CONSEIL INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL

DES MACHINES A COMBUSTION ON COMBUSTION ENGINES

PAPER NO.: 244

Contamination and consumption of crank case
system oil in slow speed engines
Mr. Urs Mueller, MT Sealing Technology Inc., Switzerland

Abstract: Thousands of dollars are wasted every than ever reliable solutions are of interest.
day through contamination and high consumption of Over the past years new stuffing box designs have
system oil, primarily caused by leaking piston rod stuff- been introduced and several modifications to housings
ing boxes. This allows system oil to escape past the and seals have been realized, but some designs are
seals into the scavenge area and likewise the cylin- still more susceptible to above mentioned problems
der oil and combustion products can enter the engine than others.
sump and pollute the system oil, raising the TBN and An other important factor for malfunctioning of
Viscosity to unacceptable levels. stuffing boxes are worn piston rods.
Cylinder oil and combustion residues carried down Experience has proven that also hardened piston
into the sump are the worst enemy of system oil and rods may suffer from wear and scoring thus influencing
therefore the indication section is an extremely impor- the performance of stuffing boxes in a negative way.
tant part of every stuffing box. This paper discusses causes of contamination and
The problem has already been presented in one of possible solutions to maintain a barrier between the
the papers during 21st CIMAG Congress in 1995 and scavenge space and crank case. Highlighted will be
the conclusion was, that more attention needs to be advantages and disadvantages of different stuffing box
paid to the design of stuffing boxes in order to improve designs and materials of scrapers and seal rings.
the sealing efficiency. However the price for oil has Case histories are presented showing damaged
gone up drastically since that time and therefore more rods and methods of repair or “touching up” on board.

c
CIMAC Congress 2007, Vienna
 STUFFING BOX DESIGN CRITERIA
INTRODUCTION Stuffing boxes are designed, amongst other things,
to minimise loss of crank case oil but slight leakage
Stuffing boxes have always been a key component needs to occur to lubricate the metallic scrapers and
for the successful operation of a 2-stroke slow seal rings.
speed diesel engine. Their perfect operation is
decisive for safety! Unfortunately it is extremely difficult to control
leakage and to keep it at an acceptable level. As the
Failures of stuffing boxes are very costly to rectify seals wear and become less efficient, the leak rate
and can lead to high consumption and will increase drastically.
contamination of system oil.
Important criterias of stuffing boxes:
New stuffing box problems arose with the new
generation of long-stroke engines with the higher 1) Prevent scavenge air pressure from leaking into
stroke-to-bore ratios and increased scavenge air the crank case.
pressure. This combination places higher demands
on the stuffing box/piston rod interface which must 2) Prevent ingress of cylinder oil along with any
achieve a better seal to prevent system oil debris into the crank case.
contamination and excessive oil consumption.
3) Ensure system oil drain to return to the crank
Higher scavenge pressure creates higher pressure case.
on seal rings resulting in higher friction and wear on
piston rods. Therefore great attention has to be paid 4) Create an efficient barrier between the piston
to materials for scrapers and seal rings. If crank under side (scavenge space) and the crank
case system oil is contaminated with cylinder oil case.
then viscosity and base number increase and levels
of insolubles rise. The consequences of such 5) Ensure unhindered flow of high BN stuffing box
contamination can be very damaging to the engine. drain oil into the drain line / neutral space.

To fulfill above criteria, the housing must contain

three sections, such as:

Sealing section
(upper part)

Drain section
Figure 1 – Contaminated stuffing box

Nick Chell of Lloyd’s Register highlighted the High BN

problem in a CIMAC paper some time ago. Case Scraping Drain oil
histories showed base numbers increasing by 380% section
and viscosity rising up by 85%, resulting in slower oil (l t)
flow after only 8’000 hours [1]. Slower oil flow
through the bearings rises the possibility of bearing
damage. Also alkaline detergents additives from
cylinder oil can lead to deposits in the form of Figure 3 – Stuffing box housing
lacquer on the bearings.
The drain section (indication section) is a very
important part for proper functioning and great
attention has to be paid to its design.

