Ditching the diesel inboard engine

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

thomm, in my day, four stroke outboards didn't exist...especially small one's.

for sure, I was crazy trying to push a 38', 20,000 pound boat with a 15 hp outboard....a 2-stroke Chrysler at that...but the reality was that I didn't have 2c to scratch together...but I wanted to go, so my options were limited.

I readily admitted above that doing this was crazy....but I did it anyway....in the process, I learned a lot, which I'm trying to share here.

Nice, but the point is that outboards are great for certain boats and work as well as if not better than a diesel.

And are cleaner running especially as compared to ancient diesel engines that many here try to revive (on their old boats)

We are talking 20-40 year old engines.

I put a brand new 2011 outboard on my boat 10 years ago and the engine was not thought about again because it always worked.

Btw I owned 6-8 two stroke outboards before I was 24 years old for my various fishing boats. 25-65 HP

[stormalong]

Translation of post 68:


Hello, it seems to me that the image surpasses you, but, if up to this moment you have managed to do everything you do with your hands and your brain, one more difficulty, learning a little Diesel mechanics will make that engine that everyone praises , become something important. Marine diesel engines are very robust and when the time comes they will give you infinite satisfaction. It is true that they are oily and dirty, and heavy but on the other hand, if you run out of wind and you are in a hurry you can give it without pause to reach your destination.


Thank you google translate.

[rabbi1384]

Reading this I only wonder why anyone would think it easier to sail without a decent engine than to learn the basics of diesel engine mechanics. 90 % of the time the diesel engine fails it's fuel supply related and anyone can learn to change oil and filters.

Edit: And the best outboard still runs on gasoline which isn't the best stuff to store onboard in big quantities.

[GrowleyMonster]

It is well worth the time and effort to learn more about diesels (AND outboards, AND gasoline inboards, AND electric propulsion!) if you will be sailing around for many more years. Your diesel can be an implacable enemy or it can be your helpful and faithful friend. Or it can be a big suspicions unknown. A lot of that depends on you.

So I gather the engine can be rotated with a crank, and has compression levers, and it is very hard to turn over with compression applied. Very likely it is worth saving, or at least worth more investigation.

First thing, determine what sort of cooling system you have. You might want a mechanic to have a quick look. You can also figure this out yourself, after a bit of study/research. But you can figure out a lot just by looking. Find your exhaust. Does it lead out through an opening in the hull, down near the waterline? Follow it back to the engine. On the way to the engine, does it connect to a contraption that takes the hot exhaust upward and back down, with a hose joining it that could be carrying pumped water to mix with the exhaust? This is a typical "wet exhaust" setup. This quiets and cools the exhaust. It also lets you know that at least part of the cooling system works, when it sputters water out with the exhaust while the engine is running.

Now there are two major types of cooling systems that provide this water. You can have a raw water cooled engine. In this system, seawater is pumped through the engine block and out the wet exhaust, carrying away the heat of combustion. This is often used with small or inexpensive diesels, or boats that will be used only or mostly in fresh water. The other is fresh water cooling. The engine coolant is in a closed system and is fresh water or fresh water mixed with antifreeze. It circulates through the engine block and through a heat exchanger, a small enclosed vessel filled with tubes, where it is cooled by raw water taken in at the seacock and pumped through and out with the exhaust. There will be a small "head tank" with a cap like a radiator cap on it, that serves as a reservoir for the coolant. You need to ensure that this reservoir has water or a water/antifreeze solution in it, and it is nearly full or up to the recommended level. (try to find the manual for your engine! A shop or maintenance manual would be great, but at least an owner's manual!) Then you need to locate the seacock. This is a valve down in the bilge area that allows seawater in for cooling the engine or the heat exchanger, depending on whether you have FW cooling or raw water cooling. You don't need it open for starting. You don't WANT it open when the engine is not running. But you do need to open it once the engine has started. If the handle is a lever, it should point parallel to the flow through the valve, to be in the open position. Just for learning, open that valve when you find it and carefully search for any leaks in the system. Better to find them now than later when the engine is running and you can't hear water dripping or pouring into your bilge. If possible, now that you have located the seacock, go over the side and make sure that the through-hull is not overgrown inside with barnies or mussels or other marine growth.

