Walker Airseps

[Ripcat]

Close to pulling the trigger on Walker Airseps for my Yanmar 4LH 240's. Seems like a great product and a smart upgrade but am interested in any opinions.

 

[F/V First Team]

I enjoy mine

 

[Blitzen]

I put one on a 300hp Cat and it made a huge difference in knocking down the turbo whine and it did keep the engine space cleaner too. It was a bit expensive but my ears liked it.

 

[steveinak]

Racor Crankvent ?? Had one on my volvo worked great.

 

[[email protected]]

I know this will bring a lot of negative feedback but you did ask for opinions. There is no doubt that they make for a cleaner engine room, but I'm not a fan of Airseps on any aftercooled engine. The reason I feel this way is that not all of the crankcase vapor oil is seperated out and returned to the oilpan. Some of it stays in suspension and is then introduced to the charge air. In a naturally aspirated or even just turbo'ed engine this doesn't matter. But with pleasure and light duty aftercooled engines having inlet charge air temperatures approaching 350 degrees this oil is cooked into a tar like sludge that eventually clogs the aftercooler fins. After servicing dozens of Serck R/W aftercoolers and several Modine jacket water coolers I've given up trying to clean the elements from Airsep equipped engines myself and send this portion to a shop that does commercial cooling system work. If you get the chance, take off the cross over pipe on a Airsep'd engine that has some hours on it and look inside it. Normally I stay with what the factory supplies but years ago I removed the Cummins supplied Airsep on my 370 B and replaced it with a Fleetguard AH19002 paper filter. To me, taking waste oil and putting it into a delicate cooler on a high performance engine is a bad idea.

 

[FPTMarineDiesel]

I know this will bring a lot of negative feedback but you did ask for opinions. There is no doubt that they make for a cleaner engine room, but I'm not a fan of Airseps on any aftercooled engine. The reason I feel this way is that not all of the crankcase vapor oil is seperated out and returned to the oilpan. Some of it stays in suspension and is then introduced to the charge air. In a naturally aspirated or even just turbo'ed engine this doesn't matter. But with pleasure and light duty aftercooled engines having inlet charge air temperatures approaching 350 degrees this oil is cooked into a tar like sludge that eventually clogs the aftercooler fins. After servicing dozens of Serck R/W aftercoolers and several Modine jacket water coolers I've given up trying to clean the elements from Airsep equipped engines myself and send this portion to a shop that does commercial cooling system work. If you get the chance, take off the cross over pipe on a Airsep'd engine that has some hours on it and look inside it. Normally I stay with what the factory supplies but years ago I removed the Cummins supplied Airsep on my 370 B and replaced it with a Fleetguard AH1900 paper filter. To me, taking waste oil and putting it into a delicate cooler on a high performance engine is a bad idea.

Hello Mike, if you are having a lot of issues with turbo charger fouling/coking than you may want to consider a better oil with a better oil additive package. There are oils out there that offer a better additive package that won't oxidize and turn into the tar like substance you speak of at high charge air temps. These oils are made for engines that use CCV systems for Tier 4 off highway engine products. Are you using a CJ-4 type oil and if so, is it semi-synthetic or mineral based only? Curious.

 

[Blitzen]

Caterpillar had this problem 20 some odd years ago with the 3116 and found that the tar was the additives in the oil causing problems with the coolers and turbo, the problem went away when it was recommended to use straight 30 or 40 weight oil with out any additives.
Maybe with the new oils today it is not a problem.

 

[captainlarry84]

Air-sep are a great system for older CATs, GMs & Volvo. However Your Yanmar 240 is so well engineered, fuel efficient and just a perfect motor. Therefore I believe you will gain very little on that well designed diamond of a motor. The best advice I can give you on your motor is the following:

1.Change your zinc pencils every 50-60 hours. Money well spent in the long run.
2, Change your antifreeze every other season.
3. Make sure your transmission cooler has a zinc pencil.
4. Make sure that you always turn up to 3350-3400 RPMs Very important.
5. Turbo wash only when you are sure you need it.
6. In 2000 hours do a Ridlime reverse raw water clean out.
7. Check your valve lash @ 50, 500, & 1000 hours
8. Raw water impeller every other season.
9. 15 W 50 oil only.

 

[[email protected]]

Hello Mike, if you are having a lot of issues with turbo charger fouling/coking than you may want to consider a better oil with a better oil additive package. There are oils out there that offer a better additive package that won't oxidize and turn into the tar like substance you speak of at high charge air temps. These oils are made for engines that use CCV systems for Tier 4 off highway engine products. Are you using a CJ-4 type oil and if so, is it semi-synthetic or mineral based only? Curious.

Thanks, but I'm actually OK. No fouling of any part of the engine in my boat. I use Rotella 15/40 just like I did for years in all of my heavy trucks. I tear down, reseal, and pressure test the aftercooler every 2 years but it only costs me the price of the O-rings. The core is always clean, but I use a paper media filter. It's customers boats that often have neglected/fouled aftercoolers and I've noticed over the years that the biggest offenders all have Airseps. The turbo inlet, crossover tube and aftercooler all are fouled.

 

[FPTMarineDiesel]

Thanks, but I'm actually OK. No fouling of any part of the engine in my boat. I use Rotella 15/40 just like I did for years in all of my heavy trucks. I tear down, reseal, and pressure test the aftercooler every 2 years but it only costs me the price of the O-rings. The core is always clean, but I use a paper media filter. It's customers boats that often have neglected/fouled aftercoolers and I've noticed over the years that the biggest offenders all have Airseps. The turbo inlet, crossover tube and aftercooler all are fouled.

Hello Mike,

If that is the case and purely out of my own curiosity, are they implementing closed crank case when installing the Walker Airsep system for the first time? My suspicion would be to say that they did not have CCV before with the factory system and that they are moving to CCV with the Airsep system, is that correct? If so, than that explains why they have turbo charger fouling after and not before. If they install the system to take the crankcase vent(normally open to atmosphere) and apply it to the Airsep and it was not originally that way from the factory than they will in all likelihood have to modify their oil type for that type of system. But that is all assumption and maybe they did have CCV all along and it only bothered with the Airsep systems when installed? I personally have done testing for this and we only see turbo charger diffuser fouling and compressor housing fouling when the oil additive package for the base mineral oil is not sufficient for high temp.

 

[[email protected]]

I haven't worked for Cummins in almost 8 years so I'm far removed from their current product. I worked strictly mid range marine for them from 1999 to 2006 covering the diamond series and then into the quantum product. The recreational and light duty rated engines in both series were always offered with Airseps and medium through continuous rated always seem to come with disposable filters. That's 14 years of Airsep that I know of. The Airsep system was open to atmosphere at the small 3 inch diameter vent filter right before the main canister and if this wasn't perfectly vertical it would leak enough oil to have customers call for service. As for oil brands, Cummins has a tight alliance with Valvoline Blue and that is what they will recommend. Things change, and I just installed a "new" ReCon 430 C in a boat last week and it came with a paper filter, something I never used to see on recreational rated packages.