All drain holes have to be correctly placed for an

unhindered flow of dirty drain oil into the stuffing box
drain (neutral space). Furthermore correct seals
must be chosen to create an efficient barrier
Figure 2 – Damaged bearing between the crank case and the piston underside.

© CIMAC Congress 2007, Vienna Paper No. 244 2

However there are different solutions for achieving RING TYPES AND RING MATERIALS
these demands. A reliable and efficient one is the
installation of single piece combined scrapers and Ring types
seal rings made of self lubricating materials (e.g.
polymer), containing gas tight ring joints. There is a great variety of metal seals and scrapers
being offered. All these seals may show a good
Single piece rings have been tested by a major performance on new or machined piston rods but
engine builder. They are flexible, easy to install and worn areas can not be sealed properly nor is system
highly efficient, preventing ingress of cylinder oil and oil wiped off properly.
debris into the crank case.
Synthetic seal rings however overcome these
Following you will find three traditional stuffing boxes problems due to their flexibility. A new design of oil
showing the conversion to polymer seals without scraper in 5 segments, consisting of a metal body
any modifications to the housing. and an insert made of polymer has proven to
perform much more efficient, even on worn rods.
sealing section

It is evident that effective stuffing box seals reduce

Upper part
sealing section

contamination, consumption and piston rod wear

Upper part

and result in better oil quality and more efficient

engines.

Drain While engine manufacturers are making major

Drain section changes to engine technology, other companies
section have turned their attention to improving the internal
High BN workings of engines by using different materials and
scraping section

High BN
scraping section

drain oil ring geometries.

Lower part

drain oil
Lower part

One of them is MT Sealing Technology a specialist

Swiss seal designer and manufacturer who, after a
long research and development program became
the first and so far only company to receive the
Lloyd’s Register Type Approval for non metallic
stuffing box sealing systems for use on piston rods
in slow speed diesel engines.
sealing section

Above mentioned polymer seals were born out of

Upper part

compressor sealing technology which has used

engineering plastics for non lubricated reciprocating
compressors up to 250 bar for more than 20 years.

Drain
section pressure breaker
seal ring
High BN
piston ring
scraping section

drain oil rod packing

Lower part

guide ring oil scraper

piston rod

Figure 4 – The 3 sections of stuffing boxes

Figure 5 – Oil free gas compressor running with high

performance polymer seals

© CIMAC Congress 2007, Vienna Paper No. 244 3

Also in compressor applications there is a great Oil scrapers
variety of seal rings being offered. However, number
and type of ring joints are an important issue for Some years ago, a modern advanced oil scraper in
reliable seals and even more attention has to be five segments has been designed to improve
paid to seals running on worn engine piston rods scraping performance also on worn rods. It contains
due to differences in diameter. Most of the a so called metal retainer (non consumable) and a
traditional metal sealing elements are made in 3 / 4 polymer scraper insert (consumable part).
/ 6 / 8 segments while scrapers are offered in 2 / 3 or Experience over the past seven years has proven
4 segments. that the efficiency of 5 segments is much higher than
3 or 4 segments.
Following a selection of typical multiple segmented
stuffing box seals manufactured of metal or polymer Metal body
materials are being shown. Compared to multiple
segmented seals, single piece polymer seals are
flexible, efficient and easy to install.

Metal or polymer Metal or polymer Polymer insert

Metal or polymer

Figure 8 – Advanced oil scraper in 5 segments (pat.

pending)

Oil scrapers in 5 segments can follow the shape of a

worn area much better and faster, resulting in lower
Butt joint Tangental cut Bridge ring oil consumption.
in 3 or 4 pc in 3 or 4 pc in 6 or 8 pc
worn areas
Metal or polymer Polymer only

Figure 9 – Typical wear pattern of piston rods

Traditional metal scraper Advanced polymer

Gas tight seal Gastight seal Simple installation of in 3 segments scraper, in 5-pieces
in 8-pc! single piece single-pc seals
High
Figure 6 – Typical stuffing box seals leakage

Gastight Seal rings, single piece worn area of

worn area of
a piston rod a piston rod
Figure 7 shows a combined, single piece scraper
and seal ring with a gas tight ring joint, which is also
recommended for the use on worn rods. This type of
seal is flexible and creates an efficient barrier
between the scavenge space and crank case.
drain grooves Figure 10 – Performance of traditional metal scraper
versus advanced polymer scraper

