Rebuilt or New Engine?

[forsailbyowner]

If the engine you had has accessories to marinise this engine it seems like this is a good deal. Its a new engine and if your accessories fit youd be hard pressed to find a rebuild for the same price


Kubota D1005 Diesel Engine 3 Cylinder 1 0 Litter New 25HP Meets Tier 4 Nice | eBay

[perchance]

There are hundreds if not thousands of rebuilt engines in service running trouble free. The quality of the rebuild is key. If you do it yourself make sure you get the block and head boiled out so you can check the integrity of the castings and proceed from there.

[forsailbyowner]

Been looking around. not much to do today. I think your best bet is to find out for sure what block the beta diesel is made from. I keep coming up with the d1005 kubota. They abound for around $1200 used,or $3500 new then taking the appropriate parts off what you have and marinise the engine yourself. As soon as you mention marine diesel the price will double or triple. You already have the water pump">raw water pump, heat exchanger oil cooler transmission etc... to make it easy. Looking at the beta 28 brochure the new 25 d1005 looks awfully similiar. Id just about bet its the same block. Red paint optional

[roverhi]

Rebuilding an engine can be a very simple or very involved operation. If the crankshaft bearing surfaces are still round, it's just a matter of replacing old bearings with new. The piston bores will probably need to be cleaned up which will usually involve new pistons. The head may need to be resurfaced if it is warped. If not, it's a matter of doing a valve job and replacing the valve guides. Rocker arms, cam, etc usually don't need replacing but can. Rebuidling an injection pump is costly but doesn't always need to be done. Until you or the mechanic tear the engine down and check all the bits, the cost of a rebuild can't be determined but certainly is not a cheap operation. If done properly a rebuilt engine will run for a very long time though probably not as long as a new engine. Most sailboat engines fail from neglect and disuse than running too many hours. Many of the parts that should be replaced in a high time engine may still be in excellent shape on a relatively low hour sailboat engine.

The commercial rebuild houses can do thorough rebuilds at relatively low cost because they rebuild engines all the time. The mechanics are familiar with the engines they are working on and have the tools and machinery at hand to do the job quickly and efficiently. Having said that, have seen engines advertised as rebuilt that have had little more than a clean up and new paint. Quite often an unknowing owner thinks a rebuild is the same as doing a valve job. May have cured his starting issues but has done nothing for wear on other parts of the engine. If you go for a rebuilt engine, find out what parts were replaced and what was done on the rebuild. The reputation of the rebuilder is very important. There are quality people and not so quality people in every business.

One thing in the rebuilt/replace decision is the cost of installing a different engine over dropping the same make of engine back in. An engine change can cost as much or more than the engine in if there is considerable work needed to accommodate the new/different engine. Be sure that it's a drop in or you have to figure in the cost of making the different engine fit. Spent over two boat units for a mechanic to help me to do a proper install of the Yanmar in my current boat. The PO had done a crappy job of replacing the A4 with the Yanmar and the engine couldn't be aligned so ate shaft log bearings at an astonishing rate. Had to fabricate new brackets for the engine mounts, use different engine mounts and modify the engine bed. Can't imagine what a yard would have charged for the work that the mechanic and I did to get the engine to fit.

[Cheechako]

Nothing wrong with a rebuilt FROM A RELIABLE SOURCE. Be very aware that there are a lot of engines out there called rebuilt, when you pin the seller down you get things like: "well... the previous owner said it was rebuilt by the guy he bought it from...." ask for receipts. and ask WHAT was rebuilt..injection pump too? etc.
If you can replace with the same type engine your life gets a lot easier.

[forsailbyowner]

Ok looking at the beta 28hp its listed as a bd1005. So its a d1005 with the red paint and exhaust, raw water cooling system. I see d1005s around for not much. It seems the going rate is around $3100 NEW on a crate. Strangely enough the rebuilt ones I saw were more than that and if you went for a new beta diesel I will bet your talking double that amount. The only difference is the red paint and betas markup. Same goes for parts. Aside from the few parts beta bolts on all parts are available from implement dealers who's markup isnt near what youll find for the same "marine" parts ordered from beta or universal. The parts you pull off to change out can be sold to recoup even more of the money. Exhaust manifold gaskets and the like can be reused so save money there if the engine hasnt been started. So... I would either buy a used pull out and spend about $1500 including new belts and hoses for a used motor or $3100 for a new crate motor using the parts you sold like alternator, exhaust manifold to buy new hoses belts to pay for new rubber for the marinised version. You get to avoid all the capitalist markups made by the middle men and get a new engine for less than the cost of a rebuild and waaayyyy less than the cost of a new beta or westerbeke. The mechanics end of it is on the lower of the difficulty scale since your simply bolting on external parts to the same engine being pulled. Mating the engine to trans and new damper plate would be the hardest part of it.