Volvo Engine vs Yamnar Engine

[sailpower]

Originally Posted by Surfer Girl

+1


For not much money, you can get an engineering firm to do an oil analysis of the engine (from an oil sample after the motor has been run on your sea trial) - it's like a blood test for a human, it tells all. If you're outlaying a lot of money to buy a boat, you want to do your due diligence. New engines and re-powering is very expensive...

Good luck.

An oil analysis is an excellent suggestion unless the owner has just changed the oil because he is offering the boat for sale in which case it can be a lot less useful.

Also good luck.

[olaf hart]

Have had Yanmars all my life, around six various ones so far, no real issues.
The main complaint I hear against Volvo is their parts prices. I recently priced a water pump for my Yanmar 3ym 30 and it was more that a comparable Volvo one!
Recently bought a boat with a Volvo 2003, around 1500 hrs. it was a concern, but our surveyor had used them for years in his charter boats, and gave us the gen on looking after them.
Fine so far, easy to work on. Major issue so far, it is RWC and someone had put in the FWC thermostat. Most of the water pipes were blocked up with salt encrustations.
The Volvo saildrive unit has a better rep than the Yanmar one. If I put in a new motor, it would probably be a Kubota clone on the old Volvo saildrive.
The surveyor said the 2003 was the last purpose designed marine engine from VP, the motors that followed were Perkins based.

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Most of the traditional Volvos have nothing to do with Perkins. Maybe you are speaking about the 2003 etc models? I dont know much about them. There was a time period where Perkins wasnt Perkins but some engine from italy (?) or somewhere.... things got very confused for a decade or so there!

The 2000 series (2001,2002,2003,2003T) were Volvo (started around 1983 and ended around 1989) and were notoriously bad engines. Just do a search. The series that followed 2020, 2030 were Perkins with a Kubota block, I think.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Vasco

The 2000 series (2001,2002,2003,2003T) were Volvo (started around 1983 and ended around 1989) and were notoriously bad engines. Just do a search. The series that followed 2020, 2030 were Perkins with a Kubota block, I think.

Rubbish, IMHO. Perhaps you would like to expand on your statement and explain why you found them notorious, from your own experience.

Pete

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Rubbish, IMHO. Perhaps you would like to expand on your statement and explain why you found them notorious, from your own experience.

Pete

Personally I had a 2002 and a 2003, both in brand new boats. A CS30 and three years later a CS36M. The 2003 used half a quart of oil on a 30 mile motor. Volvo told me to sail it for a season. Next summer (we only sail summers on Lake Ontario) same thing. Volvo then said it was out of warranty!! After much discussion with Sweden they took out the engine and rebuilt it. The following year I went south to the Bahamas. The engine would not idle properly and was seen by three different Volvo mechanics on the US east coast. All cursed it and none fixed it. I finally replaced the Volvo with a Yanmar. And here's some experience of others.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...lvo-30696.html

Volvo-Penta engine overlook
Click on the 2000 series and see the reports.

[bbhawn]

It's beginning to sound like the Beneteau I had hoped we would purchase will be a no-go. It has a 1991 Volvo 2003B Turbo engine. From these links, it sounds like it's a POS.

[Pete7]

Given the environment my 23 year old 2003 engine has to live in I think its an excellent engine. Little cantankerous to start because the design is 1980s but otherwise its fine. Volvo certainly sold an awful lot of them and many are still around. I am hoping for another decade from mine.

Pete

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by bbhawn

It's beginning to sound like the Beneteau I had hoped we would purchase will be a no-go. It has a 1991 Volvo 2003B Turbo engine. From these links, it sounds like it's a POS.

If you really like the boat factor in the cost of a new engine and prop. You might be lucky and not need it but it would be wise to factor the cost in, about $15000.

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Given the environment my 23 year old 2003 engine has to live in I think its an excellent engine. Little cantankerous to start because the design is 1980s but otherwise its fine. Volvo certainly sold an awful lot of them and many are still around. I am hoping for another decade from mine.

Pete

Pete,

You're fortunate, you got one that seems to work. The hard starting is a function of the design, (something about the engine stop being the cold start lever too) not because it's an eighties engine. You should have been around in the eighties and early nineties when everyone was bitching about these engines.

[Pete7]

Your right the cold start is a function of the engine stop, but also like you living at 50N makes starting them in the winter interesting. However compared to other engines that were available in the 1980s, I'll take the 2003.

Pete

[Jeannius]

I have two Volvo MD2040D in my cat. They have about 8000 hours on them and still going strong. Burn a bit of oil and leak a bit as well but start easily with 5 seconds of glow plug and run smoothly and economically.

They are Perkins engines - mine actually say Perkins-Shibaura on the engine plate. They are still made today for powering gensets and small tractors. As others have said buy the Perkins parts when you can as they are cheaper.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by olaf hart

The main complaint I hear against Volvo is their parts prices. I recently priced a water pump for my Yanmar 3ym 30 and it was more that a comparable Volvo one!

This price thing keeps coming up with no real basis. I actually priced common parts for both makes and posted them in post #13 on this thread: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...lvo-30696.html

The summary is Yanmar is just as proud of their parts as Volvo.

Perhaps in the past, Yanmar parts were less expensive than Volvo and that stays in people's minds, but it is not the case now.

With most small Volvo's now, one has the option of getting less expensive Perkins parts, and even cheaper parts from tractor and industrial supply depots.

Mark

[Dockhead]

If you're looking for single data points, I have a Yanmar 4JH3HTE 100hp in my present boat, my first Yanmar. On the plus side - it is smooth, and sounds happy at its work, much more so than previous Perkins I've owned. Starts phenomenally well - on half a revolution (literally) even in sub-freezing weather. I've never used the air pre-heater; not sure whether it even works. Seems well made and is pretty easy to work on. On the negative side - extremely smoky, and my surveyor, a great diesel engine expert, said it's typical of Yanmars. I've had some fuel system problems with it which have been extremely hard to track down. Pukes oil into the bilge in rough weather (that's bad design of the breather system). Parts seem very expensive to me.

Whether it's better or worse than a Volvo, I don't know - never had a Volvo.

[Paul L]

If you are buying a boat for cruising, then you probably have a fairly long time frame in mind where you will keep the boat - maybe 10 years. If it has an 80's Volvo 2003 in it then plan on budgeting for an engine replacement. The engine will take you sometime to 'learn' and be able to do repairs yourself. It is real easy to end up with 2 or 3 $1,500 to $2,000 repairs on these beasts if you have outside help. A replacement Yanmar professionally installed is about US$13K, less if you can do the install work. The engine is about $7.5k. So putting the Volvo repair bills toward a new engine probably makes sense. You would end up with a new, low hassle engine plus a warranty.
The Volvo 2003 owners who have had raw water cooled engines seem to have had a much smoother time than the freshwater cooled and/or turbo models.

[sck5]

On the parts question I have no idea about a price comparison but I do know that in the Caribbean the only parts readily available were Yanmar. Everyone else had to have parts shipped in