Chapter 2—ADMINISTRATION, SUPERVISION, AND TRAINING
It is important to make careful inspections and
tests of equipment and items of machinery that
may cause difficulties during full power opera-
tion, since it is possible that unknown defects or
conditions may go undetected during operation
at fractional powers—the normal operating con-
dition of the ship most of the time.
Before a trial run is made, the main engines
should be inspected to make sure that the power
output of the individual cylinders is equal; this
ensures a balanced, smooth-operating engine, at
maximum speed and power. Equal load distribu-
tion between the individual cylinders depends on
the following factors being as nearly equal as
possible for all cylinders.
1. Compression pressures.
2. Fuel injection timing.
3. Quantity and quality of fuel injected.
4. Firing pressures.
5. Inlet valve timing and lift.
6. Exhaust valve timing and lift.
7. Exhaust gas temperatures.
A common practice among many com-
manding officers, when making full power trials,
is first to bring the ship up to a speed of one or
more knots below the trial run speed of the ship
and then turn the control of the speed (except in
cases of emergency nature) over to the engineer
officer. The control engineroom, under the super-
vision of the engineer officer, brings the speed up
slowly, depending upon the conditions of the
plant, until the specified speed has been reached.
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