The impact of maintenance frequency on the service life of internal combustion engines

The service life of thermal engines in transportation and transport-technology machinery determines the efficiency of a wide range of technological operations. Therefore, ensuring high-quality maintenance, considering the operating conditions and intensity of use, is a critical task. This research focuses on analyzing ten years of experience with internal combustion engines in transport divisions of oil and gas production companies. Using the YaMZ-238 engine as an example, it is shown that one of the primary reasons for the reduced mileage before overhaul is untimely maintenance, where the coefficient of variation in maintenance frequency exceeds 0.5. Reducing this value to 0.1 increases the integrated operational reliability and the technical readiness rate of the vehicle fleet by 15 per cent. Consequently, the potential reliability of the engines can be realized through a comprehensive set of measures designed to improve the organization of the maintenance system within the transport divisions of oil and gas production companies.