The reason for learning how your cooling system works first, is of course because once your engine is started, it needs to be cooled. You can run it for a minute or two, no problem, but after that it really REALLY needs to be getting cooled properly! Not to mention your wet exhaust.

It is a LOT easier to use your starter motor to crank your engine to life. Get power to the starter. Hook up a wire to the start terminal on the solenoid, and another wire to the "HOT" Terminal on the solenoid. Make sure that your battery is grounded to the engine. Check your hot cable that it is properly connected to the + terminal of the battery. Now strip the insulation from the last 1/4" or so from those two wires you added. Touch them together just for an instant.. There should be a spark and a a click or clunk sound from the solenoid. So far, so good. If you don't get that, something is wrong. Check battery. Check connections. Try again. Maybe you are connected to the wrong terminal. There HAS to be a spark when you brush the ends of the two wires together. IF you don't have that, your connections are wrong or your battery is dead. Fix that. Then, when you can make the solenoid click, congratulate yourself. Now crimp some lugs to the ends of those wires and touch them together and hold them together for a second or two. The solenoid should connect power to the starter motor, and also engage the pinion gear with the flywheel ring gear, and turn the engine over. If it does that, take a break. You have accomplished a LOT. Go celebrate. Still plenty of hard work ahead, but at least you know you won't have to hand crank for hours and hours while you try stuff. DO NOT try for a full start! Just turn it over with the starter.You have a lot of stuff to check first, and do first, before you allow the engine to start. Don't worry, if it only turns over once or twice, after sitting so long, it won't "accidentally" start.

You should have changed your oil and oil filter, if there is one, by now. You should have located the seacock and determined whether you should expect your exhaust to be wet or dry. You should have figured out how to get clean fuel to the injector pump. You can leave draining and cleaning your fuel tank and replacing your fuel lines for later, if you like. If there is an air filter, clean it or replace it. Look around your injector pump or lift pump. There should be two control connections, one to kill the engine by shutting off the fuel, and the other being the throttle. If your engine contrils are still present, you can find the throttle cable connection on the engine, and the other control connection will be the engine kill. It might be an electric solenoid but most likely it is another small lever with a cable connected to it, and that cable running to a plunger type control. Typically the plunger knob is pulled up for start, pressed down to stop. There is also a transmission lever at the control station, and a cable running from it to an operating arm on the transmission at the rear of the engine. Most commonly, at the control station the transmission control lever is forward for forward gear, aft for reverse, and in between for neutral. Naturally you want it in neutral for starting. The Neutral position will always be between FWD and REV. Make sure that the cable is connected and that moving the control station transmission lever moves the operating arm on the transmission.

Check the oil. You should know how to locate the dipstick and how to read it, from the manual or from someone helping you.

Go for a start. Don't keep grinding and grinding. You will just burn out the starter motor. 30 seconds, max.Compression engaged. If the engine seems to be turning weakly, remove compression to get it spinning good, then re-engage compression. After a couple of attempts, stop. You shouldn't expect it to start right up so don't be broken hearted.

