Re-powering: Volvo or Yanmar

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Russ

Had Marinized Isuzu, great engine BUT the marinzation part meant I had to completely remove water pump to change impeller. Huge PIA.. ONLY Yanmar makes a dedicated marine engine ( Maybe John Deere and Beta too).



Volvo may make great cars but ALL their engines suck big time and are often shooty at the exhaust! Had one of them too, never again! No question Yanmar. JD was 50% heavier and 50% more $$$$ to boot.

Russ VERY Happy Yanmar owner for 5 years now.

Do you have a Yanmar saildrive? Some here seem to be overlooking the fact that the OP needs a saildrive. Other than the Yanmar SD20, I haven't met a single person happy with their Yanmar saildrive.

Mark

[CLady]

Yanmar has my vote.

[Paul Annapolis]

Well....the Volvos are usually green yes? And Yanmars are usually metallic/silver--yes? I'd go with whichever engine matches your paint scheme. Or do you like Japanese or Swedish products. Heck--is Volvo even Swedish or is it Chinese these days? The big question however is why repower? Do you have special information or telltale signs that both engines need repowering? The boat is from the mid 90's yes? I enjoy reading responses whenever the question is posed such as Volvo or Yanmar? Rocna or Mantus? Beneteau or Hunter? Centerboard or fixed keel? Or my favorite--monohull or catamaran?? etc etc etc...Opinions, opinions--how can we evaluate opinions such as "Yanmar sucks" or "My buddy says Volvos are great."??? At least nobody came on and commented "What? You bought a catamaran? With saildrive? If you got a monohull you could have had a single inboard-straight drive!!! @$!^&@*!!!...pass the popcorn. I hope you can help us on CF understand why you are so sure you need repowering. Thanks!

[duefocena]

I have Volvo 2030's on a Lagoon TPI 42' and ZF M15 V drives. Original engines were Perkins Parama M30's which Volvo bought out and renamed the 2030 with a bigger flywheel. Rebuilt both ZF trans for $600 each parts and labor. I have feathering 'reversible" props from AB marine and they stop the boat in high following breeze. She cruises at 7 kts @ 1,800 rpm but can push 9 kts @ 2800 rpm. As this block was used in Northern lights generators as well as a number of other applications parts are readily available. Replaced an exhaust elbow, $600 Volvo, $350 Perkins, $159 Northern lights. Not in love with V drives but have driven Leopards and Mantas with straight drives. Both have lower bridge decks... deafening ! I wouldn't go lower that 3 cylinder and wouldn't have a saildrive Volvo or Yanmar. Not big on haling to service the drive. Also, aluminum left in salt water?

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Paul Annapolis

Heck--is Volvo even Swedish or is it Chinese these days?

The smaller ones being discussed are Japanese.

Mark

[colemj]

Originally Posted by duefocena

Not in love with V drives but have driven Leopards and Mantas with straight drives. Both have lower bridge decks... deafening !

Manta's all had saildrives, not shafts, so you have never been on one with a shaft drive. All Leopards for the past 10 years or so also have saildrives, but I don't know about the older RC models - I think they were shaft.

Saildrive, straight shaft, or v-drive has no bearing or influence whatsoever on bridge deck height.

Mark

[Sail IC]

Reading the OP, I wouldn't make Volvo vs. Yanmar such a big deal when deciding what used boat to buy.
I would decide boat on other factors.


But on the engine subject, if I sum up what I've been hearing people say ......
Volvo makes better saildrives and Yanmar makes better engines ...
So a wash in my view.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Sail IC

But on the engine subject, if I sum up what I've been hearing people say ......
Volvo makes better saildrives and Yanmar makes better engines ...
So a wash in my view.

Except that Volvo saildrives have been demonstrably and significantly proven to be better than Yanmars. Even the recommended service intervals, as well as the parts that need servicing, are significantly different.

The same cannot be said for the engines themselves. Most of Volvo's bad rap comes from a series of engines in the 1980's that were awful. Previous and post engines do not have that reputation - other than what has stuck in people's minds. I'm always amused when people speak lovingly about their Perkins Perama while denigrating the exact same engine with green paint.

