Diesel engine life expectancy

[powsmias]

While we're on it could use some help please on engine. i bought a boat with a new engine but hasn't been fired up in aobut 7 yrs +/- . yard owner says " just change the oil and fuel and that will start right up". guessin he's the one that winterized it and he seemed pretty confident by his tone, but i wonder.. thoughts?

gonna get working on it next month and hopin to get outta here forever.

[hamburking]

My 1974 Pearson 30 has a 1985 Volvo Penta 2002. Thats 30 years old. No hour meter, but 50 hours per year sounds about right. I've owned it 3 seasons and it actually runs better now than when I got it, I think cause I've run a few tanks of fuel through it. Its starts on the first turn, within like a second of cranking. It burns no oil, and has no leaks. Online this engine gets terrible reviews. I rev up slowly, and rarely exceed 2000 rpm. I think this engine will last longer than I will.

[skipgundlach]

Our 4-154 sat in the yard for nearly 3 years before we attempted a startup.

No mucking with the fuel or anything else, it fired right up...

[clyde]

like some, i have been around engines for a long time, being involved in the family garbage business for 40 yrs, and commercial fish boats for 15 yrs, plus have had boats for the last 40+ yrs...got involved with the 'frantz' toilet paper oil/fuel filters back in 1960! they filter down to 1/1.5 microns, on our present boat, i put 'gulf coast' oil and fuel filters 'gcf.com', they also filter down to 1/1.5 microns...use a 6" bounty paper towell! charlie, the guy that started the gulf coast filter company, told me he bought his wife a new 1966 buick, put his filters on it, did the oil sample checks, and before he passed away in the early 2000`s, he told me it was still running, and had`nt changed oil yet!! we put around 300/350 hrs every yr, going to alaska, or just up into central bc. i always send a sample in when i change oil...the normal screw on oil filter is between 28, and 32 microns, most of the damage/wear is done when the oil molicules stick together, and get up to the 5 micron size, or larger! they get into the bearings, rings, etc, and cause the major wear over time! i buy exxon/mobil oil, because they sell me oil that is best for our older engines...our volvo non turbo 70B has about 9500 hrs...other oils i would buy, are texaco ursa, and valvoline all fleet. delo used to have really strong detergent, and there was a problem with gaskets going away! the best multi-grade in my opinoin is 10/30, i use #30 in everything! delo now has a 10/30 oil too! maintenance is the name of the game!...NEVER run a diesel without a load! only a few minutes to get oil circulated, look for leaks/problems...water in/out working, etc...i never leave the dock, and hit the throttle, always go up gradually to my cruising rpm`s, and slow down the same way, to let the motor cool down. there`s a website that`s interesting...'bob is the oil guy', or just 'bob the oil guy' some interesting reading on his 'oil university'...clyde

[TomLewis]

My 1979 Pearson 26 annapolis was converted to diesel for the annapolis sailing school. It is an 8 horse Yanmar 'one-lunger'. Don't know the hours but still running strong. I am the 4th owner and have had her for 12 yrs. I did rebuild the alternator and starter, but other than that, change oil and put in fuel. That's it.

[kas_1611]

In all practicality there is no way of telling when any kind of engine will fire it's last. When there are so many moving parts, all being expected to work under extremes of heat and pressure and at high revolutions anything can and probably will happen.

I know of a petrol engine that has done 200,000 miles, mostly around town with some longer motorway journeys and diesel engines that have clocked over 1,000,000 miles but then I have also seen a petrol blow up after only a couple of thousand and a spectacular diesel explosion when the driver accidentally put it in 1st at 50mph!!!

Taking your 8000hrs and assuming most have been at cruising revs we can safely estimate they have done the equivalent of 480,000 miles (assumes 60mph cruising speed in a light goods vehicle). As long as they have been serviced and maintained regularly there is no technical reason why you can't get another 8000hrs out of them.

Possibly the biggest issue will be corrosion if these are raw water cooled units but if they are freshwater cooled and the correct corrosion inhibitors/antifreeze have been used in the correct concentrations then that should not be an issue. As diesels are big, heavy lumps of solid cast iron there's not much that damage the block. It is more likely that something rotating gives, such as big end bearings, that will kill the engine.

Keiron

[powsmias]

Originally Posted by clyde

like some, i have been around engines for a long time, being involved in the family garbage business for 40 yrs, and commercial fish boats for 15 yrs, plus have had boats for the last 40+ yrs...got involved with the 'frantz' toilet paper oil/fuel filters back in 1960! they filter down to 1/1.5 microns, on our present boat, i put 'gulf coast' oil and fuel filters 'gcf.com', they also filter down to 1/1.5 microns...use a 6" bounty paper towell! charlie, the guy that started the gulf coast filter company, told me he bought his wife a new 1966 buick, put his filters on it, did the oil sample checks, and before he passed away in the early 2000`s, he told me it was still running, and had`nt changed oil yet!! we put around 300/350 hrs every yr, going to alaska, or just up into central bc. i always send a sample in when i change oil...the normal screw on oil filter is between 28, and 32 microns, most of the damage/wear is done when the oil molicules stick together, and get up to the 5 micron size, or larger! they get into the bearings, rings, etc, and cause the major wear over time! i buy exxon/mobil oil, because they sell me oil that is best for our older engines...our volvo non turbo 70B has about 9500 hrs...other oils i would buy, are texaco ursa, and valvoline all fleet. delo used to have really strong detergent, and there was a problem with gaskets going away! the best multi-grade in my opinoin is 10/30, i use #30 in everything! delo now has a 10/30 oil too! maintenance is the name of the game!...NEVER run a diesel without a load! only a few minutes to get oil circulated, look for leaks/problems...water in/out working, etc...i never leave the dock, and hit the throttle, always go up gradually to my cruising rpm`s, and slow down the same way, to let the motor cool down. there`s a website that`s interesting...'bob is the oil guy', or just 'bob the oil guy' some interesting reading on his 'oil university'...clyde

