REMOVAL, OVERHAULING, INSPECTION OF CYLINDER LINER

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Students will be able to understand,
a) Preparation before dismantling of cylinder liner for inspection & calibration.
b) Safety precaution & Isolation of engine. c) Demonstrate all pipeline
connection to
Engine which has to be isolated before dismantling of cylinder liner.
d) Demonstrate disconnection of all attachment from cylinder liner like cylinder
head, piston con rod etc.
e) Demonstrate safe removal of liner.
f) Demonstrate maintenance to be carried on liner.
g) Demonstrate how to measure liner wear, preparation, and how to keep a
records.
h) Demonstrate mounting procedure of cylinder liner.
i) Demonstrate 2 S liner lubricator & quill arrangement
j) Liner honing

1. BRIEF DESCRIPTION ABOUT CYLINDER LINER.

A. Cylinder liner should be a separate component from the jacket - reason
1. In working condition, Cylinder liner endure a higher temperature and
thereby a higher expansion then the jacket.
2. In due course of time cylinder liner wear out and hence need replacement,
but the jacket lasts for life time of engine.
3. Casting the liner separately causes less risk of defects during manufacture.
4. As per the work environment material of cylinder liner is costlier than the
jackets.

Material
Alloy Chromium, Vanadium and Titanium provide mechanical strength,
enhance capacity of wear and corrosion resistance. Molybdenum provides high
temperature strength. Some more alloying elements and percentage are added
as per engine power rating and fuel oil used.
Tensile strength is about 210 - 225 MN/m2 which are increased during
manufacture stage by adding some Mild Steel scrape. Porous nature of cast
iron helps in retaining the lubricating oil film which enhances the liner
lubrication.
Manufactured by Centrifugal casting,
Care to be taken and a regulated design, material, manufacturing process
enhances following properties
1. Extended working life, 2. Long period between overhauls,3. Low wear rates,
friction losses,4. Adequate strength and fatigue strength, 5. Good thermal
conductivity, resist abrasion and corrosion, 6. Retain lubricating oil film,
Design considerations and construction -
(i) Critical part is the upper section, because it is subjected to high temperature
and maximum working pressure of combustion, so it should have strength at
higher temperature. Thickness need to be increased to enhance strength to
resist internal gas load but limited to cause efficient heat transfer. The
maximum pressure and the strength of the material govern the thickness of the
cylinder liner, which must be sufficient to keep the hoop stress within
acceptable limits.
(ii) The thickness of the cylinder liner governs the rate of heat flow from the hot
side of the liner to the cooling water. The heat flow must be sufficient to keep
the working side of the liner cool enough to prevent failure of lubrication and
hold the thermal stresses within safe limits
(iii)The liner made progressively thinner in sectional thickness to suit the lower
gas pressures towards its lower part. By making the liner progressively thinner,
the rate of heat transfer from the thicker section is increased as the heat flows
downwards to the thinner section which is cooler, due to low gas temperature
inside the cylinder and also the thinner section transfers heat more easily to
the cooling water.
(iv) The working part of the liner where contact is made with the piston rings
must be kept at a temperature sufficiently low so that breakdown of the oil
film does not occur.
(v)The cylinder liner is tightened against the top of the engine frame by the
cylinder cover, so that it can expand freely downwards when heated during the
running of the engine.
Components- Drawing for Assignment:
 Fig – CYLINDER LINER SECTION FOR A 2 STROKE DIESEL ENGINE

(vi) In some designs bore cooling with high velocity flow of water provided to
increase the cooling efficiency at the upper part of the liner.
Cooling water space and scavenge air space sealing is obtained by means of
two silicone rubber rings located in machined grooves in the guide of the
cylinder liner, one for cooling water and one for scavenge air. A bore is located
between the sealing rings, enabling the effectiveness to be checked. Rubber
rings located in machined grooves in the cylinder liner ensure cooling water
sealing along with allowing the liner expansion along with its length. These
rings are for high temperature use and normally nitrile rubber rings.