Ring materials (synthetic option)

gas tight joint

Some 20 years ago so called “Teflon” scrapers and

seal rings for stuffing boxes have been used by an
flat underside engine builder but this was unsuccessful due to
various reasons, prompting a return to metal.
Figure 7 – Flexible single piece scraper and seal
ring

© CIMAC Congress 2007, Vienna Paper No. 244 4

In these days, modern materials, containing solid Teflon®: Trade mark of Du Pont, USA
lubricants are replacing the more traditional metals PTFE: Polytetrafluorethylene
for all kind of sealing applications because of PPS: Polyphenylene sulfide
following great advantages: PEEK: Polyetheretherketone

- No lubrication required. An important positive feature of above materials is,

- High strength and load carrying ability. that foreign particles can embed themselves in the
- Low coefficient of friction. plastic material and therefore create less damage to
- Good dimensional stability. the counter surface.
- Long life.
Ring design criterias
Material properties
All sealing elements preferably used today are
Solid lubricant fillers produce an impressive influenced significantly by pressure, not only in
spectrum of mechanical and tribological properties, terms of physical properties, but also the tribological
which combines outstanding performance with characteristics comprising friction and wear.
considerable design freedom.
The basic question arising during the design of a
Polymeric reinforced PTFE’s [2] exhibit low wear piston rod sealing system is whether or not to use
rates even in non lubricated applications! Depending selflubricating plastic materials. At the same time an
on the fillers which have been added, many of these attempt has to be made to minimize friction power
materials are non abrasive and recommended by optimising sealing element design.
against soft mating surfaces.
A key parameter in this context is the sealing
The addition of MOS2 increases hardness, whilst elements axial width, whose reduction results in a
lowering wear rate and coefficient of friction. corresponding decrease in friction power without
any notable decrease in sealing efficiency.
Bronze filled PTFE has a good creeping resistance
and excellent bearing properties. The bronze Seal rings installed in the upper part of a stuffing
content increases thermal conductivity, which in turn box are pressure actuated and not only spring
allows higher running velocities. loaded as scrapers are. The radial load, depending
on the rod diameter, can reach 500 kg or more.
With PEEK [3] as the base resin, mechanical
properties are retained even in the range of 260°C / Contact seals versus labyrinth seals
550°F operating temperature, making them obvious
candidates for high temperature applications. Labyrinth seals are used in compressor applications
Bearing grade materials are obtained by for discharge pressures up to 300 bar.
compounding carbon, carbon fibres, graphite, PTFE
and so on, with PEEK. The labyrinth system is created by multiple tiny
throttling points and the axial width of the seal rings
Table 1 - PTFE blends (Teflon®) and special blends is up to 40 mm. They are selfcentering but
frictionless.
Pure Carbon Fibres
PEEK
Fillers: Carbon Fibres / PTFE / Graphite / proprietary fillers
Piston

Liner

Special Polymer Blends

Fillers: PEEK / PPS / Polyimide + proprietary fillers and so on Piston rod

Polymer Blends
Fillers: PEEK / PPS / Polyimide / Carbon Fibres and so on Clearance
\0.10 mm
Special PTFE Blends
Fillers: Polyimide / Carbon Fibers, MOS2 and so on
Labyrinth seal
Standard PTFE Grades Labyrinth seals, frictionless

Fillers: Bronze / Carbon / Glass Fibers / Graphite / Ceramic and

so on Figure 11 - Labyrinth seals
Virgin PTFE (Teflon®) of white colour

© CIMAC Congress 2007, Vienna Paper No. 244 5

 Contact seals are also used for high pressures, but
are also offered in pressure balanced versions.

Pa Pi Pa Pi

Rod seal, Rod seal,

standard pressure balanced

Figure 12 – Rod seals Bronze

FA Rod ø: 300 mm
Rad ring thickn: 20 mm
Ax. ring width: 20 mm
FR Scavenge pressure: 2,5 bar
FR’
FA: 502 kg
FR: 530 kg
Coefficient of friction:
FA’ Steel – steel, lubr.: \0.30
Steel-PTFE, lubr.: \0.09

Figure 13 – Ring contact pressure Polymer (e.g. PTFE/PEEK)

Figure 14 - Embedded particles in bronze and

polymer [5] matrixes.

