International Harvester D-90 Engine

[jyonemura]

I'm looking at a boat with these engines. Does anyone know the fuel consumption in gallons per hour or nautical miles per gallon? Also, is it difficult to get parts? Thanks a lot. john

[River Cruiser]

I worked for a IH dealer back in the 70s, they made some very good Diesel engines but they have not been in business for years, the company and all of its divisions were sold off. Case bought the agricultural, Dresser bought most of the construction division, IH kept the highway trucks. As far as marine engines the parts required for marinization are probable scarce. If it is a DT466 that 6 cylinder model is still in production and someone may be marinizing them, excellent engine.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by jyonemura

I'm looking at a boat with these engines. Does anyone know the fuel consumption in gallons per hour or nautical miles per gallon? Also, is it difficult to get parts? Thanks a lot. john

Fuel consumption of a diesel can be approximated from the horsepower and this formula:

HP/18 = US gallons per hour (approximately)

So for example, if these engines are putting out 50HP then they should consume about 4.4 gallons per hour.

Nautical miles per gallon has no simple formula. But if you drive the boat and note the RPMs you can get an idea of the horsepower from the engine datasheet. Usually they will publish a HP vs. RPM curve. But this is an inexact method because the propeller has a lot to do with RPM and HP.

[TacomaSailor]

I cannot find a reference to an IH D-90. The IH parts web site shows the D engines started with D-178 or maybe 155 if you go back far enough.

LandRover, in the late 1980s, made a D-90 (Defender Series) that used a 2.5 liter IH diesel, which seems to have come in an NA and Turbo version. Is that possibly the engine you are asking about?

However, in the 1950s Lathrop built a D-90 diesel that was rated at 90 HP at 900 RPM. It was 6-cylinders and 998 cubic inches with a weight of 4,100 pounds.

That does not sound like a sailboat engine.

Do you have any more particulars?

I have a computer program that does a very good job of predicting fuel consumption for a diesel engine. It needs

LOA
LWL
Displacement
BSFC for the particular engine (I can estimate this pretty closely knowing the age / build date of the engine)
Propellor curve / HP delivered to the water (I use a cubic curve for default and it works well)
Max engine speed
Engine power curve (this is only a fine detail for a better approximation)