New yacht - Old engine?

[E3Nomad]

I recently bought a 37' steel schooner in Greece, which was fitted with a marinized Ford XLD1.8 (Endura) engine. It suffered catastrophic failure halfway across the Ionian Sea due to the previous owner's maladjustment of the tensioner when replacing the cam belt. In Syracuse, Sicily a boatyard engineer sourced a used Ford Mondeo (car) engine, which we stripped and fitted with my original marinizing parts. Total cost inc. labour less than 2,000€, as compared to 5,000€-6,000€ or more if I'd had to replace a modern "marine" engine. I'm all for repurposing engines for which parts and spares are easily and cheaply available all over the world.

[barnakiel]

In a sailing boat, the engine is irrelevant. If you have one, you want one that starts every time you need it. That's that. Imho.


Cheers,

b.

[charliehows]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

In a sailing boat, the engine is irrelevant. If you have one, you want one that starts every time you need it. That's that. Imho.


Cheers,

b.

I agree with you in theory - a sailboat is for sailing - BUT -- in practice, I have come to love my little engines once they have been corrected as to previous owners neglects and stupiditys. The idea of using marinised car/truck/tractor engines has an appeal proportional to the exorbitant sums one has to pay for a marine engine - I'm glad to hear a few people have used their ingenuity to make it happen.

[hellosailor]

"If you have one, you want one that starts every time you need it."
Amen to that. I don't like stink, I don't like noise, I don't want an engine to impinge on my existence. But when the wind and current have gone wrong and I just need to get someplace...it is nice to know that I don't have to put out rowboats or wait for Flipper to show up.

[barnakiel]

Yes.

I too know a guy who gets Mercedes engines from scrap shops and turns them into 100% viable engines for his boat.

His engines come virtually free (less than 1k anyway) and they are way overpowering in his small boat.

Still, they do the job fine. Better to have a few horses too many than one too few. This is sure.

Cheers,
b.

[charliehows]

have to admit one of my guilty pleasures is motoring up the Parramatta river at 3am in the morning on a dead calm, dead flat sea, with only me and an occasional fisherman or police boat out and about...no use for the sails, and I've even come to love the sound of the noisy little diesel banging away under my feet