disel engine

[Mr. Fixit]

Does anybody have anything good or bad to say about a Volvo disel, I am looking at a model 2020. this will be on a 30 ft sloop.
I can save quite a bit of money . Checked out Kubota, and Yanmar

[Alan Wheeler]

You can SAVE money on a Volvo, that'l be a first. Personaly I would have the Yanmar anyday. And when it comes to the day of repairing the Volvo, it won't be cheap anymore. I would suggest the Yanmar would eventually work out cheaper.

[Vasco]

My experience with Volvo has been terrible! I had a brand new 2003 in 1988, Volvo said it was state of the art, I became to see it as experimental. In the first year it burned so much oil I went back to Volvo, they said run it for a season ( we don't sail in the winter here, the water's too hard) Next season I went back to them, they said I was out of warranty!! After a lot of hassling including talking to Sweden they finally rebuilt the engine. It still never ran properly, couldn't idle, lots of problems. Afer two more seasons I replaced it with a Yanmar 3GM30F. Couldn't be happier. Since then I've always said that if I were buying a used boat with a Volvo in it I would factor a new engine into the offering price. Many people have had problems with the 2000 series (2001, 2002, 2003 2003T). The 20 series is different in that Volvo stopped using their own blocks in their small diesels after the 2000 series fiasco. They may be better but once bitten ...

If you think you can save money with the Volvo you might become quite famous as it'll be a first.

[Alan Wheeler]

Ooooh, that sounds interesting. What was the 2000 series fiasco ?

[Vasco]

The 2000 series Volvos were plagued with problems, very hard to start, wouldn't idle, burnt lots of oil and sooner or later compression problems which might have been due to all the cranking because they were hard to start. They had some sort of fancy enrichening device that was supposed to be triggered by pulling the stop so that next time they would start right off. Didn't seem to work. I had mechanics from Toronto to Florida work on it , none of them had a good word to say about the engine (and they were Volvo mechanics). For a diesel these engines had a very short manufacturing run - I think less than ten years. After their successful MD series this engine was a real disaster. They were billed as state of the art with all filters and impeller easily accessible ( which they were) but the engines stank! This might sound like a rant but if you ever owned one you would understand.

[GordMay]

Rodger Ling ( rling@stationr.org ) seems to have a lot of experience with the Volvo-Penta 2000 Series Engines:
Manual: http://www.stationr.org/water/S2/Volvo2000p2.htm
Illustrations: http://www.stationr.org/water/S2/Volvo-illust1.htm
Volvo Tips: http://www.stationr.org/water/S2/VolvoTips.htm

[Alan Wheeler]

I am glad to see others that have had negative experiance with Volvo's. I have never had many positve thing sto say about them for a long time, but always seemed to be the only one waving the flag on the line. Easy to get shot at when you do that.
The really weired thing, is I often find the ones that defend the engines the most, are the ones that own the things and yet have had problems. A mate in a birth beside mine has a big gin palace with two big volvo's and not that many hours on the clock. He has had a major with one and so has replaced both engines to ensure a matched pair, and gone up in horsepower to boot. More money than........
Another is a commercial tourist operater. He goes through a complete engine once a year.
I know one mistake I made in life. I should have become the local Volvo sales agent

I have owned 2 volvo diesels, but never owned one that ran. The local Volvo dealer's general attitude seems representitive of Volvo's overall ?commitment? to customer service. One engine was seized, due to no anti siphon in the exhaust, and the other, "freshly rebuilt" when I bout the boat, had a seized fuel rack. Sorry I can not tell you how they run. It was cheaper to replace them, one with a Yanmar, and one with a Kabota, than it was to repair them.