4000 hours on an engine

[DesertAlbin736]

Good discussion. Actually I'd be more suspect of an older engine that had low hours assuming they weren't hours after major overhaul for reasons WillieC talked about. Diesels like & need to be run. In case of the engine in question it's about maintenance, maintenance, maintenance, including records kept, in this case if what you said is true looks good. I was trained as a Machinist Mate in the Navy & it was all about regular maintenance, PM's, & keeping records down to logging hourly engine room guage readings. Our 1986 model year engine has at least 3,000 hours on it, maybe more, since first installed around 1990. That's based on records passed along from PO that showed hours accumulated before a new hour meter was installed that read 537 when we first took ownership. This month is the 6 year anniversary since we bought our boat and the meter now reads 1,201, an average of 110 hours per year, & still runs great.
PS, I change oil & filter every 100 hours, fuel filters & raw water pump impeller every 250 hours, log every maintenance item & every drop of fuel used.

[Bob Noodat]

I am more familiar with terrestrial vehicles and engines than marine ones, but certainly I have found that a pristine barn-find vehicle with low miles is a much worse prospect than the same age daily driver held together with bailer wire. Ditto for electrical, braking and all other systems.

[WillieC]

Add sitting in saltwater and you get a nice picture.

[Bob Noodat]

This leads me on to another question, as a result of reading numerous posts on several boating forums recently :

Why is it, given that these are small industrial diesels designed to give long service, that boat owners seem ready simply to throw them away and spend 10 to 20 grand on a replacement at the first significant engine failure?

I would hardly call myself a mechanic, but tearing a little engine like this apart and replacing valves, rings and bearings is a simple job even to me, and even taking the block to a machine shop for a rebore or the head for a skim would seem to be well worth the thousands that must be saved by doing so. After a little work and some expense your small industrial diesel would be ready for many more thousand hours of service.

Is this another first world problem?

[DesertAlbin736]

I sometimes wonder about my sailboater friends, especially those diehard 'if-there's-a-breath-of-wind-I'm gonna shut-that-engine-down' ones who only run the engine just long enough to get in and out of the marina, barely warm it up & the few gallons of fuel sitting in tank barely gets used in a year's time.

[Bob Noodat]

I sometimes wonder about my sailboater friends, especially those diehard 'if-there's-a-breath-of-wind-I'm gonna shut-that-engine-down' ones who only run the engine just long enough to get in and out of the marina, barely warm it up & the few gallons of fuel sitting in tank barely gets used in a year's time.

I had a sailing instructor like that, but at least it was an outboard. With an inboard diesel on a sailboat, I'd be at the other extreme and motor all the time.

[Nancy]

>>My last original thought was when I was 16 years old and that didn't go well. And it wasn't even original.<<

lol!

[Dieselram94]

This leads me on to another question, as a result of reading numerous posts on several boating forums recently :

Why is it, given that these are small industrial diesels designed to give long service, that boat owners seem ready simply to throw them away and spend 10 to 20 grand on a replacement at the first significant engine failure?

I would hardly call myself a mechanic, but tearing a little engine like this apart and replacing valves, rings and bearings is a simple job even to me, and even taking the block to a machine shop for a rebore or the head for a skim would seem to be well worth the thousands that must be saved by doing so. After a little work and some expense your small industrial diesel would be ready for many more thousand hours of service.

Is this another first world problem?

My opinion is it’s a first world problem as you say. I’m guilty of stuff like that as well, I have lots of patience working on other people’s stuff, but when it comes to my own vehicles...well it had better be trouble free or I will replace it. Or in the case of these Albin’s go, a major engine rebuild or replacement. That being said lots of perfectly good motors are retired way too soon. Sometimes corrosion is a issue, but more often than not people just want a shiny new motor that is absolutely trouble free.
I have a perfectly good old pathfinder (Volkswagen)diesel with a hurth gear in my garage now. Complete with panel and a book of service records. I got it from a guy who replaced it because the pulley for the raw water pump fell off...his wife said she would not go back on the boat until motor was replaced with a new beta diesel!!!

That Perkins is a sleeved motor, so a total rebuild is very reasonable and parts are easy to get. Does it have the newer bowman heat exchanger style as in the picture of my motor?

[nebulatech]

I've sailed regularly on a 1977 Shannon 38 with an original Westerbeke 4-107, the Perkins in disguise. It's not as heavy as the Volvo Penta MD17 I pulled from my boat. They dont like to run high rpms. 1500 is fine, but seems low compared to my memories. The A25 is a much lighter boat. I dont recall the hours, but 4000 doesn't seem far off the mark

The captain I sailed with didn't like to ever turn off the motor. We once made Charleston to the Abacos in 72 hours, around 36 gallons of diesel. That particular motor had a tendency to shred belts, something I found to be in common with other boats as well. It seemed to put up with a fair degree of abuse, but it did overheat on several occasions, once blowing a head gasket about 100 miles offshore.

Its experiences like that which make one consider throwing in the towel and repowering. As far as I know, that Westerbeke was rebuilt 3 times before he finally repowered last year. I believe his decision was influenced in part due to an insurance settlement; he had paid a yard to repack the stuffing box and they let the boat sink while he was out of the state.

As an aside, the captain was initially underwhelmed with his new engine (another perkins I believe) until he had it repropped. He is very satisfied now.