'Overhauled' Engine

[sailorboy1]

I checked into a boat from Yatchworld.com that I was interested in (a 1981 boat). In the opening page when you click on the the boat in the short desription it said in bold: Complete engine overhaul in 2009. But in the long spec it said "Overhauled (2005), approx. 500 hrs since, rebuilt head 2009". So it seemed to me that the posting made no sense. So I sent an email asking for what was done, when and if there were reciepts and got a reply that they would check with owner. And later got this:

The owner clarifies as following:
"Overhaul was done in 2005 in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela. Not a rebuild, but all necessary work to bring Perkins 4-108 to peak condition including, but not limited to, fuel lines, injectors, etc. In 2009, in Roatan, Honduras, valves were reground."

Far as I'm concerned all that was done in 2005 was general maintenance and later there mush been a compression problem and the head had to be worked on. I wouldn't even call the head work a rebuild as the the owner says valves were reground and if you didn't replace valves etc you didn't rebuild it.

In my thinking this is an orginal engine with new injectors. Everything else is just general maintenance to get it going. So when you see "overhauled" what do you think that means?

[bloodhunter]

Don Lucas,
I expect that 'overhaul' has a wide range of meanings depending on who's talking. This is what I mean by the word. When I bought Enchantress in 2007 she had a 10-year-old Volvo turbo diesel. The turbocharger was frozen and the PO agree to pay for a new one and reduce the price further since I would install it myself. Since that's a fairly large job I decided to take a very good look at the rest of the engine while I was at it.
I drained all engine fluids and took the engine apart as much as I could without having it pulled from the boat (this will only work if you have really good engine access). The engine was in better shape than I thought it might be but I replaced the fuel pump, all the impellers, piston rings, replaced the valves, replaced all the hoses and pipes, pulled the injectors and had them bench-tested, replacing one and resetting the pattern on the others, reset the timing. Of course new seals and gaskets. Also added another fuel filter (Racor) but that's not really part of an overhaul. What I did was to replace everything the looked worn or I thought might be worn before putting the engine back together. That's what I meant by 'overhaul'. Of course it would have been better to have the engine pulled, do all the work and then test it before putting it back in the boat. But this would have cost me a lot of extra bucks that I didn't really have to spend that way.

[captden]

Like you I would be wary of the condition of this motor.

[Dockhead]

Caveat Emptor. "Overhauled" is not a precise legal term, and the seller is taking advantage of that fact. Forget the word, and consider the list of work done. The Perkins 4-108 (and Westerbeke equivalent) is a legendarily long-lived and reliable engine. Maybe it's ok, or maybe it's worn out -- you'll have to figure out for yourself.

Most consciencious people would apply the word only to cases were at least piston rings and bearings have been changed, bores have been honed, valve seals have been replaced, valves have been ground, and everything else has been disassembled and fully checked over and measured and then put together with new gaskets.

[Chief Engineer]

Overhaul=Complete Rebuild ....in my book....

Not to be confused with "spray Can" Overhaul

[Randy]

Complete overhaul means: rings, bearings, valve guides, valves(at least ground), injectors, water pump, hoses, etc.

[Ex-Calif]

Overhaul means that everything is restored to spec as defined in the manufacturers "overhaul" manual. Everything else is something else.

Rebuild is rebuilt to factory new specs.

[James S]

Originally Posted by Chief Engineer

Overhaul=Complete Rebuild ....in my book....

Not to be confused with "spray Can" Overhaul

Ditto

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Complete engine overhaul in 2009.

Since this morning when I emailed the broker telling him I felt the posting was misleading he changed the above to (still in bold) : "Engine overhaul 2005".

Still doesn't meet what most of consider as "overhauled", but at least is a little less wordplay (I guess).

So on pros/cons list of boats under consideration this went from having a Pro - overhualed engine; to a Con - orginal engine 5100+ hours

Just pisses me off when I start to take the bait!

[sigmasailor]

Overhaul means breaking down and bringing all moving parts back to manufacturer specifications: (new) bearings, sleeves, pistons, rings, head, injectors, pumps etc.

Hmm, this: Overhaul - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary agrees with me. Aren't dictionaries nice....

[klem]

Originally Posted by Chief Engineer

Overhaul=Complete Rebuild ....in my book....

Not to be confused with "spray Can" Overhaul

I agree with this definition. Too bad overhaul has so many definitions. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to look at receipts for work like this to at least understand what was actually done.