Pulling the Motor: What to Do While it's Out ?

[Target9000]

I'm having our Perkins 4108 pulled out of the boat as we start our refit. Besides having it repainted what would you suggest I have done to it. I don't have ton of money to blow on it but I want to do whats economical while its out. It starts almost instantly but blows white smoke whilst cold which reduces in volume once the motor is heated up. At operating temperature there is a small amount of white smoke. I cannot smell if its diesel or vapor.

I'm looking for input on what would be cheaper to have done while the motor is out of the boat. I'm wondering what else I should have done (or checked) and a roundabout number on how much it should cost. Any input is greatly appreciated.

[cburger]

This is a kind of opened ended question not knowing your budget or the hours on the motor. I have just went through this process with a 4.108 that I purchased used from a CF member. My motor had 5000 hours on it and considering all the work that was required for the refit into my engine space wanted to make sure it was well inspected before installation. To that end I had my diesel mechanic tear the motor down to inspect it. His report indicated that he felt the motor was perfect and really needed nothing. I had him go ahead and replace what was percieved as wear items anyway as cheap insurance and ended up putting a little over $2000.00 into the motor. The 4.108 is legendary in terms of longevity with stories of 32000 hours in marine applications. If the motor is running as good as you say you might contemplate leaving it alone. I would at a minimum pull the gear and inspect the damper plate to see if it needs replacing and depending consider a new set of motor mounts. Also a good cleaning and spot painting might be in order.

[Target9000]

Thanks Cburger. We're def doing on the motor mounts while it is out. Serious vibration at idle. I think the donuts are completely shot.

[Target9000]

And our budget for this stage of our refit is about 10k. Our goals are to get the engine room / motor / fuel / bilge / batteries in order. So 2k is a big hit of the budget to have a mechanic tear everything apart. I'm wondering if its worth it though and just forgoing adding more batteries or wiring now which I can do later.

[cburger]

Again if the motor is running well, good oil pressure, compression etc. you can consider leaving it alone. How many hours, is it leaking any oil?

[Target9000]

Originally Posted by cburger

Again if the motor is running well, good oil pressure, compression etc. you can consider leaving it alone. How many hours, is it leaking any oil?

Don't think its leaking. I'm not 100% sure on the hours. There are three hour trackers on the boat, and 2 of them tick while running, so who can say? I'm guessing around 4k hours. Motor was new in 1992.

[cburger]

1992, 4k hours no leaks sounds like the engine should be fine. I would pull the valve cover and adjust the valves. If you need the manual for this motor I have it in PDF format and would be happy to email you a copy.

Again pull the tranny, very easy and change the damper plate.

[Badsanta]

Why did you pull the motor? what did taking it out solve?

[perchance]

It depends on how much you can or are willing to do on your own. Some things I would do are pull the injectors and have them pop tested, pull the starter and have it serviced or do it yourself do a valve lash and so on. A good portion of these tasks are mostly re and re and you can save a good bit of money even with having someone else service the components.

[donradcliffe]

As the previous owner of cburger's 4108 (its looking good), I would recommend replacing the oil pan gasket and the rear seal while the motor is out. The parts are cheap, they are the sources of most 4108 oil leakage, and a whole lot easier to renew when the engine is out.

[Target9000]

Originally Posted by Badsanta

Why did you pull the motor? what did taking it out solve?

Fuel tanks are leaking and must come out. Motor mounts need replacement. Fuel lines need replacement. Engine room needs to be repainted. Electrical work in the engine room needs to be done. etc etc.

[sww914]

Same situation here, 4.108 out. Since I'm a mechanic and I have it sitting on an engine stand in my nice, well lit, comfortable shop with good music playing and a great cup of coffee, I decided to reseal the engine.These have a reputation for leaking. I bought it used with 4100 hours and since it's out we're painting all the bilges and resealing the engine in the hopes of having a nice clean & dry engine room. I bought a top & bottom gasket kit from S&W diesels plus the F & R main seals.
The parts were almost $200.00 IIRC and probably 15 hours of labor including replacing the head gasket and de-carbonizing the cylinders. I've also sent out the injection pump and injectors for rebuild. Part of the pump was leaking. Oregon Fuel Injection was affordable at about $479.00 for the pump, exchange, and they rebuild pumps for the Perkins company.
The guy at S&W diesels said DO NOT try to do the oil pan gasket unless the engine is upside-down. It's a 4 piece gasket and he says the failure rate of trying it right-side-up is almost 100%.

[IreCraEra]

If you have good access to the bottom of your engine you can and wanted to change the oil pan gasket engine right side up you can go to Caterpillar and pick up a can of their CAT Cement.

Clean around the bottom of you block and top edge of you oil pan really good. Then apply the Cement to the block and the block side of the gaskets, leave it 10-15 minutes until it looks like its dry then place the gasket where it has to go on the block(make sure its lined up good because it wont be coming off again). Then you do the same thing with the pan.

I'm a mechanic at an iron mine and this is the stuff we use on any gaskets we don't want to leak, like base pan gasket and hydraulic tanks. Once this stuff goes on though the only way to get the gasket off its to scrape it or use a rough buffing wheel.

[Danibug]

I apologize, we should have updated this post.

Being busy with the engine room refit has made us careless with looseends.

We decided to replace the engine completely. We discovered the engine actually had 6,500 hours on it and instead of sinking the money into the old engine to hope it last us for our round the world trip, we decided to bite the bullet and get a new one:

Beta Marine 38. We are installing it in the next 2 weeks. We have detailed the whole refit on our blog below.