Locate your fuel filter(s). There is probably a primary mounted right on the engine, likely very small in a sort of cannister. Change that. Follow the fuel line all the way to the fuel tank and see if there is another secondary filter or mroe commonly a duplex filter setup. Very likely there is a small valve at the bottom of the filter housing, maybe a clear plastic bowl or maybe the whole filter housing is clear, so you can see the fuel. There will be a filter element inside that you need to change along with the primary. When you change it, make sure that the filter housing gets filled with fuel all the way to the top. Close everything back up nice and tight. Locate your injector lines. They will be skilly little pipes going to the injectors, and there will be a hex nut type collar connecting the line to the injector. With the proper size wrench, loosen them. Your engine might have one but probably has two or three, maybe four of these. With fuel connected and filters changed and full, have an assistant crank the engine with the starter while you watch the injector lines. When fuel squirts out, STOP! Re-connect the injector lines. Tighten all but one, which you will leave a bit loose. Crank until you see fuel leaking out there. Tighten it and loosen the next one and crank the engine until fuel leaks out there. Oh BTW, the kill plunger should not be in the "RUN" position because from here on out, the chances of the engine starting increase exponentially. Repeat as necessary, until all your injector lines are bled. The purpose of all that was to get all of the air out of your fuel system.

Let's backtrack a bit. If no fuel ever appeared at the injector lines, you probably have a closed fuel valve somewhere that you didn't find earlier. Or maybe a bad fuel pump or injector pump. Okay now let's skip back ahead again.

So, you have air. You have fuel. You have compression. You have no load on the engine. You have a way to turn the engine. Chances are very good that the engine will now start. So, go for start. Give it a few tries, letting the starter motor rest a couple of minutes between attempts. No joy? Well, don't be too discouraged. Get a can of starting fluid. Don't use it Redneck style, spraying it in the intake. That is a good way to blow a gasket or worse. Lay a rag over the air intake and spray start fluid on the rag as you crank. Just wet it, don't keep spraying. You should at least get a good cough out of the engine. You may even manage to get a start. In fact it is very likely. Even if no fuel is actually being delivered to the cylinders, you should get a brief start or near start. If not, you may have one or more valves that are stuck. Or you may have a valve timing problem. You may also just have an engine that will not start cold without a glow plug. Anyway from this point, your amateur mechanical skills might need either significant improvement through more study, or supplementation in the form of an actual diesel mechanic. But you will by this point have done all you can do, without spending much money.

You will NOT LIKELY BE ABLE TO DO THIS, without some money. You don't need a lot, but you need some.

Oh, back to the fuel. No fuel ever makes it out of the injector lines? Isolate and investigate. See if there is fuel getting to the injector pump. Yes? No? If no, see how close it DOES get. Keep disconnecting hoses and lines until you reach a point where you have fuel. Then work forward and you have the problem component. If it is the injector pump you may be able to find a used one that works. You will want a mechanic to change them out or at least advise you. A brand new injector pump will be very expensive and maybe impossible to find. A rebuilt one, not so bad. A salvaged one of unknown provenance and operability, well, it's maybe worth a shot. But installing it might not be a simple operation.

If you have a lift pump or a fuel pump to deliver fuel to the injector pump, that is fairly simple to replace yourself. You can even substitute an electric pump in many cases, if you can't find the correct engine driven pump.

Let's say you get a start, and the engine runs. Check your water temp gauge and your oil pressure gauge and tachometer if you have one. If coolant or oil levels decrease OR INCREASE, you may have a problem. Get a mechanic. Check your smoke. You should, after the engine warms up, get very little smoke, and it will be a very light blue/gray, almost white. There might be a detectable oil sheen on the water but it should quickly go away and your exhaust water should be clean. Give it some throttle and see how it sounds. Keep an eye on the gauges. Bring the throttle back to idle and bump it in gear forward, then reverse. See if the boat responds as expected. Run it a few minutes more, kill it, and check your coolant and oil. IF everything looks good, start it again, put it in gear at half throttle while tied to the dock, and just move some water with your prop. run it about a half hour and check fluid levels again.

Now that your engine runs, it is a good time to check your prop for damage or marine growth. If it is a folding prop, see that it folds and unfolds properly. Clean your bottom, while you are at it. You will motor faster, and you will sail faster.

