Parts from an MD2 11C with Saildrive

[Charlie]

Hi all:

I am looking at a 1981 boat that has a Volvo MD2 11C engine with a sail drive. I have never had a boat with a sail drive before and was wondering if people who have had both could comment on the differences in maintenance etc. Also I have heard that parts are difficult to find for this engine and was wondering if that was true or a rumor. Please let me know. I assume the engine is original.

[Paul L]

Volvo parts pricing is available online here Volvo Penta, Mercruiser and more - Marine Parts Express - engines, outdrives, propellers

[never monday]

Charlie,
I'd have a jaded eye toward a repower.

[Charlie]

NM:

That was my thought and I'm pulling away b/c of that. It seems to me that after 33 years the boat is going to need a new engine. The boats were installed with Volvo 110s (i think) saildrives. I don't know anything about saildrives. Is that going to need replacement too or just the engine?

[never monday]

It's an aluminum sail drive constantly submerged in sea water. At some point it could get expensive.
I haven't looked up 110 parts in years so I don't have a good feel for availability.
IMHO, saildrive set ups should be a 20y life cycle then replace it in salt water.

Volvo has had several sail drives and several attachment styles to different engines. Some are easy, some more complex to include total electrical isolation. Between the aluminum saildrive and the steel engine.

If I were to do it as a repower project. I'd replace everything and sell off what's left over.

[Tia Bu]

Just went through this exercise with a 35 year old Volvo MD7a. I was ready to purchase a new engine and start the repowering project. Then I talked to a friend with a lot of experience who had repowered his previous boat. He said, in hindsight, there was no way he would replace a diesel engine that was still running.

So I spent a small fraction of the money cleaning up my old engine, rebuilding and replacing everything I could find wrong with it, having the injection pump rebuilt, etc. It now purrs like a kitten and looks great.

I think my friend gave me good advice. Everyone I talked to who was in the engine-selling business gave me the opposite advice, for what it's worth.

[Charlie]

I can understand the keep it running school of thought but I don't want to be working on the engine b/c I have limited time to play with my boat as it is.

[Charlie]

So here is the work done on the engine on the boat that I am considering making an offer on:

when overhauling the engine the following works have been done:


• Boring of cylinders.
• New pistons.
• Smoothed the engine head.
• Cleaned ignitors.
• Serviced the fuel pump.
• Serviced the alternator.
• Serviced the water impeller pump.
• Cleaned the salt water cooling circuit.

I assume iginitors means injectors. The engine was supposed to have only 1200 hours on it when all of this was done and 400 hours since it was done. I can see that if you sailed everywhere. When I had the my boat in San Francisco I think I only put an hour a month on the boat b/c That was all I needed to get the boat out of the slip and back in. My thought now is to negotiate the price down a little and count on redoing the engine next year when I have more time.

[Tia Bu]

In my book, that's a rebuilt engine. While not the same as a new engine, it's similar.

Does it run o.k.? In the photos, it looks very good.

[Charlie]

I haven't seen photos of it yet.

[never monday]

no mention of valve facing, or bearing replacements.

[roverhi]

These engines are rebuildable in the boat with the exception of the main bearings. The cylinders, heads, etc are removable which sounds like what they did and machined the parts. The lower ends on these engines are hell for stout and probably wouldn't need servicing for many thousands of hours as long as there was no water in the oil and the oil was changed regularly. Can't imagine they would go to all the trouble to resurface the heads without lapping the valves but you should check on what was actually done.

They say the fuel pump has been serviced. There are two pumps, one supplies fuel to the injection pump and is relatively cheap. The injection pump is very high pressure and are very expensive to rebuild or buy new. Might want to check on what they actually worked on. Injection pumps will work many thousands of hours as long as they don't get dirty/water laden fuel.

I'd be more worried about the sail drive. As others have said, it's aluminum underwater. Will last a long time as long as there is no electrolysis. With electrolysis it could be toast in a matter of hours. Obviously this one hasn't any problems so far so may be good for a lot longer. Replacing the engine/saildrive will be a very expensive proposition, probably 10 boat units or more.

