Any Opinion on Chinese Engines TD226B-4C3

[col blumson]

I am contemplating getting an engine direct from china. In particular the Deutz Model TD226B-4C3. Any thoughts?
That is the first question then the second is if I run a higher HP engine at lowere revs do I achieve less viberation, noise and do I save on fuel?
Currently i have a ford lees 80 Hp which when running at 2000 RPM I get maxium spead. Thus if I run a 90 or 100 HP through a slower gear box do I get the above??
Sill old Col

[captain58sailin]

I don't have an opinion about the chinese motor, I have no experience with them. If you were to run a higher hp engine, with the same transmission gearing, in theory you could run a larger propeller for a higher vessel speed at a lower rpm. Usually the vibration has to do with alignment between your propeller shaft and transmission, the type of engine mounts, how well the engine is balanced, and is your propeller undamaged and your propeller shaft is it straight? I have run several Ford Lehman engines and the ones I have experience with ran very smooth and were quite easy on the fuel.

[NCboatrx]

Be very careful. Not all engines meet the EPA tier 4 requirements and if you bring an engine into the US without the proper certification, you may find that you cant get your engine out of customs.

[Celestialsailor]

I guess you could look at Chinese products as a whole and make a relatively good decision. If the thing went bad on you, there would not be much recourse that could be done.

[tropicalescape]

Dont know about the one you mention,but I bought 5 chinese engines for R&D work and I find that they are very good when they run ,the problem was that they wouldnt run long and when you go inside they never run right again...the TBO was stated at 1000hr. the longest any one ran was 226 hrs, then when rebuilt it was way out of tolarance(unequel wear)..IMO they build junk and sell it cheap..they use metals that should not be where they put them and the quilty of the metals is not formulated correct..you will not get any help from the factory as they are several hands down the line from the suppliers .I was told I was dealing with the factory when we bought them then when I tried to talk to some one all of a sudden they couldnt talk english...you take your chances dealing with them ...good luck DVC

[MarkSF]

I think that key to a reliable and durable engine are a couple of things : quality control incl. fine control of tolerances, & good metallurgy. These are both things that Chinese manufacturing companies are not good at.

Give them another 20 years and I'm sure they'll have it licked, but right now? You'd be better off with a good used western-made engine for the same money.

[David M]

Just make sure you get a bullet proof warranty and don't expect it to last much past the warranty period. As others are saying, it's probably worth sticking to the tried and true, with any cost savings not being worth the increased chance of an engine failure.

I agree that Chinese metallurgy in it's present state is still very poor compared to the rest of the industrialized world. I don't know if it is because they don't have the technology or they are making metal parts as cheaply as possible and therefore cutting corners, but either way, the quality is not there.

[MarkSF]

I said Western-made but should have included Japan. The Japanese-made diesels are superb.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

I guess you could look at Chinese products as a whole and make a relatively good decision. If the thing went bad on you, there would not be much recourse that could be done.

Yeah , like your Ipad!
I think there have been a couple of Chinese diesels imported in the past. The names evade me now, but they were pretty darn good. Was Pisces one of them? and the diesel box van delivery trucks that were all over for a while seemed to go forever.... As mentioned though.... the brands seem to come and go....

[SKI]

As I sit in my office of my own american manufacturing company I will say you get what you pay for period. The junk you typically get from over there is cheaper up front yes but after you buy it twice cause the first one didn't last you aren't any further ahead without even figuring in the hassle involved re-doing it again. Just my opinion.

[Astrid]

To a very real degree, the Chinese philosophy is that in the long run it is cheaper, because of the low pay scales of factory workers, to replace a worn or damaged engine than it would be to rebuild one.

[beneteau-500]

these engines are widely used and the first models that came out where air cooled you now find them in large mining equipment and farm tractors etc and you find them now in a lot of light commercial 7 ton trucks (hino models) etc they are generally very reliable my father has two early model engines on his farm running emergency gensets which have been running now for 14yrs and on average clocking up about 600/700 hrs a yr with no probs

[Cheechako]

Are you buying it through an american sales outlet or what? The reality for Chinese made goods is how well the company specifies their quality needs. For instance... compare the quality of a Ta Shing built boat like a Baba or older Passport, to a CT/Leaky Teaky. It takes a lot of effort to make the chinese company understand what your expectation is. My understanding is that companies like Apple have very high quality expectations and work with their makers to make sure it happens. At least they havent made a Corvair, Pinto or Vega yet!
My nephew had a large excavator that was a Deutz... same company? I thought his was German... at any rate it "wern't no Caterpillar" but worked. Japan offloaded a lot of their production to China many years ago...

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Yeah , like your Ipad!

Yes...of which two have died so far...
Pisces diesels were Japanese.

[sneuman]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Yeah , like your Ipad!
I think there have been a couple of Chinese diesels imported in the past. The names evade me now, but they were pretty darn good. Was Pisces one of them? and the diesel box van delivery trucks that were all over for a while seemed to go forever.... As mentioned though.... the brands seem to come and go....

Pisces is the marinized version of an Isuzu 4-cyl. diesel forklift engine. It is therefore Japanese not Chinese in origin.