High Hours and Service Life?

[boatpoker]

1971 Perkins HT6-354 turbo after cooled. 5 ring version

Major rebuild at 20,000hrs. It didn't really need it, there was just a tiny bit of slap in #6 but I did it anyway. Since rebuild has done one trip Georgian Bay - Honduras - Return and two trips Toronto - Bahamas - Return ..... problem free.

In the first 20,000hrs - Three lift pumps, one injection pump rebuild, one alternator replacement, one heat exchanger replacement and one transmission rebuild. Otherwise just regular maintenance.

[MAJICDAN]

It sounds like I am very lucky. I have a 1974 Gulfstar with the original engine. It has a Perkins 6.354 135 hp NA that has about 110.000 hours on it, if you can believe the hour meter and the original owner. After a head job, the mechanic says that it still has good compression, and it still runs and starts well.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by MAJICDAN

It sounds like I am very lucky. I have a 1974 Gulfstar with the original engine. It has a Perkins 6.354 135 hp NA that has about 110.000 hours on it, if you can believe the hour meter and the original owner. After a head job, the mechanic says that it still has good compression, and it still runs and starts well.

WoW ! at 7nmph that's equal to 35.6 circumnavigations

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

WoW ! at 7nmph that's equal to 35.6 circumnavigations

And about 12 1/2 years of continuous running, which means that this engine has been running continuously for about 1/4 of the time since new.

Incredible!

Jim

[MAJICDAN]

When you figure that my Gulfstar is 45 years old, has been around the world twice, 110,000 hours is not an unreasonable number.

Perkins built motors back then that were lightly stressed, relative low rpm, and had six ring pistons. It was 354 cu in and only 135 hp. It runs best between 1500 and 2000 rpm.

I wish they still made motors like this one.

[MAJICDAN]

Since we live in Florida, we use our boat year around.

We put 3000 miles on our Gulfstar last winter traveling to the Bahamas twice, the Dry Tortugas, and around to Tampa and back to Ft Pierce.

Since Osiris is about 65 ft overall and it is a motorsailer we tend to run the motor at a low speed most of the time to compliment the sails.

We usually only stop the motor when the winds are over 25 mph. Osiris weighs over 26 tons and sails well in 25 to 35 mph winds.