Now, you need to make sure that your alternator is charging your batteries. Likely you do not even have a connection between them at this point. Unless you have a permanent magnet alternator, you need voltage applied to the rotor slip rings in order to create a rotating field that interacts with the stator windings, which creates electricity for charging your batteries. This field current is controlled by a voltage regulator that senses the battery voltage and allows or doesn't allow voltage to the rotor or that operates in always on mode and electronically adjusts the voltage to the rotor. With no connection, you get no output. You really need to get a good book on marine alternators and marine DC electrical systems in general. Anyway so you have voltage to the rotor windings, and you have rotation, driven by a vee belt from the engine. There are actually three windings and they are connected in either "Y", (also called star) or "∆" (delta) configuration. Voltage rises and falls in a sine wave in each winding. While one is at peak, another is 120° out of phase in one direction, and the other is 120° the other direction. So you have three phase output from the windings. You can't charge batteries with that, obviously. So the output from the windings goes through an arrangement of diodes called a bridge rectifier, in this case three of them. They may not be individual discrete diodes but instead be in one sealed unit, and they will almost certainly be inside the alternator case and you will not see them. What you will see is the output terminal of the alternator. Ground will be through the engine and to the negative of the battery. Hot, or +, will be via a wire or cable to the + terminal of the battery. There may also be a battery ON/OFF switch or more likely a rotary switch with positions 1/BOTH/2/OFF. Or something like that. The reason I mention the rectifier is because once the engine is running and the alternator turning, if you connect power to the field and regulator terminals, then switch the battery to "OFF" or disconnect it altogether, you will send a huge spike through the stator and the diodes, frying them. A common newbie mistake. Don't make it.

Once you have your alternator charging your batteries, you have achieved a very sophisticated level of independence, compared to where you were at. You now need to see to an ammeter to monitor charging amps, and a voltmeter to monitor battery voltage. Learn how to check your specific gravity, and keep distilled water on hand to top up the batteries, assuming you have regular flooded cell batts, and do your normal maintenance. If you take care of your engine and use it lightly, it will probably give you years of service at fairly low cost.

[rabbi1384]

Wow. Just wow.

[GrowleyMonster]

One thing I forgot... if you have an electric stop solenoid it could be set up so that with no signal from the oil pressure sender, the engine cannot run. You may have to do some jumpering or else make sure you have voltage at your sending unit and all the right connections to the solenoid. Something for you to look up!

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

It is well worth the time and effort to learn more about diesels (AND outboards, AND gasoline inboards, AND electric propulsion!) if you will be sailing around for many more years. Your diesel can be an implacable enemy or it can be your helpful and faithful friend. Or it can be a big suspicions unknown. A lot of that depends on you.

So I gather the engine can be rotated with a crank, and has compression levers, and it is very hard to turn over with compression applied. Very likely it is worth saving, or at least worth more investigation.

First thing, determine what sort of cooling system you have. You might want a mechanic to have a quick look. You can also figure this out yourself, after a bit of study/research. But you can figure out a lot just by looking. Find your exhaust. Does it lead out through an opening in the hull, down near the waterline? Follow it back to the engine. On the way to the engine, does it connect to a contraption that takes the hot exhaust upward and back down, with a hose joining it that could be carrying pumped water to mix with the exhaust? This is a typical "wet exhaust" setup. This quiets and cools the exhaust. It also lets you know that at least part of the cooling system works, when it sputters water out with the exhaust while the engine is running.