In addition to splash lubrication, the liner has additional pressurised injection

lubrication. The longitudinal drillings in the wall of the liner meet axial
drillings leading to the running surface. The oil is the same as that used in the
crankcase.

2. MAINTENANCE REQUIREMENT:
A. Cylinder liner should be inspected for wear down at regular intervals. It is
necessary because of liners sliding surfaces are subjected to wear and on this
surface the piston rings are compressed giving rise combustion. If wear down
becomes more then gas sealing by piston ring will deteriorate and may cause
blow by of hot gases.
Blow by results loss of efficiency due to loss of gases in expansion stroke and
poses a fire hazard.
Excessive wear necessitates replacement of liner.
B. There are three main cause of damage to the liner material causes wear
down;
Corrosion-caused by the acidic products of combustion
Abrasion-caused by solid particles breaking through the lubricant film
Friction-Break down of the lubricating oil film leading to metal to metal
contact

A. THE MAXIMUM WEAR generally occurs at the upper end of cylinder liners,
THE PRINCIPAL REASON is that the combustion ends of liners are exposed
to the high-temperature burning gases and lubrication of this part is not so
efficient. (The oil viscosity on the liner surface can be as low as 2 cSt near
top dead centre, the resultant film thickness being one micron or less.)

A further contributory factor is that the combustion ends of liners operate at a

much higher temperature than the remainder of the liner and at the higher
temperature cast-iron has less resistance to wear and the corrosive effects of
very hot combustion products.
At TDC piston reverses its direction, hence the piston speed is reduced, and
hence lubrication at this point is more towards boundary lubrication. Here the
asperities (peaks) of rough sliding surfaces (liner and piston ring) may come in
contact as the lubricating oil film is not thick enough to prevent metal to metal
contact. This may cause frictional adhesive wear.
3. GENERAL OBSERVATION & SAFETY PRECAUTIONS TO BE
MAINTAINED
On board where the engine always kept in stand by condition it is necessary to
do the following
Before commencing work, for which permission will have been granted, a risk
assessment will be carried out. All personnel involved in the overhaul, will have
familiarised themselves with the job, and will know the specific tasks that they
are expected to carry out.
A permit to work in the crankcase will have been obtained, and all the
necessary tools assembled and checked. Lifting tools and equipment will be
checked for condition and certification. Jacks will be checked for leaks.
Sufficient spares must be on board to carry out the overhaul. Not just the
replacement liner, but new piston rings, joints and seals.
During overhauling the importance to be given to the following-
 Maintain Cleanliness
 All tools to be collected and kept ready as mentioned in manuals.
 Safety along with proper notification
 Stopped engine
 Shut-off/ BLOCK starting air, control air supply,
 Engage turning gear
 Shut-off fuel oil, jacket cooling water, lubricating oil supply
  Drain the cooling water space.
 Carefulness while dealing with precision, power instruments, internal
sliding parts. All lifting equipment is examined to ensure it is in
certification and free from defects.
 Correct use of tools, instruments etc. proper material like grinding paste
etc.
 Take care of the various threads, sealing equipment
 At the time of disassembly, carry out work with your thought given to
reassembling sequence.
2. Various maintenance of Cylinder liner
Liner maintenance can be carried out by doing the inspection, necessary repair
etc. whenever the liner is accessible, i.e. during decarbonisation of the unit,
and during cylinder head overhaul where the inspection of liner can be done.
Periodical inspection is required to verify the cooling water space, check the
liner wear pattern.

Measurement of cylinder WEAR

Fig – LINER

CALIBRATION ON BOARD A VESSEL DURING OVERHAULING

(i) Tools required are - a suitably sized internal micrometer and

- a micrometer locating gauge.
The micrometer locating gauge is nothing more than a long flat bar covering
the length of the liner. A series of holes is drilled in the bar. The holes are
located at the points where the diameter of the liner is measured. As the
maximum wear is usually found at the upper part of the liner, the holes are
so arranged that the bore of the liner is first measured at the point where the
lower edge of the top piston ring comes when the piston is on top centre. Two
other measuring-point holes are located at approximately 6O to 75 mm and
100 to 150 mm from the first for large engines.

