T&T: Ford Lehman 120 potential casualty

[John Baker]

Rich, something to think about is that while your engine was running there was still some cooling ability of the cooling system to do it's job(although in a limited capacity due to the failure).  Once the engine was shut down, the everything aburptly stops(ie coolant flow) and then the engine overheats and trips the sensor.  Maybe it was just on the edge of the threshold while running and then went over the threshold when all coolant flow was shut off.
   
  I have only had an overheat situation once with a diesel and it was a Volvo in my first sailboat.....it was due to a blockage in the water heater loop and only at running RPMs.  If I backed off to idle, the temp would go down.  
   
  SO a question to the list:
   
  Obviously, in Rich's situation the best thing to do would be to shut down the engine as soon as possible.  But let's say you have a more insidious situation like mine above.  Would it be best to shut down the engine(and all related cooling ability) when the alarm activates or maybe back off the power and if the alarm ceases allow the engine to cool via the engine cooling system(which is obviously compromised but is doing something)?  I have been told(by the attending diesel mechanic in my above scenario) that abruptly shutting down the engine during an overheat may not necessarily be the best thing to do?
   
  Trawler on,
  John


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