Now there are two major types of cooling systems that provide this water. You can have a raw water cooled engine. In this system, seawater is pumped through the engine block and out the wet exhaust, carrying away the heat of combustion. This is often used with small or inexpensive diesels, or boats that will be used only or mostly in fresh water. The other is fresh water cooling. The engine coolant is in a closed system and is fresh water or fresh water mixed with antifreeze. It circulates through the engine block and through a heat exchanger, a small enclosed vessel filled with tubes, where it is cooled by raw water taken in at the seacock and pumped through and out with the exhaust. There will be a small "head tank" with a cap like a radiator cap on it, that serves as a reservoir for the coolant. You need to ensure that this reservoir has water or a water/antifreeze solution in it, and it is nearly full or up to the recommended level. (try to find the manual for your engine! A shop or maintenance manual would be great, but at least an owner's manual!) Then you need to locate the seacock. This is a valve down in the bilge area that allows seawater in for cooling the engine or the heat exchanger, depending on whether you have FW cooling or raw water cooling. You don't need it open for starting. You don't WANT it open when the engine is not running. But you do need to open it once the engine has started. If the handle is a lever, it should point parallel to the flow through the valve, to be in the open position. Just for learning, open that valve when you find it and carefully search for any leaks in the system. Better to find them now than later when the engine is running and you can't hear water dripping or pouring into your bilge. If possible, now that you have located the seacock, go over the side and make sure that the through-hull is not overgrown inside with barnies or mussels or other marine growth.

The reason for learning how your cooling system works first, is of course because once your engine is started, it needs to be cooled. You can run it for a minute or two, no problem, but after that it really REALLY needs to be getting cooled properly! Not to mention your wet exhaust.

It is a LOT easier to use your starter motor to crank your engine to life. Get power to the starter. Hook up a wire to the start terminal on the solenoid, and another wire to the "HOT" Terminal on the solenoid. Make sure that your battery is grounded to the engine. Check your hot cable that it is properly connected to the + terminal of the battery. Now strip the insulation from the last 1/4" or so from those two wires you added. Touch them together just for an instant.. There should be a spark and a a click or clunk sound from the solenoid. So far, so good. If you don't get that, something is wrong. Check battery. Check connections. Try again. Maybe you are connected to the wrong terminal. There HAS to be a spark when you brush the ends of the two wires together. IF you don't have that, your connections are wrong or your battery is dead. Fix that. Then, when you can make the solenoid click, congratulate yourself. Now crimp some lugs to the ends of those wires and touch them together and hold them together for a second or two. The solenoid should connect power to the starter motor, and also engage the pinion gear with the flywheel ring gear, and turn the engine over. If it does that, take a break. You have accomplished a LOT. Go celebrate. Still plenty of hard work ahead, but at least you know you won't have to hand crank for hours and hours while you try stuff. DO NOT try for a full start! Just turn it over with the starter.You have a lot of stuff to check first, and do first, before you allow the engine to start. Don't worry, if it only turns over once or twice, after sitting so long, it won't "accidentally" start.

You should have changed your oil and oil filter, if there is one, by now. You should have located the seacock and determined whether you should expect your exhaust to be wet or dry. You should have figured out how to get clean fuel to the injector pump. You can leave draining and cleaning your fuel tank and replacing your fuel lines for later, if you like. If there is an air filter, clean it or replace it. Look around your injector pump or lift pump. There should be two control connections, one to kill the engine by shutting off the fuel, and the other being the throttle. If your engine contrils are still present, you can find the throttle cable connection on the engine, and the other control connection will be the engine kill. It might be an electric solenoid but most likely it is another small lever with a cable connected to it, and that cable running to a plunger type control. Typically the plunger knob is pulled up for start, pressed down to stop. There is also a transmission lever at the control station, and a cable running from it to an operating arm on the transmission at the rear of the engine. Most commonly, at the control station the transmission control lever is forward for forward gear, aft for reverse, and in between for neutral. Naturally you want it in neutral for starting. The Neutral position will always be between FWD and REV. Make sure that the cable is connected and that moving the control station transmission lever moves the operating arm on the transmission.

Check the oil. You should know how to locate the dipstick and how to read it, from the manual or from someone helping you.

Go for a start. Don't keep grinding and grinding. You will just burn out the starter motor. 30 seconds, max.Compression engaged. If the engine seems to be turning weakly, remove compression to get it spinning good, then re-engage compression. After a couple of attempts, stop. You shouldn't expect it to start right up so don't be broken hearted.