Fig – CALIBRATING THE CYLINDER LINER and LINER MEASURING POINTS, READINGS TO BE
TAKEN FORE AND AFT ALSO ATHWARTSHIP P-S DIRECTION
In smaller engines the distances between the upper gauging points will be less
and are usually arranged so that the three upper measurements cover the
distance between the positions of the top and bottom piston rings when the
piston is on top dead centre. There are two other holes in the micrometer
locating gauge, one to locate the micrometer for gauging the liner at mid length
and another to gauge the liner at the lower end of the piston travel.

(ii) Before measuring the cylinder wear:

• Ensure that the tool and cylinder liner temperatures are close to each other.
The temperature of the micrometer should be stabilized at engine-room
temperature
• Record the tool and cylinder liner temperatures to enable correction. Measure
the wear with the special tool at vertical positions marked on the tool. Measure
in both the transverse and longitudinal directions. This ensures that the wear
is always measured at the same positions.
• Cylinder liners should always be at similar temperatures when
measurements are taken, and this may be difficult to achieve due to the
trading pattern of ships. As much as possible should be done to achieve this,
such as circulating adjacent cylinders with cooling water at some temperature
which can be easily obtained over widely differing ports or places. If these
precautions are conscientiously observed it will save the waste of time that
comes about when a cylinder liner is measured and comparison with earlier
measurements shows that it is apparently getting smaller in bore!

(i) How to take the wear measurement?

A series of horizontal chalk marks is made in the liner corresponding to the
position of the micrometer locating holes. The locating gauge is then placed on
the opposite side of the liner, the extension of the internal micrometer is placed
in the top locating hole and the micrometer head is swung in a horizontal arc
on the level of the chalk mark until the right 'feel' is obtained on the
micrometer head. The micrometer is then read and the measurement recorded.
The process is repeated down the liner and the various diameters of the
cylinder are obtained in the port and starboard (athwartships) plane. Similar
measurements are made in the fore and aft plane of the cylinder liner bore.
In taking measurements down to hundredths of a millimeter or thousandths of
an inch a high degree of accuracy is required.
Note - In the first place this requires very delicate handling of the micrometer
and adjustment of the head when it is being screwed out to measure the worn
bore diameter. The micrometer must be adjusted at the time the extensions are
fitted to give a correct reading preferably in a standard cylinder bore gauge. If a
gauge is not available a spare unused cylinder liner can be used, but it should
be noted that some variation occurs in cylinder bore sizes of different liners
due to the maker's allowable machining tolerances, and this may introduce
discrepancies in measurements that are barely acceptable.

(ii)Record the measurements

The actual bore diameters at the various locations are recorded on a form
supplied by the Company's technical department or an engine builder. The
differences in the latest measurements and those last recorded are noted in
order to ascertain that maximum wear is still occurring in the same location.
The difference in the latest maximum diameter and the original size of the liner
is also noted.
These two figures give the maximum increase in diameter since the last
recording and the total maximum increase in diameter since new. In order to
put these figures into useful form for comparison purposes, they are related
to time, in the form of diameter increase per thousand running hours. This
gives a time wear rate.
The units will be: wear mm/1000 hr or wear inches/I 000 hr depending on the
units of measurement used.
The values obtained are plotted as co-ordinates on a graph with the time in
thousands of hours as the abscissa or base and the wear rate as the ordinate
or vertical.

