If You're Thinking Yanmar, Think Twice

[Daedalusk]

In 2004 I installed a 4JH4E Yanmar engine in a boat I built. After 7 years and 1,000 hours, the gear-driven cooling water pump began to leak through the ceramic seal, so I bought a kit and rebuilt it. So far so good, but rebuilding the pump is not something you can do on the fly, so I began to think this would be a good time to stock a spare pump. Think again. This gear driven water pump sells for $723 from Yanmar. This for an engine that costs about $8000.
Turns out the pumps are made in Sweden and I could buy one through my parts dealer for $260. But, Yanmar uses a proprietary version of the pump that is identical to the standard except the shaft is 1/2" longer. This means the gear on the standard pump will not mesh with the gear inside the Yanmar engine. You have to pay Yanmar $463 extra for that longer shaft.
My parts man was apologetic, but said I should be thankful I did not need a piston or connecting rod. It appears Yanmar does not want to keep its engines running, it only wants to sell new ones.