Locate your fuel filter(s). There is probably a primary mounted right on the engine, likely very small in a sort of cannister. Change that. Follow the fuel line all the way to the fuel tank and see if there is another secondary filter or mroe commonly a duplex filter setup. Very likely there is a small valve at the bottom of the filter housing, maybe a clear plastic bowl or maybe the whole filter housing is clear, so you can see the fuel. There will be a filter element inside that you need to change along with the primary. When you change it, make sure that the filter housing gets filled with fuel all the way to the top. Close everything back up nice and tight. Locate your injector lines. They will be skilly little pipes going to the injectors, and there will be a hex nut type collar connecting the line to the injector. With the proper size wrench, loosen them. Your engine might have one but probably has two or three, maybe four of these. With fuel connected and filters changed and full, have an assistant crank the engine with the starter while you watch the injector lines. When fuel squirts out, STOP! Re-connect the injector lines. Tighten all but one, which you will leave a bit loose. Crank until you see fuel leaking out there. Tighten it and loosen the next one and crank the engine until fuel leaks out there. Oh BTW, the kill plunger should not be in the "RUN" position because from here on out, the chances of the engine starting increase exponentially. Repeat as necessary, until all your injector lines are bled. The purpose of all that was to get all of the air out of your fuel system.

Let's backtrack a bit. If no fuel ever appeared at the injector lines, you probably have a closed fuel valve somewhere that you didn't find earlier. Or maybe a bad fuel pump or injector pump. Okay now let's skip back ahead again.

So, you have air. You have fuel. You have compression. You have no load on the engine. You have a way to turn the engine. Chances are very good that the engine will now start. So, go for start. Give it a few tries, letting the starter motor rest a couple of minutes between attempts. No joy? Well, don't be too discouraged. Get a can of starting fluid. Don't use it Redneck style, spraying it in the intake. That is a good way to blow a gasket or worse. Lay a rag over the air intake and spray start fluid on the rag as you crank. Just wet it, don't keep spraying. You should at least get a good cough out of the engine. You may even manage to get a start. In fact it is very likely. Even if no fuel is actually being delivered to the cylinders, you should get a brief start or near start. If not, you may have one or more valves that are stuck. Or you may have a valve timing problem. You may also just have an engine that will not start cold without a glow plug. Anyway from this point, your amateur mechanical skills might need either significant improvement through more study, or supplementation in the form of an actual diesel mechanic. But you will by this point have done all you can do, without spending much money.

You will NOT LIKELY BE ABLE TO DO THIS, without some money. You don't need a lot, but you need some.

Oh, back to the fuel. No fuel ever makes it out of the injector lines? Isolate and investigate. See if there is fuel getting to the injector pump. Yes? No? If no, see how close it DOES get. Keep disconnecting hoses and lines until you reach a point where you have fuel. Then work forward and you have the problem component. If it is the injector pump you may be able to find a used one that works. You will want a mechanic to change them out or at least advise you. A brand new injector pump will be very expensive and maybe impossible to find. A rebuilt one, not so bad. A salvaged one of unknown provenance and operability, well, it's maybe worth a shot. But installing it might not be a simple operation.

If you have a lift pump or a fuel pump to deliver fuel to the injector pump, that is fairly simple to replace yourself. You can even substitute an electric pump in many cases, if you can't find the correct engine driven pump.

Let's say you get a start, and the engine runs. Check your water temp gauge and your oil pressure gauge and tachometer if you have one. If coolant or oil levels decrease OR INCREASE, you may have a problem. Get a mechanic. Check your smoke. You should, after the engine warms up, get very little smoke, and it will be a very light blue/gray, almost white. There might be a detectable oil sheen on the water but it should quickly go away and your exhaust water should be clean. Give it some throttle and see how it sounds. Keep an eye on the gauges. Bring the throttle back to idle and bump it in gear forward, then reverse. See if the boat responds as expected. Run it a few minutes more, kill it, and check your coolant and oil. IF everything looks good, start it again, put it in gear at half throttle while tied to the dock, and just move some water with your prop. run it about a half hour and check fluid levels again.