Fig - DIAGRAM OF LINER CALIBRATION CHART

Assembly and Dismantling -
B. Removal of Cylinder liner
a) Take all aforementioned safety precautions and remove cylinder cover of the
unit whose liner needs to be removed.
b) For liner removal it is necessary to remove the piston and running gears of
the unit. Remove piston together with piston rod gland (in case of a 2stroke
engine).
c) Remove the screws which locate cylinder liner on support ring.
Note – in case of a 2 S engine its required to separate all cylinder lubricating
oil connections from the lubricating quills. Remove all passages for lubricating
quills as well as their protecting bushes before pulling out any cylinder liner.
d) Clean the cylinder liner all over especially the fitting in holes.
e) Prior to mounting of the lifting tool and dismounting from the frame, it must
be ensured that the liner and frame have been marked to match, for the sake
of a possible remounting of the liner,
f) The liner must be jacked off its seating using a hydraulic jack. In the case of
some 4 stroke engines the jacking device is bolted to the crankpin bearing and
the crankpin turned to TDC. The hydraulic pump connected to the jacks is
operated so that the jack locates in the bottom of the liner. The liner is jacked
upwards until the liner moved off its seat.
J) Mount the lifting tool
The liner lifting tool is bolted on to the top of the cylinder liner and hooked up
to the engine room crane. The liner is then carefully removed from the engine.

Fig - MOUNTING THE TOOL FOR CYLINDER LINER REMOVAL 2 DIFFERENT

METHODS
The liner must be initially moved by jacking it from its seating. This is
because if it is stuck on its seating faces it is possible to exceed the s.w.l. of
the lifting equipment. A simple method using a strong back is illustrated
opposite.
Once the liner is moving freely the engine room crane is attached to the
strong back and the liner lifted clear of the engine frame and landed safely
and secured.
Mounting preparations for fitting a cylinder liner
The jacket cooling space around the liner is inspected for overall condition
that can indicate the effectiveness of the cooling water treatment. (Check the
cooling water space for scale.)
The guiding bores in the entablature and O ring seating grooves are to be
cleaned and examined for evidence of corrosion/erosion and the landing face
for the cylinder liner is cleaned and examined; also check the landing faces in
the entablature where the O rings seal for corrosion.
Check that the sealing surfaces on engine frame, cylinder liner, and sealing
rings are perfectly clean. Clean all guide areas and sealing surfaces on
cylinder liner and cylinder jacket as well as on supporting ring.

Mount the lifting tool, attach properly on a

certified lifting device. O-ring grooves should be
made clean.
Try the liner in the entablature without the O rings. Lower the cylinder liner
into the engine frame without O-rings i.e. Test slide the cylinder liner into the
jacket when cleaned. It should slide easily into place. Then remove the liner for
the placement of rings. Any resistance must be investigated before final fitting
with the O rings.
Take up the liner, fit the piston rings, and lower the liner till the first ring
touches the frame.
Here verifies the alignment.
Lubricate the rings outer face by soft soap.
Slowly glide the liner into the piston taking care not to damage the rings.
Then before mounting the cylinder head grinding of the seal face on the
cylinder liner and cylinder head face is essential.

After the new liner has been fitted:

• Gauge the cylinder liner bore and record the readings.
• connect lubricators and check for operation.
Fill the cooling water space up to the top of the liner and check for leaks. (Once
the cylinder head has been fitted and the system filled and pressurized, this
check is repeated.)
 Fig: SCUFFING
Possible Defects -
Scuffing is also known as micro seizure or adhesive wear. Caused by lack of
lubrication, it can lead to wear rates in cylinder liners in excess of
1mm/1000hours (10 -20 times the normal rate). Localised overheating and
welding of microscopic particles takes place which subsequently tear apart,
roughening the surfaces and accelerating the process. When inspecting liner
and piston, it is important to look for evidence of microseizure. It manifests
itself as vertical scoring on the rubbing surfaces.
Cloverleafing: Identified by the excessive wear between the cylinder oil
injections points up the length of the liner. This is caused by corrosive wear.
The cylinder oil gets less neutralising the further away it gets from the injection
points as its alkalinity reserve is used up. The acid deposits causing cold
corrosion and destroying the LO film. Scuffing now occurs, till eventually the
rings will not seal. This leads to blow by, causing overheating and distortion of
rings, and burning of the LO film resulting in more blow by and wear.

