End of season engine maintenance - DIY or hire a pro?

[Symphony]

the most difficult part of it all for me is Not Making a Mess spilling oil or pink stuff.

the rest is relatively easy.

[Cool Hand Luke]

Awesome thread!!

I feel like I learned a lot from just reading all the posts. I'm in New Jersey (right outside of NYC) and will be winterizing my Jeanneau probably some time in November. I told my neighbor I'll pay him for his time to help me out the first time and it's definitely worth to have someone watching over your back. I do agree it's somewhat fun and you can definitely learn a lot and that knowledge may help you when you're out and time is of the essence.

A big thank you to everyone that contributed!!

[Boston Blackie]

I modified a replacement toilet flush tank float valve to add a garden hose attachment. I attach the hose and drop the works in a 5 gal bucket along with a 3' hose attached to a gate valve teed in above the raw water through hull. Turn on the hose which fills the bucket and then run the engine to flush out salt and suspend crud and warm up the oil. Shut off the hose and shut down engine. Fill bucket with 5 gal of purple. Restart engine and suck that thru. Then change the oil and filter. Good to go.

[J Clark H356]

When I first got my Hunter 356 I had it winterized every year by professional mechanics. I decided I needed to learn how to do it myself, so the first year I worked alongside the mechanic and we both did the winterization. I wrote a checklist, installed some T’s in the lines, built a bucket with a valve and hose to connect to the T’s and have been doing it ever since.

None of the work involved is rocket science. It is mostly common sense and following procedure. Also you need the correct parts and tools. Once you’ve done it you will know your boat better.

[a64pilot]

Many years ago there was a book written by I believe an aircraft structural engineer on how to keep your VW alive.
In it he postulated that no one had enough money to pay someone else to repair their VW. It was just too simple and the rewards of doing it yourself were too great.
I have always liked that observation, and have thought that if more people actually worked on what they owned and operated, then maybe they would be better designed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir_(engineer)

Anyway, no one makes enough money to pay someone else to maintain their sailboat engine.

[patprice]

Originally Posted by Symphony

the most difficult part of it all for me is Not Making a Mess spilling oil or pink stuff.

the rest is relatively easy.

DO get a GOOD oil extractor similar to this...

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-...23?recordNum=3

and an oil filter wrench.

[RSB333]

Go for it. Read up or use a checklist from Nigel Calder's book. I have never used a pro, and never had a problem - and I'm an accountant.

[Mithril Bham]

Originally Posted by patprice

DO get a GOOD oil extractor similar to this...

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-...23?recordNum=3

and an oil filter wrench.

Spend $150 on a good electric oil pump. Well worth it. Mine is mounted on the engine room wall and permanently connected to oil pan. Sure makes it easy.

[Mirage35]

Originally Posted by magellanyachts

Do it yourself. If you don't feel confident hire someone experienced to look over your shoulder the first time. It's important to be familiar with your engine. Can save your life or, at least, your boat.

Plus, it's sort of fun.

This! I'm doing it myself for the first time this fall, and I'll probably pay someone to watch while I do the work. Yes, I could probably do it without help, but I'd like to be sure I don't miss anything and am always willing to learn from others' experience.

(My financial philosophy for the first year of boat ownership is to pay whatever it takes. Next year I'll start looking at where I can save money, where I can do it myself vs. hiring professionals, and so on.)

[LongRange]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Of course, nobody has so far asked where you'll be leaving the boat or how cold it gets....

I'm able to do things myself, changing the oil is quite easy but flushing the salt water system water, then filling it with antifreeze takes some thought....

I hope this helps...

I should have mentioned the location - Aegina Island in the Saronic Gulf, just South of Athens. Sub-zero temperatures are definitely a possibility, so I need to take that into account.

Thank you. I really appreciate the time you and others took to offer suggestions and advice. I do need to learn more about the engine, and that should perhaps be the primary consideration. It is fair to say that I am inadequately knowledgeable about the boat's powerplant.

[Mithril Bham]

Originally Posted by LongRange

I should have mentioned the location - Aegina Island in the Saronic Gulf, just South of Athens. Sub-zero temperatures are definitely a possibility, so I need to take that into account.

Thank you. I really appreciate the time you and others took to offer suggestions and advice. I do need to learn more about the engine, and that should perhaps be the primary consideration. It is fair to say that I am inadequately knowledgeable about the boat's powerplant.

