Oil change concerns

[RCP Trader]

Hello sailors,

I need some feedback, new to this. I read many threads about oil change intervals and they are mostly at 100 hours or annual.
I am considering buying a 2008 sailboat with Yanmar 4jh4e, about 1600hours. I just noticed a hand written date on the filter says 04/ 2017. I sent oil samples and waiting. But almost 3 years...really?!! The oil looked fine and the levels were ok. The engine started flawlessly and the engine sounds right. No maintenance records provided yet. Smoke was dark and not excessive.

Should I consider this engine is fried? Should I walk away or ask for some discount in anticipation that I will have to rebuild this engine soon? What's a rough estimate to rebuild or buy a new engine? I am in California.
Anyone had such experience and how was the outcome?
Too many questions, I appologize.

Thank you in advance

[robert sailor]

No you shouldn't but it's always wise to have the diesel engine surveyed. If it checks out fine then just make a point out of changing oil on a regular interval.

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by RCP Trader

Hello sailors,

I need some feedback, new to this. I read many threads about oil change intervals and they are mostly at 100 hours or annual.
I am considering buying a 2008 sailboat with Yanmar 4jh4e, about 1600hours. I just noticed a hand written date on the filter says 04/ 2017. I sent oil samples and waiting. But almost 3 years...really?!! The oil looked fine and the levels were ok. The engine started flawlessly and the engine sounds right. No maintenance records provided yet. Smoke was dark and not excessive.

Should I consider this engine is fried? Should I walk away or ask for some discount in anticipation that I will have to rebuild this engine soon? What's a rough estimate to rebuild or buy a new engine? I am in California.
Anyone had such experience and how was the outcome?
Too many questions, I appologize.

Thank you in advance

Was the boat on the hard for a while? Not a yanmar person, but IMO you don't have to change the oil filter w/every oil change (every other time is fine).

Look at the manual for that engine, my Perkins recommends 200 hr/oil change, so 100 hr seems a little low.
Edit: the manual for the Yanmar 4jh4e recommends an oil change every 250 hrs

[slug]

Originally Posted by RCP Trader

Hello sailors,

I need some feedback, new to this. I read many threads about oil change intervals and they are mostly at 100 hours or annual.
I am considering buying a 2008 sailboat with Yanmar 4jh4e, about 1600hours. I just noticed a hand written date on the filter says 04/ 2017. I sent oil samples and waiting. But almost 3 years...really?!! The oil looked fine and the levels were ok. The engine started flawlessly and the engine sounds right. No maintenance records provided yet. Smoke was dark and not excessive.

Should I consider this engine is fried? Should I walk away or ask for some discount in anticipation that I will have to rebuild this engine soon? What's a rough estimate to rebuild or buy a new engine? I am in California.
Anyone had such experience and how was the outcome?
Too many questions, I appologize.

Thank you in advance

Some boats sit at the dock . Not a big concern

I was recently alongside a sister ship , she was 9 months younger

She had 7500 hrs on the engine , i have 21,000 hrs

Good idea to change the oil when you buy it

Engines that sit need to have their complete cooling system checked . Pumps, coolers . Thermostats

Also be alert to air intake systems

In future label the filters with engine hours and date

[Allied39]

This is a reply to the OP , not interested in the "experts" ragging on what I say.
With regular oil changes filter changes are not needed every oil change.
Could be oil was changed every 50hrs, so whats the issue.
There was a date and no hrs...so could be 100hrs on this filter. so what.
You would know if the engine was toast, and it certainly does not sound that way.
Just what I do, a lot of folks "hate" on this;
I change my oil every 50hrs. Yes, the oil looks like new when I remove it,WHICH IS THE POINT. In order to reduce the likelyhood of a $20 000 engine change my engine always has oil that looks like it was just changed.
The cost is negligible and old oil goes to recycle.

Just my opinion, do not care what anyone else does or says.

[a64pilot]

A decent oil and our little engines will pretty much never “wear” it out, we just don’t stress oil very hard.
You change oil in our little Diesels to get the abrasive soot and carbon out, not because the oil is breaking down.

Vast majority of the Diesel engines in the US Army just sit in motor pools, hear after year and Are started weekly and run during “motor pool” day, but that’s all they operation they see except maybe a couple times a year when the unit goes to the field.

Decades go the Army went to oil analysis on all vehicles and now charge oil based on oil analysis, and it’s not uncommon for a engine to go a few years between oil changes.

Point is, if it mostly sat, then it’s not likely hurt, but if it put 1,000 hours on the same oil, I’d be concerned.

Oil analysis is just that, it analyzes the oil and it’s great for that but it is not an engine analysis, it’s just about worthless for determining the health of an engine, but droves of people swear it can, but in nearly 20 years of maintain fleets of aircraft and ground vehicles, all getting regular oil analysis, it never once, not one single time had me retire a component or engine based on oil analysis.

If you have an analysis down every single oil change and monitor trends, it may have some value, I’ve never seen it, but some say it does.
Every single time I’ve ever had an oil analysis come back high iron, or high chrome etc., there were other signals that were apparent prior to the analysis tripping, flakes in the oil filter, chip lights etc.

You can tell much more by cutting open an oil filter and inspecting it than an oil analysis will tell you, but that takes a trained mechanic.

[a64pilot]

I change my oil and filter at 100 hours myself.
Just as a comparison oil change interval for an aircraft engine with a filter is 50 hours, and 25 hours for one without a filter.
Now these aren’t aircraft engines, but the only point is to try to say that 100 hours isn’t as often as you might think.

[RCP Trader]

Thank you all,
I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts and being so quick. I am kind anxious about what to make of this 3 year old filter, BTW I don't see any rust on it. So wierd.
The boat has been chartered, so it's been used this year, not sure how long ago. So a new engine will cost about 20k?
Let's see what the oil analysis say.

Thank you so much

[chrisr]

we have a pair of 4JHs and the yanmar recommendation is oil change every 150hrs. perhaps you don't need to change the filter so often but they're cheap enough so why not ?

as regards the OP's question : are you able to correlate engine hours and dates via other sources ie what was engine hours in 04/17 v engine hours now ? some boats i know of do maybe 50hrs pa so it's possible this age on the filter is no problem - esp if there has been an intermediate oil change w/o filter change.

however we do more like 500hrs pa so if we hadn't changed a filter fm 2017, there would definitely be a worry !

cheers,

[Checkswrecks]

Seriously and while looking at the engine, check the dates on the fuel hoses. While nobody does, they are supposed to be changed at 10years. This one was original from 1985 and downright crunchy when flexed:

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, RCP.

[RCP Trader]

Thanks Gory May, you guys are awsom.

What is the best way to clean the engine from sludge assuming there is a buildup.
Any additives and flush/ pump out?
Several frequent oil changes?
If able to remove the oil pan and clean it?

Thanks