5900 Engine Hours on Ten Year-Old Boat

[VirtualVagabond]

Originally Posted by stevensuf

Well when you think of it, id say one thing most charter companies will do religiously is oil and filter changes, they are responsible for maintenance and a new engine is costly.

You're dead right.

If they're one of the bigger mobs, they'll have a routine maintenance schedule that keeps the boats reliable. A charter company loses the moment something goes wrong, and they count on clients having a trouble free experience so they'll come back, and recommend them to everyone they tell about their holiday!

[Brazil]

Just got a quote for a new yanmar 110 hp. $ 12900.00 plus tax, freight and few extras and it goes to almost 15000 . Complete with gear, panel and mounts. This does not includes install.

[nes]

Originally Posted by stevensuf

well the boat is about 30,000 dollars cheaper than its nearest rivals, im sure if push comes to shove if i need to fork out for a new engine ill still be winning, if im lucky on it keeps going even better

being ex charter id say a fair amount of the hours are for motoring , most charters move all the time not staying put like full time cruisers, so i doubt much of the engine hours would have been done for battery charging, looks the oil has been changed very regularly from the history available, might try and get an oil analysis, anyone know offhand anywhere in the uk that does it?

Chartered twice in the BVI. Both times we were directed to run the engine at least an hour every night and every morning at 1500 RPM or more to charge batts and cool fridge. Typically this was no load at anchor. Saw a lot of other charters doing the same thing.

[zeehag]

rebuild is less pricey than replacement.

[Charlie]

Hard to answer the question. $1500 and how long will you get out of the engine another year or two maybe. If I had the money it wouldn't be a question. I would put in a new one and not have to worry about fixing this or that. If I didn't have the money then it wouldn't be a question. I replaced my engine when I bought the boat b/c the previous owner had been lax on maintenance on everything else. I ended up having a few problems with the new engine anyway. I had the money and didn't know if I would in the future.

[zeehag]

when i bought my ericson i didnt know how many hours was on the yanmar in her. i knew the owner had used wrong parts---automotive gasoline filters, and other gasoline use items, as he owned a car repair place. so i had a 600 hour overhaul done and now, 7 yrs later, my yannie is still perfect. it cost me some duckets, but not nearly as much as a new engine and saved me a lot of lost sleep. i whole heartwedly believe in rebuilding engines, especially diesels, which actually DO last forever. even japanese ones..

[stevensuf]

As a little follow up, I actually bought the boat and the engine now has 6900 hours on it, the engine has been flawless , starts immediately and has not missed a beat.

[Wotname]

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by stevensuf

As a little follow up, I actually bought the boat and the engine now has 6900 hours on it, the engine has been flawless , starts immediately and has not missed a beat.

Good for you!

When I bought my boat, the Yanmar 4JH3 HTE had 830 hours on it, put on over 9 years. 3 1/2 years later, it has about 1400.

I've had a fair amount of trouble with it. It smokes heavily and I've had different problems with it (well documented on here). Low engine hours in a boat which is a few years old is not really a good thing. Regular running, intelligent running, and good maintenance are much better.

Our last boat had a Westerbeke 4-108 which spewed oil all over the place, sounded like a Russian tractor, and had over 10,000 hours on the stopped hour meter (stopped since how many years ago?) when we bought her (that boat was a pig to sail so was motored most of the time) and probably 20,000 now, and spews the same amount of oil, no more, as 15 years ago, and runs like a top Had to replace the transmission and v-drive, but never the slightest bit of trouble with the engine in all those years. The oil-spewing behavior means a continuous oil change

I think if you buy a high hour engine you have to thoroughly check those things which might be worn out (compression, injectors, turbo, lift pump, starter, exhaust elbow, heat exchanger, listen for bearing noise, etc.), but if it checks out, it wouldn't bother me. There's nothing good about a very low hour engine which is a few years old.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by stevensuf

As a little follow up, I actually bought the boat and the engine now has 6900 hours on it, the engine has been flawless , starts immediately and has not missed a beat.

You did 1000 hours since September, 2011???

What, did you motor all the way across the Atlantic or something? Wow! I've only done 450 hours or so in 3 1/2 years, and that's around 200 sea days!

[tamicatana]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

You did 1000 hours since September, 2011???

A few months' travel in the US ICW will get that easily

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by stevensuf

As a little follow up, I actually bought the boat and the engine now has 6900 hours on it, the engine has been flawless , starts immediately and has not missed a beat.

Great!

We might pass one another in the Caribbean this year. Good luck with your travels.

Looking back on my earlier post in 2011 I was a tad strident in my wording, but stand behind the the theme.

Mark

[VirtualVagabond]

We've got a 1982 Ford Lehman 120hp that was rebuilt in 2006 according to the PO. But the hour meter wasn't working and his estimate was about 1500 hours, from his logbook.
Bringing the boat from the Cayman Islands to Chesapeak last year we had the clutch in the transmission go, the fresh water pump go, and the oil cooler.
While there are logical reasons for each failure, I got here feeling I had a neglected, unreliable engine.
I got it checked over here by a mechanic who has a Lehman in his own trawler and he gave it an 'A1'... wishes his engine was this sweet...

But I'm rebuilding the wet exhaust and got in touch with American Diesel... essentially Ford Lehman in the USA, and the guy there said in passing that these diesels, if looked after, shouldn't need a rebuild in under 25,000 hours! So should never need a rebuild in the life of a boat.

Point is, we tend to get jittery looking at a boat with 5,000 hours on the engine.
Far more important is how was it looked after.

Vic

[stevensuf]

Dockhead,

We visited the med, if you want to sea much of the med in one season, you MOTOR and lots of motoring!

We covered some 12,000 nautical miles since sept 11, we motor at 1800rpm, normally around 5kn and the hours here and there charging the batteries when the solar is not up to it all add up.

so we've probabaly sailed around 8000nm and either motored or motor sailed the other 4000nm.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

Good grief, did they ever sail?

Get that oil analysis and look for the usual suspect signs...metal particles, carbon where it shouldn't be, sounds of engine "slap" in the drive train.

Everyone who says "don't worry...it'll go 10,000 hours" is correct.

Everyone who says "hell, mate, it could pitch a rod tomorrow" is also correct.

So much depends on whether it was babied, merely properly maintained, or abused. Also, was it ever winterized? Brits don't usually need to lay up engines, but in Scotland, I'm pretty sure it can and does freeze on occasion. Here in Canada, improper winterization is the leading cause of diesel damage after "too few running hours related to 10 minutes at wide open throttle followed by shut down four times a day".

A good friend who delivered yachts for twenty years told me he had learned one thing. He could be delivering a brand new, five million dollar yacht, or a thirty year old worn out cruiser, and experience had taught him that the chances of a major mechanical failure were just about equal.

He also convinced me that older engines with little hours on them were more prone to problems than those with higher hours as disuse was worse than use.