Westerbeke 70 'Kiss of Death' ?

[Richard Jordan]

I updated my poorly written review and linked back to here. I apologize for my original vagueness. I hope people find useful, accurate information there. I take this all seriously and value the criticism.

[goboatingnow]

If you owned a cummins you wouldnt worry about it breaking down et all

yeah, they never start in the first place.

dave

[tranmkp]

I joined just so I could comment - I have a W70 in my Power boat (Albin 27) it has 4500 hours, done 2 great loops and more - Its been a great engine - I did replace the heat exchanger for a larger one because the water here in Texas is a lot warmer that the water in Canada. I just installed a new water pump - it just wore out. It uses no oil - does not smoke - I run it hard - 3400 rpm sometimes - usually 2500rpm. I did a leak down test and the compression was above 500 is three cylinders and 480 in one. The injectors are still like new. Ive replaced thermostats, some coolant manifold gaskets, just small stuff. Starter is starting to act up. Easy to repair. Certain parts are expensive other parts are market cost - Its been a great engine - I have the Wix crossreference for oil filters to save a few bucks on oil filters.

http://www.artshot.net/westy.jpg

[Grayl]

Good day everyone,
I am at a point in life to purchase a sailboat. My wife and I are interested in a Hylas 44. It is one with the W70 and the small cockpit. We like the boat and this exchange has been of interest. While there are many items to be repaired/replaced, if I were to repower it appears that Yanmar is the preferred engine, what ballpark am I looking at to repower the 44? In one review it spoke about the difficulty of getting the engine in and out. We like the solidity of the boat, it's beauty, and layout. I imagine this would be one of the greatest costs we would face.

Also, I have a question regarding the keel. I've asked around to get someone to explain the keel to me. Many are surprised at the fiberglass stub with an external lead wrap. What are the benefits over a standard external or internal keel.

Thanks for your time and answers.

Grayl

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Grayl

Good day everyone,
I am at a point in life to purchase a sailboat. My wife and I are interested in a Hylas 44. It is one with the W70 and the small cockpit. We like the boat and this exchange has been of interest. While there are many items to be repaired/replaced, if I were to repower it appears that Yanmar is the preferred engine, what ballpark am I looking at to repower the 44? In one review it spoke about the difficulty of getting the engine in and out. We like the solidity of the boat, it's beauty, and layout. I imagine this would be one of the greatest costs we would face.

Also, I have a question regarding the keel. I've asked around to get someone to explain the keel to me. Many are surprised at the fiberglass stub with an external lead wrap. What are the benefits over a standard external or internal keel.

Thanks for your time and answers.

Grayl

What's wrong with the Westerbeke? Do you want to repower just because someone wrote a bad review of it? It's a decent engine -- a marinized Perkins design made by Mazda. If it is running well, I wouldn't worry about it.

I had a Westerbeke marinized Perkins on the last boat -- admittedly a different engine, a 4-108. It spewed oil its whole life but was phenomenally durable -- still going strong today with 20,000+ hours and never even had the head off.

To repower a boat like that in the U.S. with a new Yanmar will likely cost in the neighborhood of $20,000. It ain't cheap.

[Richard Jordan]

$20k is a fair estimate. There's been good positive feedback in this thread from owners with 70's like @dockhead says. No reason to catastrophize. All these are old engines anyways, so you can expect issues.

The idea on the keel shoe was more structural strength. The 44's were massively built for offshore, and the keel arrangement you mention was one of the features marketed.

Does she have the offset berth aft too? I never nailed down which ones have that instead of the centerline queen. I hope to get out to Seattle next month and see the two for sale out there. I grew up around and love these old sail boats.

I was in Cartagena, Colombia last month and was shocked to see two beautiful 44's side by side at the Club de Pescas!

RJ

[S/V Alchemy]

I repowered a 1980s W-52 with a Beta Marine 60, mainly because rebuilding the Westerbeke would cost 90% of the price of new, and because I wanted better fuel efficiency and easily obtained Kubota parts.

That said, I learned that my W-52 was in fact an S2 block type 2200cc Mazda small diesel that went into hundreds of thousands of Mazda B2200s and Ford Rangers in the '80s and '90s and that I could save a lot of money buying MAZDA rebuild kits (mostly from Australia where a farm pickup is expected to last 30 years and/or 400,000 miles) instead of WESTERBEKE.

So if you know your W-70 is a Mazda block, find out WHICH Mazda block, and I suspect reputable spares exist all over the world, but particularly in Asia.

See Mazda Diesel engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The W-70s is the 3.0L Mazda HA type block.

[Grayl]

Thank you very much for your feedback on the W70 and the keel arrangement of the Hylas 44. It seems that the engine is not a must do thing. I appreciate the information on the parts as well. The engine on the 44 we're looking at has far fewer miles than the 20,000+ that was mentioned. The feedback you all gave continues to support we are heading in the right direction.
Thank you for your responses.