I have put the relative parts cost misbelief to rest in other threads here - in summary, there is no difference.

If this were me, I would (in this order):
1. reconsider whether the engines need to be replaced at all.
2. heavily favor the brand of saildrive over the brand of engine
3. make a choice based on what fits the existing mounts, plumbing, electrical, etc.

Mark

[Sail IC]

Originally Posted by colemj

If this were me, I would (in this order):
1. reconsider whether the engines need to be replaced at all.
2. heavily favor the brand of saildrive over the brand of engine
3. make a choice based on what fits the existing mounts, plumbing, electrical, etc.

Mark

Agree with this, and I'm happy that my boat has Volvo D2-40/130S engine/drive. But having said that, if my cat of choice would have Yanmars in it, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. Other things are more important.

On your last point, not sure I would mix engine/drive brand. Seems like a recipe for trouble, but I'm not qualified to judge. Just my gut feel.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Sail IC

On your last point, not sure I would mix engine/drive brand. Seems like a recipe for trouble, but I'm not qualified to judge. Just my gut feel.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that in my last point. I don't think mixing engines/saildrives is even possible without custom conversions.

I just meant that if the boat was set up with, say, a Yanmar 30hp and saildrive, I would replace the old with a new Yanmar 30hp and saildrive, provided it most easily fit the existing mounts, plumbing, electrical, etc.

Mark

[Lunita]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. You are wondering if I really need to re-power. Good question. I have done a full re-build of a Volvo on my Halberg Rassey, and really it was not that bad of a job, except for pretty high prices for even simple parts like gaskets. Maybe I should ask what everyone thinks engine life is for 20 top 30 hp diesels? I am looking at cats with 5,000 to 7,000 hours. I have no idea what the life of a sail drive is, and imagine it might not be something I want to re-build myself.
I want to end up with reliable power and the best bang for the buck with respect to re-building, replacing and the long term costs of each option.
Thanks, CF is such a great way to tap into tons of real world experience!

[colemj]

If you are looking at mid-90's boats with 5-7000hrs on the engines, these are most likely ex-charter boats? If so, the engines could be near their end.

The saildrive shouldn't be a problem unless they have been abused terribly (crash shifting F-R, etc) or have repeatedly suffered water intrusion. At most, new clutch cones and seals. If they are Yanmar SD40/50 drives, however, they may be at end of life.

If you do repower, it makes best sense to also get new saildrives. The old engines and drives should fetch ~1/2 the price of the repower if they are still operable.

Mark

[Captain Bill]

I just replaced my 2002 Yanmar sd40 sail drives with sd60's. The sd40s had about 3200 hours on them and I had to haul the boat 4 times in two years for sail drive issues. You should note that the SD40/50 sail drive maintenance manual says the bearings have a service life of 1500 hours. It's pretty clear these things were not designed for cruisers, but to get weekenders in and out of the marina. The SD20's and SD31's on the other hand have a pretty good reputation. They were used on the lower HP yanmar engines. If you are looking at engines of 30 hp or less you probably have SD20s. I don't think there is any reason you should automatically repower with an SD20 sail drive. I don't believe any engine manufacturer makes its own sail drives. Volvo's were/are made by ZF and so is the new Yanmar SD60. Beta Marine also uses ZF drives. I don't know about Nanni, but their pictures sure look like ZF drives. The SD40s and SD50s were made by a different company out of Japan.

[a64pilot]

Silly question, but assuming the drives are good, why not re-build?
It seems that most buy a new engine, why?

[Ti' Punch]

Another vote for overhauling your existing engines. One thing to consider about buying new is that many of the new engines are now electronically managed to help meet stricter emissions requirements. This introduces a whole host of new failure points from sensors to the ECM itself. If your ECM module dies, you are dead in the water.

For instance, my boat suffered a direct lightning strike that disabled nearly all onboard electronics. My stone age, all mechanical, Yanmar 2GM20's circa 1990 both fired right up without a problem though. I don't think this would be the case if they had been modern ECM managed models.

I plan on rebuilding rather than replacing when the time comes.