Replacing Our Universal 25XP

[susan kennedy]

We are replacing the Universal 25XP on our Morgan 34. We are going back and forth between another Universal: the 25XPB or going with a Yanmar 3ym30. We will be doing the installation ourselves. The Universal is more expensive but we figure it would be a very close replacement and therefore easier to install than the Yanmar, whose mounting dimensions re different.

Anyone have experience replacing their Universal with either another Universal or the Yanmar?
I would appreciate any advice/observations/warnings.

Thanks
Patrick

[susan kennedy]

come on, we cant be the ONLY people who have replaced their engine by themselves!

[Cheechako]

If you liked your original Universal and if the latest version is near identical, just go with that... easier installation! The Yanmars are not bulletproof. I'm surprised the Uni is more money....? Not sure where you live... will you install yourselves or hire it? If yourselves, consider getting two bidders involved in the pricing: Call the one further away and try, "I'm buying a XXX diesel and just wonder if you can do any better than $XXX on one to make it worth driving the 100 miles?" Then go back to the original and ask him to beat the new price.... I guess you may have already done this.....

[danhaun]

I only have two hours on the motor but I was very satisfied with the way the Universal fit on my engine bed. I had to cut the bed down a bit and put in aluminum rails to mount the engine but this required for a lot of measuring, building two jigs and we actually cut it twice before getting it right. Without the engine bed modifications we would have saved 20 hours of work.

By our calculations, the Yanmar would have required custom-made brackets to adapt to our application and I saw some photos of these breaking at the welds.

If I were you, I would go with the same engine but check on delivery time tables. I had to wait 5 weeks to get the engine and I picked it up at the distributor. Mine required a v-drive and maybe that's what took so long.

The Beta is based on the Kubota block. Pictures from my experience are posted at Flickr: boat-a-holic's Photostream

We did 90% of the work ourselves but used a mechanic to help set the engine and align.

Good luck

[susan kennedy]

We will probably go with the Universal M25XPB. It is closer than the yanmar, but not an exact match to our old Universal M25xp footprint-- the distance between engine mounts, fore and aft, seems to be longer on the new universal. The width looks the same, so I just have to extend the bed in one dimension only.

I will be doing the work myself here in Fort Lauderdale. I have been comparing prices for months now, haggling back and forth. Right now my best price, a "boat show" price is about the same as the price of a Yanmar.

Not sure if there will be a wait, but it would be ok as I still have the old engine to remove, and will be replacing the wiring, watermaker etc. while the engine is out.

Dan, thanks for the pics
Patrick