EMBEDDED PARTICLES
Traditional solutions sometimes overlook the PISTON ROD WEAR
harshness of the environment in which they operate
and the overall design of the stuffing box in many Piston rods are subject to wear but worn rods can
cases gives relatively easy access to the increase operational costs drastically.
surrounding contaminants.
Engine makers recommend hardened rods, but
Some time ago seal rings made of bronze and metallic seals in stuffing boxes are still a major
plastic have been analysed for embedded particles. contributor to piston rod wear sometimes even for
The results show clearly that in both, metal and hardened rods.
plastic contact surfaces particles can be found, but
Metal seals, e.g. bronze or cast iron, perform well on
the behaviour of these particles is different.
new rods without creating high friction if suitable
While materials with harder matrixes are suffering material quality is being used and if the seals are
from such particles, softer polymers are able to sufficiently lubricated. Low quality bronze or cast
embed the particles in a matrix containing solid iron may contain different kind of scrap, which can
lubricants, resulting in less damage to the counter lead to hard spots in the material. Seals made of
surface. such materials running on piston rods in
combination with marginal or even intermittent
lubrication can lead to excessive wear.

© CIMAC Congress 2007, Vienna Paper No. 244 6

 Work done certificates of piston rod reconditioning:

Figure 15 - Excessive wear on hardened rods,

caused by metal seals

PISTON ROD RECONDITIONING

Worn piston rods in many cases are machined to
undersize or reconditioned by metal spray or
welding, but some engine builders do not
recommend reconditioning any longer.
Unacceptable low quality Work done certificate
However, great attention has to be paid to the coating and grinding showing correct surface
surface finish to be exactly as specified by engine finish as recommended
by engine builder
builders, e.g. Ra 0.4 om (N5) or better.

Such a surface quality can only be achieved by Figure 16 – Piston rod reconditioning
using correct technology and equipment as well as a
correct grinding process, including grinding wheel, Figures 17 + 18 show a macroscopic view of above
forward speed and so on. low quality piston rod surface condition [6].

Experience has proven that not every machine shop

is capable to grant such a quality and jobs
sometimes ending in surface finish of Ra 0,8 om
(N6) to Ra 1.6 om (N7) or rougher.

A rise in the counter surface roughness notably

increases the wear rate of any sealing element,
assuming exponential proportions in the worst case.
Consequently correct surface finish from the friction
surface decisively influences the operation
conditions and especially the service life of piston
rod sealing systems!

Therefore it is recommended to specify the surface

finish and to ask the work shop to issue a work done
certificate.
Figure 17 – Macroscopic view of the running surface
of a piston rod [6]

© CIMAC Congress 2007, Vienna Paper No. 244 7

 One of the options to reduce drain oil, was the
modification and de-activation of the drain section
with a modified position for the drain holes.

A solution with de-activated drain sections may

perform well in certain cases but as the longstroke
engines work at higher scavenge pressure, used
cylinder oil and dirt may be getting blown directly
into the crank case in the case of a failure of the seal
rings in the upper groove.

Experience has prooven that re-activating drain

sections and installing a gas tight seal as shown
below, can achieve big reductions in system oil
contamination.

Figure 18 – Surface of above piston rod (SEM Drain section Drain section
micrograph of replica taken from the running surface de-activated re-activated
showing break-out of spray particles and formation
of sharp edges (arrows) [6]

“ZERO LEAKAGE” STUFFING BOXES

Efficient stuffing boxes must have a proper drain Drain holes
section to allow drain oil to flow unhindered into the too high up New drain holes
drain line or to allow to monitor any malfunctioning of correctly located
the seals and take measures to correct the situation. vertical holes plugged

Ingress of drain oil Flow of high BN drain

Cylinder oil drainings may contain new or used
into crank case oil into the neutral
cylinder oil, oxidised oil, combustion products,
space/drain line
unburnt fuel and wear debris.