Now that your engine runs, it is a good time to check your prop for damage or marine growth. If it is a folding prop, see that it folds and unfolds properly. Clean your bottom, while you are at it. You will motor faster, and you will sail faster.

Now, you need to make sure that your alternator is charging your batteries. Likely you do not even have a connection between them at this point. Unless you have a permanent magnet alternator, you need voltage applied to the rotor slip rings in order to create a rotating field that interacts with the stator windings, which creates electricity for charging your batteries. This field current is controlled by a voltage regulator that senses the battery voltage and allows or doesn't allow voltage to the rotor or that operates in always on mode and electronically adjusts the voltage to the rotor. With no connection, you get no output. You really need to get a good book on marine alternators and marine DC electrical systems in general. Anyway so you have voltage to the rotor windings, and you have rotation, driven by a vee belt from the engine. There are actually three windings and they are connected in either "Y", (also called star) or "∆" (delta) configuration. Voltage rises and falls in a sine wave in each winding. While one is at peak, another is 120° out of phase in one direction, and the other is 120° the other direction. So you have three phase output from the windings. You can't charge batteries with that, obviously. So the output from the windings goes through an arrangement of diodes called a bridge rectifier, in this case three of them. They may not be individual discrete diodes but instead be in one sealed unit, and they will almost certainly be inside the alternator case and you will not see them. What you will see is the output terminal of the alternator. Ground will be through the engine and to the negative of the battery. Hot, or +, will be via a wire or cable to the + terminal of the battery. There may also be a battery ON/OFF switch or more likely a rotary switch with positions 1/BOTH/2/OFF. Or something like that. The reason I mention the rectifier is because once the engine is running and the alternator turning, if you connect power to the field and regulator terminals, then switch the battery to "OFF" or disconnect it altogether, you will send a huge spike through the stator and the diodes, frying them. A common newbie mistake. Don't make it.

Once you have your alternator charging your batteries, you have achieved a very sophisticated level of independence, compared to where you were at. You now need to see to an ammeter to monitor charging amps, and a voltmeter to monitor battery voltage. Learn how to check your specific gravity, and keep distilled water on hand to top up the batteries, assuming you have regular flooded cell batts, and do your normal maintenance. If you take care of your engine and use it lightly, it will probably give you years of service at fairly low cost.

The OP is not that guy.

Some of you just aren't listening (reading)

Everyone isn't a mech/tech like many of us are and even if they were a crappy 30-40 year old diesel on a small boat isn't worth the effort.

Try to think 2021. Clean, efficient, light.

https://onlineoutboards.com/products...oaAkXREALw_wcB

[GrowleyMonster]

Finally, your outboard. Yeah, when they work, especially the new ones, they work great. Electronic ignition and fuel injection? Fantastic. Four stroke? NO more mixing oil with the fuel! Trouble free! Until they DO stop working and you can't just do a bit of fiddling and get it running again. Plus they are easily stolen. More monetary type people just buy another one. A small outboard for a small sailboat is only around $1800 USD. Significant repairs and parts replacement can cost almost that much. When you do have a working outboard, and it isn't getting stolen, there are still a few issues. One is in heavy weather the outboard in use is cavitating all the time while the boat is hobby horsing into the seas. Second, it can get swamped and filled with seawater. Electronics and in the air intake and onto the piston tops. Those are not good things. So you need to be independant enough to never need the outboard in harsh conditions, and an easy way to protect the outboard. Did I mention they run on gasoline? Nasty stuff on a boat. Potentially nasty, anyway. An outboard is no free lunch. Don't get too comfortable with it. You already have one, and it runs. GREAT! But it will not be so forever and you may end up needing to buy one or pay for repairs. Put your money into the diesel instead, until you establish that it is not worth saving. There is a big difference between not worth saving, and being unfamiliar with it.

