Plan for First Start of Diesel in Five Years

[TopHat]

Hi All,
Ive purchased a yacht, with an Arona 10hp diesel, AL186 M, this engine has not been strated for at a guess 5yrs, except a couple of months ago, when it was started by the previous owner, it fired up & ran for a few seconds before being shut down, due to unsure if any damage would be done by running it, Or it may of stopped by itself after a few seconds, unfortuneatly im not sure about this obviously important point.
I was going to change the diesel, fuel filters, oil & oil filters before starting it, but after reading through some relevant threads on these forums.. would it be better to make sure theres enough oil in the engine & just try to start it?..then do the fuel/oil & filter changes after i know it works?

Background: this is the first diesel engine ive owned, but ive done some basic diesel operation courses, years ago & have just re-read my notes, but this sort of dilema was not covered, im familar with the very basic operations of how a diesel works.
would really apprieciate any comments or advice
cheers
Shaun

[Ram]

Yesteray I started a diesel engine that had not been started in 4-5 years, first thing I did was remove the glow pugs an shoot some PB blaster in each of the 6 cycenders, then let sit for a few moments, then I turned her over maybe 10 times , put the plugs back in an she fired right up- I turned her off after 30 seconds because I have not changed any of the filters or oil- all the oil /filters in mine were change just before I stopped using her 4-5 years ago,and will change them again before I run it anymore- so im certinly not an expert on any of this, this is just what I i did , and all seems well

[Wotname]

Hmm... I just started my new diesel (Yanmar 2GM20) after 7 years of sitting in the boat with zero hours on it.

Hand cranked it with decompression levers pulled for a dozen turns or so. Then with bleed the filters, injector pump and through to the injectors.

Then turned it over on the starter motor with fuel rack closed (stop position) and decompression levers pulled until had positive oil pressure. Seacock was closed (off) during all this.

Then turned it over on starter motor (with compression) and fuel rack closed (stop position).

Finally opened seacock, put fuel rack in run (idle) position, hit the starter and away she went nicely idling.

Hope it works out OK for you.

[captain58sailin]

If the engine has been sitting that long, before I would roll the engine over, I would change oil & filters, and also the fuel & filters. If there are any contaminants in the system, you should get most of them out before trying to turn the engine over, otherwise you just distribute the contaminants and really have no idea where to start trouble shooting. If you have clean oil & fuel in the unit then start turning over the motor with out starting the engine until you are showing oil pressure, you are much less likely to import problems from the fuel or oil. It will be hard to say what state the rings & valves will be in or the main bearings for that matter. When I stow my boat for a long period of time I always overfill my engine with oil to help protect things on the bottom end anyways.