CYLINDER LINER HONING (PURPOSE, HONING TEXTURE, ANGLE &

PROCEDURE)
Honing is a well-adapted and widely used cylinder liner surface finishing
process. Honing process produces a precision surface inside surface of a
cylinder liner by scrubbing an abrasive stone against it along a definite path.
Honing is primarily used to improve the geometric & texture of the surface.

Why honing necessary:

The mechanical power loss in the engine accounts for about 16% of the total
energy losses in the engine and half of this loss is caused by friction in the
piston-liner. Oil consumption with unwanted of combustion products such as
HC-, CO-, CO2, NOx  gas and particles emission can be controlled by the liner
surface topography. It also reduce oil slobber.

Honing Angle & Surface Texture:

The honing angle and texture should be such that it will increase cylinder liner
working life. In conventional plateau honing the angle kept straight. Slide
honing can generate more ideal plateau on liner surface. Diagonal honing or
helical honing is more consistent way. 
Helical honing reduce cylinder wear 40% less than conventional plateau
honing.
The honing angle should be above 20°, generally 40° to 50°.

Honing tool:
Honing Machine- The selection of honing machine depends on to the honing
process (vertical or horizontal honing), honing angle, definite depth of honing,
bore diameter, stroke length etc. It should be selected according to the engine
manufacturer recommendation.
Honing stones-Normally diamond abrasive stone used but for smoother liner
surface SiC ceramic honing stone used.

Honing procedure:
-Select honing machine and stones (oil stone) according to engine
manufacturer.
- Install abrasive stones on rotating jaws.
-Install honing machine and adjust reciprocating motion -stroke length,
Stroke per minute, rotating motion- rpm and surface pressure of the rotating
jaws.

- Start honing according to described procedure of the machine.

- Continue the process as long as the desired surface roughness achieved

- After that clean the surface with cleaning brush

The finishing of the cylinder liner surface results in a criss-cross patterned

topography consisting of a series of honing valleys of different density, peak
radii, depths and widths related to selected machining parameters (speed, feed
and surface pressure) along with selection of honing tool composition of grain
size, grain material (diamond or SiC), binding material and grain density.

All types of ship machines and parts get worn out due to continuous usage and
working. Proper maintenance and routine checks are necessary to ensure that
the machines work for a longer time. In this article, we will have a look at
various reasons that lead to cylinder liner wear and how it can be minimized.
Reasons for Cylinder Liner Wear
T1) Due to friction.
2) Due to corrosion.
3) Abrasion
4) Scuffing or Adhesion
Frictional Wear:
Whenever two surfaces slide over each other, friction is produced which leads
to wearing down of both the surfaces. In liner wear, the surfaces are piston
rings sliding over the cylinder liner. The frictional wear depends upon various
factors like speed of movement between the surfaces, material involved, and
temperature, the load on engine, pressure, maintenance, lubrication, and
combustion efficiency.

Corrosion:
The cylinder liner wear due to corrosion is caused due to these reasons:
– Burning of heavy fuel oil in the combustion space:
This happens because heavy fuel oil contains high sulfur content. During
combustion, acids are formed inside the space which should be neutralised by
cylinder oil which is alkaline in nature. The production of acids will be more if
sulfur content is more, leading to the formation of sulphuric acid. Sulphuric
acid is formed due to absorption of the condensate or moisture present inside
the combustion space.
– Lower combustion chamber temperature because of reduced service
load:
As the low load operation of the marine engine is gaining popularity, it also
leads to low temperature in the combustion chamber. If the cylinder oil
quantity is not matched properly with the load, it may lead to corrosion of
liner.
Sulphuric acid corrosion is found more in the lower part of the liner as the
temperature of jacket water is very low. Corrosion due to sulfur will be high
due to the presence of water in fuel and condensate in the air. This wear is
generally seen between the quills. The wear near the quills enlarges and gives a
characteristic of the clover leaf shape to the wear pattern. This phenomenon is
called clover leafing.

