Some listees have asked me what happened.  This was my fault.  Mine are
Perkins 6.354T turbo's.  I adapted K&N cone type air filters to the turbo's
several years back and have never gotten around to changing them.  I would
guess about 400 hrs on the filters.  Sooo before heading south this fall, as
I was going through all my usual pre trip maintenance, I decided to replace
the filters.  The local store did not have K&N brand but they had WIX in a
cone type that had the same mounting base measurement.  So I put them on and
that was that.

Here's what happened:  The last time I checked oil was at Hoppie's.  Not a
drop had been used.  I love those engines.

Our next stop was an anchorage at MM7 (Boston Bar) on the Mississippi.  Next
night was at Kentucky Dam Marina and the night after that Pebble Isle MM96
on the TN.  We stayed at Pebble Isle for a few days and I was in the engine
room a couple of times but never did check the oil again.  I also don't
remember noticing anything unusual about the air filters.  We left Pebble
Isle planning to make Clifton that night.  About 3/4 of the way, while Jane
was at the wheel, alarms started sounding.  We drive from the top and there
are just lights, no gages so within 10 seconds I was below at the helm.  Oil
gauge was reading '0'.  I hit the kill button.  I did not pull back on the
stbd throttle which probably was a fatal mistake because we were running
about 1600 rpm and when I hit the kill button the rpm certainly continued to
pump fuel into the cylinders.

When I got to the engine room, I soon noticed that the stbd air filter was
nearly collapsed into itself.  Upon removing it, oil began dripping from the
intake.  I deduced that the filter had somehow restricted air flow and the
engine began to suck make-up air from the crankcase and began to burn up all
the oil in the crankcase.  You would think that there would have been a
trail of blue smoke but there was not.  I put in 1 1/2 gal of oil - all I
had - still not enough to reach the dipstick but since the engine holds 3
gal, I thought that was enough to at least test start the engine.  I even
had the presence of mind to pull back on the throttle but did not consider
that I had already pumped the hot cylinders full of fuel.

Well, there was probably enough oil in there for a slow speed test start but
when the cylinders are full of hot fuel and you hit the button - - your big
old diesel wants to go straight to the red line until all that fuel in
burned up.  2500 RPM with no load and not a damn thing I could do about it.
I couldn't have taken more than a few seconds to burn off that fuel and get
it shut back down but that, my friends, was the end of my starboard 6.354T.
It didn't come apart and it still runs but one hell of a knock and what
sounds like gravel where bearings should be.  Don't know much more yet but I
know that I trust Randy at Pebble Isle.  If you are still interested, I will
post more as I learn it.

BTW,  I removed and disposed of both air filters even though the port side
seemed find and presented no problems or loss of oil.

This is the first I've written about this since it happened.  I need a
drink!!!

Greg & Jane Bowers
Heart of Gold
www.seaplanetearth.com

And please keep us posted!

Thank you,
Ron Rogers

-----Original Message-----
From: trawlers-and-trawlering-bounces@lists.samurai.com
[mailto:trawlers-and-trawlering-bounces@lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of
Scott H.E. Welch
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 3:05 PM

Thanks for sharing, though. I think I speak for all of us on here when I say
that we learn a great deal from stories such as this one.