzu 55s? Seems like pretty big engines unless it's a fleet of widebeams.

 

Edited January 17, 2020 by blackrose

[lazyboy]

4 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

Ok, that's an interesting anecdote, but it's not really answering my question, re. What exactly are the known cylinder head problems with the Isuzu 55 (i.e. what's wrong with the 4LE1 cylinder head)?

 

The overheating issue was never resolved with the 4LE1 Isuzu 55 marine engine. The industrial version of the 4LE1 that were fan and radiator cooled as in a Generating set or wood chipper were absolutely fine in service. It was just the marine version of that particular engine model that experienced constant cylinder head gasket failures due to overheating.

 

The only solution that HMI came up with was to change the entire engine for a newer version, the Isuzu 4LE2 and market that as the Isuzu 55. 

[blackrose]

40 minutes ago, lazyboy said:

The overheating issue was never resolved with the 4LE1 Isuzu 55 marine engine. The industrial version of the 4LE1 that were fan and radiator cooled as in a Generating set or wood chipper were absolutely fine in service. It was just the marine version of that particular engine model that experienced constant cylinder head gasket failures due to overheating.

 

The only solution that HMI came up with was to change the entire engine for a newer version, the Isuzu 4LE2 and market that as the Isuzu 55. 

 

So it sounds like they never got to the bottom of the problem and never found out exactly what the cause was? There are plenty of 4LE1s around including my own which have never suffered from any cylinder head overheating problems, let alone constant ones! Possibly it was the engine installation on that particular hire fleet (you never told us which hire fleet?) Anyway I really don't think you can generalise and call it a "known problem" unless the nature of the problem is known and it's been much more widely reported.

Edited January 17, 2020 by blackrose