Inspecting a flooded diesel pump - video transcript

Pat Daley from Daley Water Services describes how to inspect a flooded diesel pump in a case study video.

[Pat Daley from Daley Water Services]

Part 1

Here we are today we are looking at a submerged engine-drive turbine pump. Today we are going to go through the steps to ensure the pump will be running back to its original state.

The fuel system is rather important. The fuel needs to be drained if you have got water inside. If there is no water inside leave the diesel fuel that is in there. The fuel lines, both the intake and the return lines need to be thoroughly blown out and disconnected from the tank to ensure there is no water or sediment buildup in those tubes.

Most times you should be able to quite safely leave the diesel in the fuel pump but it is still a good idea to check that. We would also drain the oil from the sump. We would also go to the injectors and we would undo the injectors at these points, and lift the injectors and squirt diesel and a little bit of oil into the top. That will sit on top of the pistons and stop any erosion starting straight away.

One of the other things with the fuel system – we need to check whether or not the bulk fuel tank has got a pre-filter and water trap. Normally that would be where the intake line is, and you can see on this one that it doesn't have a filter to check. In this case you would undo the tube and take some samples of the fuel within the tank to ensure it has no dirt or water in it.

Part 2

Other areas that we will look at is the radiator. The radiator can get buildup of sediment with the cores – that needs to be blown out. After you get the engine up and running again the last thing you need is for it to overheat in a few hours of operation.

It's a good idea to go through and change the coolant in any case, while you're doing the rest of the engine.

Part 3

The air cleaner needs to be thoroughly inspected for any water intrusion and sediment. And regardless, it is a good idea to change the filter and make sure you have cleaned all the sediment out.

If water has gone over the top of this you may need to drain the manifold – in fact, it's a good idea to drain the manifold to inspect if there is anything inside there.

Just moving across to the exhaust – you can see that this exhaust pipe, if it got water in there it would be very hard to remove the water from out of the manifold. So that needs to be dismantled and drained all the water from that section.

Part 4

Automatically you would be looking at things like your starter motor, alternator, the circuitry that charges the battery and even the battery for that matter – if it is an unsealed battery it could have sediment inside it. This engine also has a protection on it for oil pressure, water temperature, water level and pump pressure.

It also needs to be looked at by an auto electrician as well.

Part 5

One of the things we need to check also is whether there has been any subsidence with the framework that the engine sits on.

Obviously if it gets out of square with the drive head that could have some long-term problems with wear and tear.

On the engine itself it is important to have a look at the flywheel end and just see whether or not there is any sediment buildup in that flywheel. Along on the discharge pipe of this pump there are things like the air release valve – quite often sediment can get into the inside of that valve.

The next piece of equipment on this is the flow meter. The flow meter should be okay under water but some of the readers are not submergible – so they might need to be looked at at a later date.

Watch the Inspecting a flooded diesel pump case study video.