Abrasion
This type of cylinder liner wear is due to the hard particles present and formed
during combustion. Catalytic fines in the fuel, the ash formed during the
combustion, metal swarf, dust and accumulated wear particles in the lube oil
cause abrasive wear.
The abrasion wear rate is higher at TDC and BDC of the liner. Once the
abrasive wear hits the surface, due to exposure of metal without protection, it
is highly susceptible to corrosion wear too.

Adhesion or Scuffing
This is a form of local welding between the particles of piston rings and the
liner surface. As the piston is moving inside the liner, the welding which has
occurred breaks and leads to the formation of abrasive material. The abrasive
material will increase the rate of wear of the liner. This is generally caused by
insufficient lubrication due to which a large amount of heat is produced and
microscopic welding of rings and liner surface takes place. Due to this type of
wear the liner loses its properties to adhere cylinder oil to the surface. One
more reason or this phenomenon is polishing of the surface caused by scuffing,
giving liners a mirror finish.

How Can Cylinder Liner Wear be Minimised?

Cylinder wear can be minimised by carrying out the following steps:
1) By avoiding any ingress of water inside the liner by properly treating the fuel
oil.
2) By maintaining the correct grade of cylinder oil.
3) By supplying correct feed rate with load change dependent lubrication
system
4) By avoiding ingress of moisture from the charge air.
5) By maintaining proper jacket water temperature.
6) By supplying good quality purified fuel oil inside the combustion chamber
7) By properly maintaining the fuel injector and fuel system for correct
atomization and injection of fuel inside the chamber
8) By doing regular scavenge port inspection for early detection of piston ring
wear and liner surface wear
How to Calculate Cylinder Liner Wear Rate and Ovality?
For calculating the cylinder liner wear rate, the current reading is compared
with the last taken reading. Suppose, for a liner of 800 mm bore, the position 1
latest reading (for P-S) comes out to be 841.81. The last recorded reading for
position 1 (P-S) is 841.45. Hence the wear for this position in P-S direction is
0.36.
Now the position 1 latest reading (for F-A) comes out to be 841.78. The last
recorded reading for position 1 (F-A) is 841.45. Hence the wear for this position
in F-A direction is 0.33.
To calculate the ovality, the F-A wear rate is deducted from P-S wear rate,
which will be 0.03.
Similarly, cylinder liner wear rate and cylinder liner ovality for all positions are
calculated in a similar manner.

An approximate normal cylinder liner wear rate is about 0.1 mm per 1000
running hours. The wear rate increases if the engine is overloaded. Generally,
the liner has to be replaced when the cylinder liner wear rate is about 0.6-0.8%
of the bore diameter or as per the manufacturer’s recommendation.

LUBRICATION*
3.1 PURPOSE To reduce piston ring friction & wear; Oil film acts as gas seal to
(prevent blow by ) & corrosion inibitor;
3.2 TYPE In large crosshead-type engines – separate cylinder lubrication
system fitted In trunk piston engines – by oil splashing from the crankcase.
3.3 OIL INJECTION Through lubricator quills – timed to inject oil between the
piston rings as they pass.

ASSINGMENT QUESTIONS:
1) Write down the assembly procedure of cylinder liner?
2) Write down the removal procedure of cylinder liner?
3) Draw the cross sectional view of cylinder liner and name all the parts?
4) Explain the defects of a cylinder liner with proper diagrams.

5) How do you measure the wear of a cylinder liner?

6) What do you understand by Honing of a cylinder liner? State why it is

necessary?

7) Write down the procedure for carrying out honing of a liner.

8) How is the cylinder liner wear caused and how can it be minimized?