Operations during volcanic ash fall

[Skyhawk13205]

Hello all,
I live in Alaska and there is a good chance that a volcano can erupt and deposit a glass or silica ash around town. Is there any suggestions or experiences here that can help with preventive maintenance and operating?

I have the stock air cleaner with the seperator, I am assuming that should help keep the intake clean, the compressor should also be sorted due the the air cleaner. I may have to remove the brake drums or spray them out after drive cycles and have extra windshield wipers.

thank in advance for the input.

 

[Ronmar]

have a clean place to strip out the filter and clean the filter and housing frequently.. in my experience ash is very easily transferred so pay careful attention to not allowing it to get into the engine feed pipe when you remove the filter. You might even go so far as to start out by cleaning the filter output port, disconnecting the hose and capping the line to the engine while you strip and clean the filter, housing and blow out the particle separator. final wipe out the housing and output port port with a damp cloth before re-assembly and re-connecting the feedpipe.

having the particle separator and the vacuum from the tailpipe venturi puts you a leg up an anyone else under these conditions.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES OPERATE THE WIPERS WITH ASH ON THE GLASS! You will be sorry! When wet, it basically forms grinding paste... dont evet wipe it off wet or dry, use a hose to rinse it off, Get a 2-3 gallon pump-up sprayer to rinse off the window as necessary, especially before you try and use the wipers after it has possibly had ash on it.

Southern WA resident, May 18th 1980...

 

[GeneralDisorder]

My 2008 had a fingertip sized hole rotted through the rubber reducer off the back of the filter housing where it necks down into the intake plumbing. Before any such operation (and really you don't want holes on the engine side of the filter anyway on any truck) I would be inspecting the entire intake system and potentially even smoke testing it under slight pressure just to ensure we aren't sucking in ash through a split in a hose or a poorly fitting connection, etc.

Make sure the particle extractor is functioning.

And all the other stuff Ronmar said.

 

[87cr250r]

Look into Donaldson Power Core air filters. There is nothing close in terms of performance and capacity. They have housing available with turbine separators to drop out the bulk of the dust.

 

[Guyfang]

Everything everyone above wrote, times ten. I sent to Ft. Lewis 2 weeks after the Mt. Saint Helens eruption. One of my Maintenance Contact Teams was very close, and long in the ash "Fallout". Yakama Firing Range.

Even after the fallout stopped, you are far, far away from being in the clear. The dust gets into EVERYTHING. And it will be with you for years. Make sure your air intake system is tight. Change, your air filter, every few days. I had them do it every day, until we could no longer get filters. You can try and blow them out, but we did not have a lot of luck with that. The ash just seemed to still get in the engine. Strangely enough, OLD trucks, with oil bath air filtering systems seemed to work best. After a few weeks you could sell used oil for more than it cost new. Used oil worked just fine. The "turbine" air filter mentioned above worked well also.

You are going to see ash in the fuel and oil systems also. I don't care how careful you are, it will get into everything. Do get yourself GOOD air filter masks. Good ones. None of that cheap crap COVID paper junk. And lots of filters. Screw on are best. Do get lots of eye wash, your eyes will thank you. We washed our eyes in the beginning with normal water, and it worked too. But the crap they sell for contact lenses works better. If you wear contacts, bring along your glasses also. The ash and lenses can cause you problems. Tight fitting goggles if you are in DEEP ash. Do NOT clean eyeglasses with anything other than water. Then after rinsing real good, water and soap. The ash is an incredibly good abrasive. I bought 3 pair of glasses in one year there.

The last thing I will say here is, and I hate to say it. Every piece of equipment we used at Yakama with an engine, had an engine replacement within a year. Every LP in my small collection I took to Washington was trash by the time I got back to Germany 18 months later. If you have lots of DVD's, put them in zip locks, or air tight containers. And do not open them often. Pray for rain. And winds going away from you. You can not keep your house clean. No matter how hard you try. Ft. Lewis was not even in the heavy plume, and you could feel the ash between your teeth. Good luck.

 

[GeneralDisorder]

Oil bath is honestly VERY GOOD under these specific conditions.

Apparently volcanic ash has a lot of microscopic glass shards in it and they cut and rip their way through the paper elements poking tiny holes in them like micro-bullets. Attempting to blow the stuff out will probably just damage the filter even more.

In *overall* testing paper elements are in the 97% to 99% efficiency range while oil-bath filters were ~80-85% efficient.

BUT you can't poke holes in liquids (for long) so if you have an airborne contaminate that is particularly good at destroying paper filter element fibers the 10% hit is better than destroying the engine. And they are cheaper to service (not easier) under these specific conditions. Sadly not common anymore - their size and shape does not lend itself to the large airflow needed by large powerful modern engines. An oil bath element for the LMTV would be a big boy. Could build it ON an M1082 and tow it behind you with a big Snuffleupagus to connect it to the truck........

The large element of the FMTV in combination with the particle extractor should be pretty decent overall. If a foam pre-filter that could be lightly oiled was available I think I would want to try it at least. Those are commonly used in desert conditions.

 

[Ronmar]

Was at lorsta george wa in,2000 and you would still hit the layer of ash anytime you dug. Hope it doesn’t blanket your area too heavily, as it will be with you for a very long time…

 

[TOBASH]

Wear respirator! Not just about the rig. Think about your lungs.

 

[Skyhawk13205]

Thanks for all the advice and experience. I ordered some eyewear for the family and new respirator cartridges, i am also going to stock up on eye wash. I have a spare intake filter, fuel filter and will be getting new oil and water separator filter. I am planning on cleaning out the intake system and running a leak check on it.

Verifying the Venturi separator function may be another task, how would be the best way to test? Would it just involve running the truck and verify suction. My experience with Venturi pumps is that they never seem to have problems besides clogs.

The estimate of the eruptions could be tommorow, the end of the year, or in 10k years so, I might be worrying for nothing, but it still is a good mental exercise to go through.

 

[155mm]

Can you modify your intake to do an oil bath as a prefilter? On our old 60's grain trucks they had oil bath prefilters then an air filter on the carbs, some even had pre prefilter on the tops of oil baths then air filters

 

[Third From Texas]

Volcanoes have never been an issue down here in Texas.

They don't come here.

No virgins to sacrifice...