Marinising a 2.0 hdi

[Boatfamily]

G'day everyone

I am toying with the idea of putting a engine i have sitting in a car in my paddock as i have all the marinising gear off the engine in the boat being a ford 170ci petrol straight 6 engine and want to convert to a 2.0 hdi dw10l4 diesel 4 cylinder.
Firstly does anyone see a problem with the existing heat exchanger being able to keep up with the diesel?
Secondly it is common rail and i have been on contact with a ECU programmer who is confident in cracking the ECU and making a stand alone engine harness but i wonder how the electronics go with boat life?
The engine is smaller and lighter then the existing one but produces arpund 136hp and 340nm do you think the borgwarner velvet drive will handle this power level? Its gearing is 2.75-1

Thanks
Brendon

[Compass790]

I'm guessing only as I'm not an engine designer but I'd imagine the 2.0 litre diesel did not have a bigger radiator than the 2.8 litre ( approx )petrol engine did in a car so good chance the hx is up to the task.
Plenty of modern boat diesels are ECU controlled, if the units are reliable in the car good chance they should be ok in boat. I'd imagine they are sealed units but don't know. I'd prefer mechanical injection ( easier to fix & proven reliability) myself as lots of those ECU's are a complete ripoff to replace but you could carry a spare if worried.
Apply the same thinking to the gearbox, if the original engine had similar power & torque gearbox should be fine.

[Westcliffe01]

Make sure you have a good multi stage fuel filtration setup since that high pressure injection system will be destroyed in no time at all if you manage to feed it contaminated fuel. Then there is no way to fix it while out at sea either.

[Lepke]

I doubt a gas heat exchanger will cool a diesel at full power. Build or buy a water cooled exhaust manifold. A car manifold puts out a tremendous amount of heat, not noticed in a car.
If you're on a lake or river electronics are ok. I wouldn't have them on the ocean. I have a Ford diesel pu with too many sensors and got towed 3 times last year. And got brand new Ford parts that were no good. I know commercial fishermen and tug operators that carry tons of spare electronic parts. It's not the ocean environment, it's the unreliability of electronic sensors, computers, etc.

[Boatfamily]

Hi everyone Thanks for the responses
@Lepke i will be building a wet manifold for this engine and like it petrol engine to keep engine room temps down
The boat won't be a open ocean cruiser more of a bay and lakes cruiser for weekends away so if anything goes amiss we won't be in major danger and we tow a 3.4m tinnie behind so have back up if needed

I will run dual fuel filters with water traps to hopefully keep the fuel clean