1989 Perkins Range 4 240

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francophile51

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I am interested in a boat with twin engines of the above type. They are advertised as having totalled less than 800 hours each. From the images of the external appearance, they look very clean with no rust or leaks. Do any of you have experience of these engines, what to look out for,strengths and weaknesses, parts availability?
Thanks
 
From a very limited sample, I hear that the Range 4 240hp has habit of dropping the tips off the injectors.

they are now over 30 years old and a basic design that goes back to the early 60's. I would treat the boat as a re-power project.
 
Not necessarily BB as many of the issues have or were resolved and I would suggest researching the engine and known faults and check the history to see how many issues were resolved and budget for those not resolved, this will give a reasonable estimate of work costs which can be set against the costs of a repower.
 
At 1989 doubt they are the early Perkins, looks very similar to M series Perkins. M240 Ti ?
Ranging from 135 HP to 300HP via 265 HP version.1581259556982.png
These are certainly the 6 litre brick outhouse engines which are very easy to service and can be more usually found in commercial craft looking for reliability rather than whizz.
Had a pair of M135 in my previous boat.
Would take the Perkins over the Volvos any day in just about every way possible. Big Blue lazy lumps as opposed to stressed out Green Howlers.
Broom 37 next door to me has a pair of the old" H" series , there is an oil pipe on the bottom of the sump pan which is leaking.
The engine has got to lifted and removed to sort the leak due to restricted access.
 
Last edited:
oldgit said:
At 1989 doubt they are the early Perkins, looks very similar to M series Perkins. M240 Ti ?
Ranging from 135 HP to 300HP via 265 HP version.View attachment 84777
These are certainly the 6 litre brick outhouse engines which are very easy to service and can be more usually found in commercial craft looking for reliability rather than whizz.
Had a pair of M135 in my previous boat.
Would take the Perkins over the Volvos any day in just about every way possible. Big Blue lazy lumps as opposed to stressed out Green Howlers.
Broom 37 next door to me has a pair of the old" H" series , there is an oil pipe on the bottom of the sump pan which is leaking.
The engine has got to lifted and removed to sort the leak due to restricted access.
Click to expand...
That’s the later phaser series engine .
 
Thanks for the replies. I am not very confident about approaching the seller with a bid that factors in repowering.You try to inform yourself by reading Nigel Calder's book on maintenance and he tells you that scrupulous attention to clean air, fuel and lubricating oil should lead to 1000s of hours of trouble free running, just how do you tell if your Range 4 240 or indeed any engine of 30 years has benefited from this? I suppose one should call upon an engineer and perform due diligence in trying to gather evidence of their proven expertise.
 
francophile51 said:
Thanks for the replies. I am not very confident about approaching the seller with a bid that factors in repowering.You try to inform yourself by reading Nigel Calder's book on maintenance and he tells you that scrupulous attention to clean air, fuel and lubricating oil should lead to 1000s of hours of trouble free running, just how do you tell if your Range 4 240 or indeed any engine of 30 years has benefited from this? I suppose one should call upon an engineer and perform due diligence in trying to gather evidence of their proven expertise.
Click to expand...


If the engines are indeed the later Perkins as shown in the picture and the hours are genuine, would think it highly unlikely that any serious problems are likely to surface,unless the boat has been seriously badly mantained .
A repower should not be on the agenda anytime soon if prepurchase checks confirm the engines are sound. Engines of this sort have a design life of 10,000 hours between total rebuilds ?
Depending on the cost of the boat, suspect that taking somebody along who is familiar wtih this engine or marine diesels in general to check it over would be a good idea., rather than going down the route of oil analysis etc.

Quickest and cheapest check to do yourself is to take the boat for a long fast hard run, noting oil pressure and engine temperatures at beginning and end of trip.There should be no excessive smoke even on a cold start up.
 
The Range 4 is a DOT4 variant of the T6.354, its the last variant of the 6.354 range with the cast ali rocker cover. It was marinised by Perkins themselves as per the previous versions of 6.354.

There were some improvements, such as the rocker cover, which was finally oil tight. But, the Range 4 used a Manicooler made by Bowman, an ali casting that was the exhaust and inlet manifolds, header tank and main heat exchanger all in one. Its no longer available.

A Range 4 in a genset at 120hp might well do 10's of thousands of hours. But a 240hp rotting away in a boat will never do those kind of hours and will be close to scrap by now. I know of 2 boats fitted with new 240hp ones, both dropped an injector tip.

The Range 4 was an end of line stop gap until the Perkins Phaser came along, the Range 4 was a dinosaur even when brand new. There really is nothing to commend it in the context of a leisure boat in 2020.

The Perkins Phaser that followed, M130, M185C, M215C, M225Ti, M265Ti and M300Ti was a completely new engine from Perkins, the 1006 or Phaser as its know and was marinised by Sabre Marine after they finished with the Ford Dover. The M series are fabulous and long lived. its worth noting that the M300Ti is not 300hp, its 280hp. Likewise the M265Ti is 240hp, similar for most of them in the range.

(I know all this because I ran a pair of T6.354 in a Huntsman for 14 years, have had an M225Ti and a pair of M265Ti, I have owned Perkins powered Fairey boats for 20 years)
 
omega2 said:
Take a good look try to find any clue as to who maranised them. SABRE did them not long back. I think OLDGIT is on the right trail.
Click to expand...
My engines were marinised by Sabre,
Lancing Marine do a complete heat exchanger assembly for the T6.354,. About £3000.00 + VAT.
 
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