[rabbi1384]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

Finally, your outboard. Yeah, when they work, especially the new ones, they work great. Electronic ignition and fuel injection? Fantastic. Four stroke? NO more mixing oil with the fuel! Trouble free! Until they DO stop working and you can't just do a bit of fiddling and get it running again. Plus they are easily stolen. More monetary type people just buy another one. A small outboard for a small sailboat is only around $1800 USD. Significant repairs and parts replacement can cost almost that much. When you do have a working outboard, and it isn't getting stolen, there are still a few issues. One is in heavy weather the outboard in use is cavitating all the time while the boat is hobby horsing into the seas. Second, it can get swamped and filled with seawater. Electronics and in the air intake and onto the piston tops. Those are not good things. So you need to be independant enough to never need the outboard in harsh conditions, and an easy way to protect the outboard. Did I mention they run on gasoline? Nasty stuff on a boat. Potentially nasty, anyway. An outboard is no free lunch. Don't get too comfortable with it. You already have one, and it runs. GREAT! But it will not be so forever and you may end up needing to buy one or pay for repairs. Put your money into the diesel instead, until you establish that it is not worth saving. There is a big difference between not worth saving, and being unfamiliar with it.

Agree but think monster long text rather unnecessary because no one will ever follow all those instructions.

[thomm225]

Tohatsu 25" 6 HP 4 Stroke Outboard

[GrowleyMonster]

Oh, and change the impellor in the raw water pump. It will be old and brttle by this time and in fact it should be changed before you even go for the first start. Bits of impellor can break off and lodge in the engine coolant passages with predictable results.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

One is in heavy weather the outboard in use is cavitating all the time while the boat is hobby horsing into the seas.

Why would you run the engine in heavy weather when your sails can provide more horsepower?

I still think many here didn't learn to sail on a boat without an engine.

On a sailboat, the sails provide much more horsepower when the wind is up than the engine.

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Tohatsu 25" 6 HP 4 Stroke Outboard

As outboards go, those Tohatsus are very nice. Wife had one for her little Halman, I Had one for a while for my Cal, while until I got the Atomic running. Never a bit of trouble in the short time we used them.

[rabbi1384]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Why would you run the engine in heavy weather when your sails can provide more horsepower?

I still think many here didn't learn to sail on a boat without an engine.

On a sailboat, the sails provide much more horsepower when the wind is up than the engine.

Because you don't plan your equipment for the time everything goes right but rather for the day things might go wrong. I sail across oceans on a regular basis and I just wouldn't do it with just a small outboard and lots of gasoline onboard. For coastal hopping under predictable conditions it should be fine though. It's just a matter of personal requirements I guess.

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Why would you run the engine in heavy weather when your sails can provide more horsepower?

I still think many here didn't learn to sail on a boat without an engine.

On a sailboat, the sails provide much more horsepower when the wind is up than the engine.

You are correct. A sailboat's real power is in its sails. However, allow me to point out the obvious.

There are times and situations where sails are useless, and there are boats that refuse to sail to windward. That's when the anchor comes in. There is bottom where anchoring is not secure, and there are boats that do not carry much chain, and plenty of guys who underestimate the typa and size anchor needed. There is almost always an alternative to sailing or anchoring close to a lee shore, yeah, and especially today with accurate weather reports available on cheap radios and even cell phones. The fact is, with a dependable engine, some guys will save their boats and some guys will wreck them. Without a dependable engine, more guys will wreck their boats and fewer save them. When a disaster is in the making is not a great time to commiserate on how one should have learned to be a better sailor. Of course, neither is it a time to regret one's choice of engines, either.

So regardless of skill level but especially for htose with less skill and knowledge, more dependable engine beats less dependable engine.