As far as diesels, there really isn't much work to do on them except normal servicing. The coolant impellor should be checked annually so will probably need to be done. Other than that, with clean fuel and regular oil changes, they either work or they don't. When they don't it's expensive. I wouldn't be too concerned about the reliability of this engine since it's had a major overhaul and the only suspect thing would be the injector pump and that very well may also be a non issue.

[Kristian]

Hi,
I have had this engine / saildrive combo in 2 boats.
First it is either a MD2 or Md11.
These engines are very similar but different,
The Md11 is more recent with replacable ( I think you say wet liners in English) These are replacable and if the engine is rebuilt I would personally replace them. It says cylinders rebored , this is an operation that relates to the MD2b that has not got the replacable wet liners..
I guess the best thing would be to ask for the invoice etc from the guy that did the job on the engine to get a real grip on what was really done.

In my opinion you do not wear these engines out, they get problems from internal corosion / blocking. This problem is less pronounced if fresh water cooled or properly serviced at layup with flushing in sweet water and then fogging oil.
I would recommend that you ask if the engine was properly cleaned internally when it sounds like they stripped it.
The exhaust bend where the saltwater is injected into the muffler needs replacing every 10 years since it is made from cast iron and corrode. ( many are remade in SS at a rather low cost).
The bearing replacement is something I have never heard of on these engines and I do not think Volvo ever included any low end bearings in the rebuild kits.

In Sweden there are spare parts easily available and at prices that are really low

The S110 saildrive should really not be a problem if the Zinc has been changed every year and the boat has not had a problem with leak current.

One thing to look for is the rubber seal for the S drive , it shall be changed every 7 years and even if it is not too difficult it might be a thing easily postponed to another year...This is not good since the boat floats on this rubber collar.
The pros with the saildrive is more quiet running with less vibrations and of course no dripping stuffing box.

I quite like this old slow reving ( 2500 rpm max) long stroke work horse that I find easy to work on and generally a simple good engine.
The Saildrive ( internally ) is not a DIY project if you are not an advanced mechanic.

The original folding propeller ( cast iron ) does not give the best effect when in reverse.
We used a fixed propeller on the first boat and uppgraded to the current VP skewed three bladed bronze prop on the second boat. ( not cheap but worked really nice with performance comparable to a fixed prop.)

Good luck!
Rgds

Kristian

[Charlie]

Hi everyone thanks for the comments. I don't know anything about saildrives but I am thinking that if I do need to replace the engine I'd look at the Beta. about $10k plus the cost of the saildrive.

Never Monday I'll ask about the bearings and the valves. The engine only has 1600 hours so I am thinking that it wouldn't need the bottom rebuilt. Is that correct. We are planning on using the boat for a month a year for the next four or five years and storing it out of the water the rest of the year. I will have to find the best method for laying up the boat.

Rover HI I'll ask about which pump was serviced. That would be good to know. I don't think it is worth putting much money into a 30 year old engine. If I have to drop a new one in I'll do it and just put that in to my spreadsheet for the value of the boat.

Kirstian:
Thanks for sharing your knowledge of the engines. I'll ask which one it is. It would be nice if it was the MD11 but given the age I guess it is an MD2. I'll see if I can get some pictures of the saildrive.

Does anyone know if the saildrives are rebuildable or if they just need to be replaced.

[perchance]

Originally Posted by never monday

It's an aluminum sail drive constantly submerged in sea water. At some point it could get expensive.
I haven't looked up 110 parts in years so I don't have a good feel for availability.
IMHO, saildrive set ups should be a 20y life cycle then replace it in salt water.

Volvo has had several sail drives and several attachment styles to different engines. Some are easy, some more complex to include total electrical isolation. Between the aluminum saildrive and the steel engine.

If I were to do it as a repower project. I'd replace everything and sell off what's left over.

The guts for the sail drive may be readily available but finding a good used or new case may be problematic should the boat need one.