I have a permanent valve installed off of a hose that makes draining into a bucket simple. Important to bring it up to temp to open thermostat when flushing.Helps that my engine is raised and driven by belts which gives me a lot of space under the engine. Get a good manual on your engine and read it.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by LongRange

After 4 months of faultless service this summer, the Volvo D2-75 in our Dufour 455 is about to take a break for 6 months during the European winter.

Is it feasible for a reasonably competent amateur to perform the requisite checks and maintenance on that engine, to ensure it is ready for another equally faultless summer next year, or is it a better idea to pay a professional to maintain the engine?

Partly depends on whether you mean winterization... or some other service.

If the former... there's not really much to do, in winter. Change the oil (engine and gear, and genset), change the filters, flush the raw water cooling systems with suitable antifreeze, done. Then in Spring, change the coolant and fuel filters.

There's the rest of the boat to winterize, too, of course. Plumbing, ACs, heads, etc. Are you good to go with that part of it?

If you've never done that stuff, one approach might be to hire a tech do do the work and show you how at the same time. The next time, you can decide how much to do yourself...

FWIW, after I do the oil changes, I have our yard flush our engine/genset raw water cooling systems anyway, even though I can do it myself. Takes them about 45 minutes for them to flush, using a huge portable tank and pump, whereas I can't even hump that much antifreeze down the dock that quickly. In this case, their labor cost is relatively trivial...

If you mean some other service... depends.

-Chris

[LongRange]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

Partly depends on whether you mean winterization... or some other service.

If the former... there's not really much to do, in winter. Change the oil (engine and gear, and genset), change the filters, flush the raw water cooling systems with suitable antifreeze, done. Then in Spring, change the coolant and fuel filters.

There's the rest of the boat to winterize, too, of course. Plumbing, ACs, heads, etc. Are you good to go with that part of it?

If you've never done that stuff, one approach might be to hire a tech do do the work and show you how at the same time. The next time, you can decide how much to do yourself...

FWIW, after I do the oil changes, I have our yard flush our engine/genset raw water cooling systems anyway, even though I can do it myself. Takes them about 45 minutes for them to flush, using a huge portable tank and pump, whereas I can't even hump that much antifreeze down the dock that quickly. In this case, their labor cost is relatively trivial...

If you mean some other service... depends.

-Chris

Thanks, the rest of it I intend to do myself. There is no AC, and the plumbing is something that I am reasonably OK with, having replaced just about all the pumps since we took delivery of the boat.

The engine is my biggest concern because it is obviously a critical system, and because I somehow managed to avoid learning the practicalities of maintaining an engine. A potential issue is that I only have about a week before the boat is meant to come out of the water, and maybe a week or two to get everything winternised for a 6-month period. I don't know whether it is feasible to fit too much reading into two or three rather busy weeks.

Thanks for the advice.

[lamadriver]

If that's the case , find someone that will do it with you and pay for a little lesson .

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by LongRange

The engine is my biggest concern because it is obviously a critical system, and because I somehow managed to avoid learning the practicalities of maintaining an engine. A potential issue is that I only have about a week before the boat is meant to come out of the water, and maybe a week or two to get everything winternised for a 6-month period. I don't know whether it is feasible to fit too much reading into two or three rather busy weeks.

Aside from the "learning while you're doing" thing, and maybe any access issues you might have that coiuld make things take a bit longer... the actual amount of work to winterize the engine, and the actual time necessary to do that work, isn't really huge.

One (relatively small?) engine, say 4 hours total (more or less) to winterize, assuming no built-in oil sucker and if you maybe have a decent transfer pump available for flushing the raw water side.

You can break that into two halves, if necessary. Oil change while in the water (helps immensely to be able to run the engine beforehand, to heat the oil enough to make it more easily suck-able.) Flushing raw water either while in the water or on the hard.

Just to add a bit more about maintenance NOT necessarily related to winterizing... for later... some other likely chores might be periodic zinc anode replacement (usually easy), periodic flushing of the heat exchanger (raw water and freshwater/coolant sides), ditto aftercooler (but you likely don't have one of those), periodic belt replacement, periodic raw water pump impeller replacement, etc.

"Periodic" varies quite a but for those, depending on engine, usage, etc... but most of those individually don't take much learning either. Your engine's service manual should have the table of periods, and will likely have instructions. If that's still a bit intimidating, pay a tech to walk you through it... could be money well spent.

-Chris