Diesel Diagnosis: Diesel Engine Cylinder Sleeve/Liner Pitting - Symptoms and Prevention

I'm sure everyone out there religiously takes oil samples at every change so you'll know if you have a drop of coolant in your oil, right? Yeah, right!

1326881WS CATERPILLAR 3176 PISTON LINER WITH SEALING RINGS NEWSo, here are a couple more likely scenarios: you go to change your oil and find it's turned to milk, or you top off your oil and find goopy snot under the fill cap. Or, worst of all, you park your truck for the night and come out in the morning to find it won't rollover.

What's going on you ask? Well, there's a good chance you developed a pinhole coolant leak in your liner. Sure, there may be something else going on (check out another blog on cylinder liner failures if you're interested), but today's topic is pitted liners. How does this happen, you ask? Why me?

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the Basics OF Cylinder Sleeve/Liner Wear:

  1. Cylinder liners are made of iron.

  2. Iron rusts.

  3. A running diesel engine causes tiny bubbles to form in the coolant around a liner.

  4. When the bubbles pop, they eat away at the soft rust (See figures 1 & 2 below).

  5. Repeat steps 3&4 about a billion times and ta-da! You now have a pin hole.

  6. Coolant leaks through the hole and runs down the inside of the liner into your oil pan. It also can spray into the cylinder and sit on top of the piston.

 

Pitted liner cavitation corrosion  Pitted sleeve, liner corrosion erosion

Figure 1. Pitted liner from cavitation corrosion/erosion                   Figure 2. Imploding vapor bubbles erode the liner

 

The Science Behind Cylinder Liner Leaks

  • Cylinder liners are made of iron (FE).

  • When water, coolant highly diluted by water, or non-diesel grade coolant is used, it causes the liner to turn into ferric oxide or rust

  • When the engine is running, the pistons hit the liner and cause a high-frequency vibration. As the liner vibrates it moves outwards towards the coolant and then back away from it. This causes vapor bubbles to form as the liner moves away. When the liner moves outwards again, it then compresses and implodes these bubbles. The implosion will erode small holes in the liner wall. This process is called Cavitation Corrosion or Erosion.

  • The Cavitation Corrosion / Erosion can be found anywhere that coolant contacts the liner. It is usually found most heavily on the side of the liner that is contacted by the piston during the firing stroke.

  • The high cylinder pressures will keep coolant from entering the cylinder while the engine is running, and may force small amounts of oil into the coolant. When the engine is not running, the coolant pressure will force coolant into the cylinder. The coolant may sit on top of the piston, run down the cylinder wall into the oil reservoir, or both

If this happens to you, it's probably time to consider new liners. Take a look at our selection to find the right cylinder liner for your engine.

Shop All Cylinder Kits

Time Frame and Prevention

There are too many factors to consider to determine how long it may take to erode a liner. I know of cases where it's happened in less than 300,000 miles. Some estimates say it can in less than 500 hours under severe conditions.

A couple of things can help prevent liner pitting. Far and away the best method is to use a diesel-specific coolant that contains a liner protective additive. You can also buy liner protective additive separately and add it to the standard coolant. You may have heard liner protective additive called by a few different names. Supplemental Coolant Additive (SCA) or Diesel Coolant Additive (DCA) are a couple of the more popular.

What SCA or DCA does is coat the liners with a protective coating. This helps to prevent the liner from rusting and it also transforms rust into FE3O5. FE3O5 is very hard compared to soft rust and protects against imploding bubbles. If the concentration of DCA or SCA is correct to the amount of coolant, it will continue to re-coat the liners further preventing pitting. Be careful, however, as too much additive can cause problems such as water pump seals leaks.

Several additive manufacturers offer test strips to help determine the level of additives in a system. They also provide recommendations on maintaining the correct level.

Other preventative measures that can help prevent liners from pitting are:

  1. Plumbing the system to prevent hot spots. The hotter the coolant the easier the formation of vapor bubbles.

  2. Prevent air leaks in the cooling system. The less air in the coolant, the more difficult it is for vapor bubbles to form.

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If you're experiencing liner cavitation, we can help! Request a quote online or call 844-215-3406 to talk with one of our certified techs. We'll help you find the right part for your engine!

 

Diesel Engine Resources

Related Articles:

SIGNS YOUR ENGINE MAY NEED A REBUILD

BROKEN OR CRACKED CYLINDER LINER FLANGE

LINER & PISTON UPDATE FOR ISX ENGINES

COMMON DIESEL ENGINE PROBLEMS

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Originally posted on December 18, 2018, Updated on April 19, 2021