Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

It has been seen that many construction houses do not pay much heed to the maintenance of their machines. Though heavy equipment are meant for rough uses but that does not mean that they should never be maintained and since it is left unmaintained, it develop complications which then require the help of sound technicians or mechanics who charge good sum of money to get it fixed. One of the major problems of not maintaining the heavy equipment is it losing oil pressure at frequent intervals. Other than this, another major issue is cold weather. Well, nothing much can be done if the weather is really chilled but that does not mean that one has to sit doing nothing. Cold weather does not bring a “no business” tag along with it. There are always ways and means that one can take to avoid a situation where the engine of the heavy equipment is simply not willing to start and you are at the mercy of the ineffectual thing.

We would be taking in details as to why heavy equipment loses pressure and what can be done to fix the problem.

In extreme weather (especially cold weather when the temperature is below 0 degree Celsius), the engine oil gets thickened, due to which it fails to build the oil pressure quickly. Similarly, if the equipment is already in working mode, the pressure may suddenly fall and the engine will stop responding. The thickness of the engine oil may also cause the system to go sidestep resulting to the same problem. Other than the problem of cold chilled weather, improper maintenance of the machine is another issue that can cause to similar issues.

In case, if this problem recurs to happen, then it will have direct impact on the quality of the engine. It may damage the engine that includes engine oil pump, crankshaft bearings and camshaft bearings (tin overlay), bearings of engine timing and many other things. The damage can be to several minute instruments all around that constitutes the engine of the machine.

Solution to the problem

The best possible solution will be to change the engine oil and filter when one experiences this issue. The person can put in multi-viscosity oil like 5W-30 or can even install a low wattage engine oil pan heater that will take care of the problem. There is another way to check if the oil thickness is up to the mark or has that degraded. One can test the oil viscosity by doing a lube oil testing. In the testing, if the lube oil shows that the viscosity is at 40 degree Celsius and 100 degree Celsius then, it indicates that the oil has degraded. The soot loading, oxidation and sulphur will all read as high.

Ideally, the soot loading is one of the major reasons for the increase in thickness in the oil. It also increases the oxidation level in the oil which becomes the reason for the thickness in the oil. Sulphur generation can happen due to not changing the engine oil at regular intervals. If we combine all these problems, it leads to increase in viscosity in the oil and the solution would be to change the engine oil and the filter.