Cylinder oils are required to perform a different duty

to the crank case oil and as such are formulated Figure 19 - Drain section
with a different additive package. Therefore cylinder
oil leaking past the piston rod gland into the crank
case has to be rectified as soon as possible.
Following a comparison between traditional scrapers
The engine builders over the years have tried to versus special seals is being shown.
optimise the stuffing box performance and the goal
for some engineers must have been the zero gas tight
drain grooves
leakage stuffing box.

Low leak rates can easily be achieved with rotary

equipment and zero leakage with static seals like O-
Rings, gaskets and so on. However applications flat underside
such as reciprocating movements, e.g. engine butt joints
piston rods with high piston velocity of up to 13 Traditional scraper Combined, single
m/sec., worn rods, dirt and sometimes excessive in 3 segments piece scraper /
piston/cylinder clearance, is much more demanding. with butt joints sealring, gas tight

Different solutions have been designed to reduce Figure 20 - Traditional scrapers versus polymer
leakage into the drain line and some have worked scrapers/seal rings
out more successful than others.

© CIMAC Congress 2007, Vienna Paper No. 244 8

 CASE HISTORIES CONCLUSION
All below mentioned engines were experiencing high Numberless shipping companies have been
system oil consumption by using original metal suffering with stuffing box problems for many years.
seals. In order to overcome these problems, oil Over the years these problems have almost become
scrapers in 5 segments were being installed on considered as part of the normal cycle of the engine
existing, worn piston rods, without any modification but in fact engines suffering from high piston rod
to the stuffing boxes. Following table shows some of wear and excessive oil contamination are not
the results. necessary and certainly not normal at all!

Table 2 – Reduction of daily lube oil consumption of On the other hand an increasing number of owners/
older engines after installing oil scrapers in 5 operators have been using modern polymer sealing
segments as per customer information components in their stuffing boxes for many years.

Lube oil consumption / The author feels that engine builders should leave
24 hrs All piston the decision to owners/operators whether or not to
Engine type rods are of use non metallic seals, because in his opinion
Original Polymer mild steel
metal seals scrapers polymer seals have proven to offer some very real
benefits and at the same time solving some
B&W extremely common problems.
\1000 lt \100 – 150 lt worn
8K90GF
B&W worn up to 1
\150 lt \50 lt
5L67GFCA mm
6RTA58 \360 lt \120 lt high wear REFERENCES
6L45GFCA \120 lt \30 – 36 lt high wear
[1] N.E. CHELL, C.Eng, R.I.Mar.E., Loyds Register
6RTA62 \300 lt \40 lt high wear “Contamination of crank case system oils with
6L67GBL \240 lt \20 / 24 lt high wear cylinder oil drainings and combustion products
5RTA68 \180 lt \20 lt
on long stroke crosshead engines”, CIMAC
1995
wear up to
7RTA76 \230 lt \35 lt
1.9 mm [2] ICI ADVANCED MATERIALS, USA, ”Physical
7RTA84C \300 lt \50 lt
extremely properties of unfilled and filled polytetrafluor-
high ovality ethylene”.
RTA48T \500 lt \70 lt worn
[3] ICI ADVANCED MATERIALS, USA, “Product
Data”.
OIL CONTAMINATION [4] Dr. Ing. N. FEISTEL, Burckhardt Compression,
“Betriebsverhalten von trockenlaufenden Dicht-
Figure 21 shows a typical example of crank case oil systemen“ (2002).
suffering from high contamination due to leakage of
high BN oil through the stuffing boxes. All piston [5] Dr. G. DOERNER, Sulzer Innotec, “Energie-
rods showed relatively high wear. After installing dispersive Röntgenanalyse REM/EDX
flexible polymer seal rings and scrapers in 5 Segmente von Bronze und Kunststoff-
segments the oil quality improved drastically and the dichtungen“ (2004).
oil consumption dropped to an acceptable level.
[6] Dr. P. HEIMGARTNER, Sulzer Innotec,
Schaden- & Werkstoffanalytik, Technical report:
“Assessment of the surface of coated piston
rods” (2007).

With traditional With polymer

scrapers/seal rings scrapers/seal rings

Figure 21 – Difference of oil quality between

traditional scrapers and seal rings, versus polymer
scrapers/seal rings

© CIMAC Congress 2007, Vienna Paper No. 244 9