found him, thanx

- Bob is the Oil Guy - Bob is the Oil Guy

[boatman61]

I'd wait till one of them goes.. if I'm motoring/motor sailing I only use one engine at a time and switching every 8hrs to keeps the hours balanced.
I'd not sweat it.. just replace the blown one then truck on

[bsurvey]

you'll be on your fourth sail drive before those engines will need an overhaul

[barnakiel]

I have seen old heavy diesels go for ever (100 years old if possible)

I have seen old style cast iron block diesels go well beyond 40 years.

I have seen newer alloy higher revved diesels go pop at 6 to 10 years.

I would expect 10+ years from any modern diesel that is well maintained.

If very high hour'age, you can still get far, just rebuild in time. (Except a rebuild may cost so much that a new engine is 'cheaper').

b.

[jdazey]

I would expect 20K-30K before overhaul out of my engines, main and auxiliary. Oil changes every 250-300 hours with Delo 400 synthetic. I spend far too much time basically idling (12 - 16 hours /day), but a half hour or so running into and out of achorages, gets the temp up and blows out most of the carbon.

Sail drives sound like the weak link, so I'm looking for a boat without them.

Joe

[Nicholson58]

We have the original Westerbeke 115 HP 6-cyl (1983). I have no idea how many hours. End of last season we lost the HP injector pump. The short story is fine dirt got past the Racor and prevented the first stage vane pump booster from operating. 500 bucks for the re-build.

You may not know but - Racor has a bypass relief check built in. This lets fuel bypass you filter if the pressure drop exceeds the spring tension. Once the element is dirty, the filter bypasses fuel straight around the filter.

After much research, I found that most commercial diesel operators (ferry boats & fishing vessels) and many over the road & other truckers use a fuel polishing system and also a crankcase polishing system. These are bypass filters installed in addition to the standard filter system. Look them up and follow some of the trucker blog entries. I bought ours from FRANZ. Installing this spring. I will now polish my fuel and engine oil to 1 micron. The truckers say they run 100,000 miles between oil changes and the oil is so clean that it is difficult to see the line on the dip stick.

Hope this helps

Frantz Filters, LLC. Official Website FRANZ

I found this article educational. Captn Wil's Fuel Polishing System: Trawlers & Trawlering How To


Gulf Coast Filters is another
Mr. Preti’s Trawler

[AlwaysFORSAIL]

Don't fix what ain't broke. I have seen more Mr. Fixits fixing engine problems than those who give their engines a workout. Yanmar told me that they take engines off their assembly line strap them to a test bench and run them 15,000 hours. After which they take them apart and see what is wearing/broke, if anything. A few mechanics have told me that engines go bad from the inside out meaning that idle engines take age worse than 'exercised' engines. Manufacturers have spent a lot of time making their engines durable and reliable, it pays to heed their maintenance advice in the manual. Your backyard mechanic's advice might not be the best including mine.

[jdazey]

Perhaps we're getting a little thread drift here but...

On my boat with a 220hp continuous diesel, I use two Dahl 200 filters in parallel with 2 micron elements. When the motor starts to bog down or when the diesel stove goes out, I switch to the other filter. I don't see many yachts with parallel filters.

Joe

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by jdazey

Perhaps we're getting a little thread drift here but...

On my boat with a 220hp continuous diesel, I use two Dahl 200 filters in parallel with 2 micron elements. When the motor starts to bog down or when the diesel stove goes out, I switch to the other filter. I don't see many yachts with parallel filters.

Joe

You mean like this?

I really suggest you read the links I posted above. We build durability and mileage accumulating dynos for engines, transmissions and whole vehicles. There is a huge difference between continuous hours in a test lab on clean fuel than in your vessel intermittently over 15 years with dirty wet fuel. Captain Will's article explains the differences in very practical terms. We routinely do the worst possible things to a diesel as sailors. We also buy crappy fuel in questionable places.


When was the last time you pulled the covers off your tanks and examined the sludge in there? Ours (new to us) had 4 inches of gooey krud sloshing around by the dip pipe in the primary tank. The other 4 tanks were only coated with black grainy film over the SS tank walls & bottom. Its a shocker that any usable fuel could come out.


On the engine oil, ours looks black within only a few hours of operation following a change. I will not be stranded again because of dirty oil.