Metal Stitching and Line Boring on a Japanese Auxiliary Engine Block

In late 2021, a Greek owner of a 4250 TEU container vessel approached us for the repair of an auxiliary engine. The 26-bore, japanese-made engine had suffered from a so-called “side kick” – the connecting rod had smashed a hole in the engine block, above cylinder #2.

As the vessel was about to call Singapore, QuantiServ Singapore arranged for one of its metal stitching specialists to go on board to conduct a comprehensive damage assessment.

As is nowadays almost always the case, our specialist deemed the engine block damage to be repairable. We engineered a repair proposal, consisting of metal stitching and in-situ machining to be carried out in our workshop in Singapore. The customer gladly accepted our repair proposal due to the obvious time and cost savings compared to replacing the engine block. He made arrangements for the 12-year old engine block to be sent to our Singapore workshop for repair.

The block arrived at our workshop in March 2022 and was immediately attended to. The repair work carried out included the following main steps:

We arranged for a tailor-made cast iron repair patch to be cast in a certified partner foundry. The repair patch was then stitched in place using Castmaster™ stitching pins and matching locks. This provides for a permanent, very strong repair.
As the damage extended into the lower cylinder liner bore, a repair sleeve was installed there. The repair sleeve guarantees a good fit with the cylinder liner o-rings, preventing water leaks.
The ovality of seven out of nine main bearing pockets was found to be excessive. This finding was independent of the accident but needed attention too. We corrected the ovality with in-situ line boring.
All eight cylinder liner landing surfaces in the engine block were machined to clear them from corrosion and cavitation damage.

A Magnetic Particle Inspection (MPI) was carried out on the completed repair to the satisfaction of the customer and attending class surveyor.

From start to finish, the repair work took approximately four weeks to complete, well in time for the engine block to be sent back to the vessel during her next routine call to Singapore.