Leopard 46: Your Engine hours

[Mick C]

Hi there.
How many hours have you on your engine and what’s your perception of how well/poorly your engine is going? Asking to get a feel for the engine hours on 46 boats for sale.

Thanks
Mick

[gmakhs]

5.000 to 7.000 hours prepare for a rebuild , and better do it before the engine brakes down .

Engine can go on for more than 7000 without rebuild ,but my.opinion.5 to 7k is the right number .

[sailorboy1]

have about 2300 hours on my 17 year old Yanmar and it's doing great, had about the same on the last boat and it was doing great also

[kmacdonald]

From what I've hear, the launches in Newport and Block Island get 7000 to 9000 hours before rebuilds on Yanmars. Those hours are put on the boats in a much shorter time period than pleasure boat engines so time isn't a factor for them. Expect quite a bit less than that.

[nhschneider]

My 10-year old Beta Marine 90 has over 5,000 hours and runs like new. I put new injectors in at 4,000 hours (it was idling a little rough) and I’ve had the smaller of the two alternators rebuilt but other than routine maintenance, it’s been flawless. I don’t expect to have to do a major overhaul for many years and probably well over 10,000 hours.

[Kenomac]

We have 2000 hours on a 17 year old Yanmar and it runs like a new engine. Our 8 year old Perkins has only 1000 hours and it's flawless. Neither engine requires any additional oil between changes. I'd expect both engines to out-live the two of us before requiring a rebuild.

You're comparing 46 boats for sale, that's ridiculous. We recently replaced a water damaged generator which has a larger diesel than many sailboats, the total cost for replacement was $12000USD. Worrying about a few thousand hours on a diesel is insignificant in the whole scheme of things, especially when a set of sails can cost much more.

[Tayana42]

Mick, to add to your data I have about 2400 hours on my 29 year old Yanmar 4jhe engine. It runs like a top. No issues along the way other than expected maintenance.

[rbk]

Have just over 4200 on our 37yo Perkins. Just did the top end (preventative) and the pistons look great. Cleaned out the carbon from the top dropped new valves and springs in ‘just cause’ as well as giving the whole thing a good going over. I’m the biggest thing is how well it’s maintianed, not how many hours.

[Zzmeyer]

Worked with a Cummins engineer who said they use three factors in determining engine life assuming proper maintenance. First factor is engine hours which I’m most familiar with. Second is wall clock. A 2000 hr thirty year old engine is a lot closure to dead than a five year old 2000 hr engine. The third factor they use, which I have no idea how you would measure, is fuel burned. An engine run hard will be closer to death than an engine who lived more modestly. I’d probably stay away from an engine more than 5000 hours or a twenty year old engine with 500 hours.

[FLLCatsailor]

Honestly... By the time you get to 7000 hours you should just bite the bullet and re-power.

Yes its more expensive than rebuilding, but I've never understood the whole spending 50% of replacement value on a rebuild.

[Chenega]

Engine hours..? My hour meter runs 3x s faster than it should. Over 1 hour it records 3 hours. I have 4500 hrs on meter. It’s been running fast since we bought it 2 summers ago so I don’t know how long it’s been doing this. What may cause this? Voltage at meter is correct... how many hours on engine is a guess.