Hi Mr Hughes,
The before hand info is relevant,
we have some extremely good examples of what occurs if you allow 10-15 µm silica crystals to gain access to the induction system of 2,000 hp + V12 engines, we have seen 4 > 1500hp engines demise over the last 4 years and all engine makes tend to suffer the same.
Typical it can be 3 weeks from running normally to failure with hard working units,
Failure is usually loss of main bearings and big ends due to the bearing wear surfaces disintegrating.
We often optically particle count large compression ignition engines and the machines that are running very well are all < ISO 17/14
Heavy wear damage appears to commence at approx ISO 19/16 counting metallic wear debris only,
The formation of metallic oxides is the warning that the operator is pushing the engines luck Often the ingress of hard contamination gives minimal warning making it difficult to shut large units down off the normal oil test causing us to advise if;
With large engines, 500 hp and up, working hard.
When Fe and Pb do sudden changes in oil test results on these large engines the oil filters should removed and cut open and inspected for visible metallic wear debris and if found you won’t have to try hard to shut the machine down and remove the sump/s and inspect the bearings. Using this system failure should be reduced to set of bearings and if the machine continues on after seeing visible metal on the filter is when this type of engine appears to fail with out warning.
If there is no visible metal on the filter the filter media machine should be reduced to < 70% power and urgently check a filter media sample in lab for Silica ingress so if found the catalyst can be removed before any significant engine damage can be caused.
It does not appear we can attach to this post so if any folk wish a copy of this failure with the monitoring ICP Figures we can send direct,
please email to lab@rttech.com.au to request a copy,
please be specific as we > 100 emails per day, or instruct us how to successfully attach and can pop onto here for all
Regards
Rob S