Rebuild or Replacement of Old Engine?

[Abo]

Looking for recommendations of engine supply and installation in the St Petersburg area near Tampa, Florida, or for a mechanic who will remove and re-install and rebuild the engine. I want a good job done, don't want to pay the earth, but want someone who is conscientious, takes care with what they do, and doesn't cause any other damage to engine or boat. Also, can anyone recommend a boat delivery person to pick up and deliver a 41 foot boat from Tampa to Cuba, I don't mind where, just the cheapest trip to be out of the states.

[Lou-In-NJ]

No such thing as cheap and good, only good and cheap, which really means not good, just cheap. If you don't know how to do this work yourself, then you should probably buy new for the nominal difference in cost. You may be able to sell the old engine and recover some of the expense of the replacement as I did on a vehicle engine a few years back.

[Abo]

Originally Posted by Lou-In-NJ

No such thing as cheap and good, only good and cheap, which really means not good, just cheap. If you don't know how to do this work yourself, then you should probably buy new for the nominal difference in cost. You may be able to sell the old engine and recover some of the expense of the replacement as I did on a vehicle engine a few years back.

Thanks Lou-in-NJ, I will give it a go myself when I can get all the parts. I would prefer this, and to keep the old engine, the clock says the hours are very low so it should be a good proposition to do this, and it would be good to have as a spare if I can't do it straight away.


Abo

[Patrick of M]

This really depends on the engine. What do you have?

[Lou-In-NJ]

Do yourself a favor and start with getting the injectors cleaned and while the injectors are out, have the engine's compression and leak-down checked, that will give you an idea about the condition of the engine. If compression is good, then just clean your fuel system and have a competent tech check your injector pump pressure and timing. I would also go through your cooling system, whether raw water or heat-exchanger. If raw water, pull the thermostat, water pump impeller, reassemble, connect an outlet hose that goes overboard, and connect the inlet to a garden hose with an adapter that you can clamp on. You might even flush the engine in reverse, but I would bypass the transmission part of the cooling circuit. And while the water pressure is on, open the cylinder cocks one at a time if you have them. Pulling the thermostat and pump impeller should allow for maximum water flush flow, and you should probably replace those items anyway. If you find you have low compression, or too fast of a leak-down, start with a valve job, and while the heads are off, check the cylinder bores for wear, if they show wear, or worse, vertical gouges, you need new cylinders, or liners, rings and most likely pistons...and a decent machine shop that can either bore and line, or just press in cylinder new liners.
You might be able to get away with new piston rings and honing the cylinder bores; make sure that you follow/check gapping recommendations for the rings, again, machine shop work.

And if you have to go that far, you might as well check the play on the bearings on the connecting rods. If they rock even a fraction, side to side or up and down (not slide, but "rock"), then you'll be pulling the block and you might as well do main bearings as well. A knowledgabe machune shop will be able to mic your crankshaft and let you know if you can get away with just standard bearings, or if the shaft needs grinding to undersize, and getting undersized bearings; but of course you'll want to find out if under-sized bearings are even availabe for your engine.

Lots of wrenching with this type of project, but not impossible if you have the shop manual and a competent machine shop working with you.

[Abo]

Originally Posted by Patrick of M

This really depends on the engine. What do you have?

Hi Patrick,


It is a Perkins diesel, supposedly low hours


Thanks in advance,



Abo

[Abo]

[QUOTE=Lou-In-NJ;3761434]Do yourself a favor and start with getting the injectors cleaned and while the injectors are out, have the engine's compression and leak-down checked, that will give you an idea about the condition of the engine. If compression is good, then just clean your fuel system and have a competent tech check your injector pump pressure and timing. I would also go through your cooling system, whether raw water or heat-exchanger. If raw water, pull the thermostat, water pump impeller, reassemble, connect an outlet hose that goes overboard, and connect the inlet to a garden hose with an adapter that you can clamp on. You might even flush the engine in reverse, but I would bypass the transmission part of the cooling circuit. And while the water pressure is on, open the cylinder cocks one at a time if you have them. Pulling the thermostat and pump impeller should allow for maximum water flush flow, and you should probably replace those items anyway. If you find you have low compression......




Hi Lou in NJ,


Thank you for your advice. It is so good to have people on board who know what they are doing and are prepared to share their knowledge and help others who have so much to learn. I will systematically check through the whole engine as you suggest. I would prefer to do the whole job well and not have to come back to it any time soon, it is a lot less work this way, less problems, less to worry about, more time to do what I want to do and to enjoy life. I figure there will be enough other things to worry about when sailing beside an engine. I will probably get a few spare parts if people can suggest different things to me that it would be good to carry as spares for those unforeseen circumstances. I will follow your advice and do my best to get a good machine shop to work with so the engine has as few problems as possible later. It will be good to become knowledgeable concerning Marine diesels. I really do appreciate your in-depth steps to go through to make this a professional job, both through the advice I have been given, working with a good machine shop, and through my own learning and efforts.


Regards,


Abo