A GOOD MARINE MECHANIC TO REBUILD 2 X VOLVO PENTA AQ170 ENGINES

[ChromeDome]

Can't find the mentioned book.
Mentioned on this forum in 2010:
80's volvo penta question

(note the correct author name spelling)

Title
The Volvo Penta Aquamatic Boat Engine.
History of the invention of inboard outboard boat engine manufactured by Volvo Penta. Plenty of technical information for aquamatic engine owners tables of technical data from p145 - 220. ; B&W Illustrations; 226 pages

Author
Beardow, Keith

ISBN 10
0715380001

ISBN 13
9780715380000

Publisher
David & Charles

Place of Publication
Newton Abbot

Date Published
1980



Available online.

Nice Glastron on the front page, btw.

 

[jointventureII]

These types of projects are commonly bought by those with mechanical skills who could fettle the engines and drives paying only for parts and ignoring any labour costs because that is essentially free, if you have not got the skills and want too buy in the expertise, clearly costs will rise hugely into the stratosphere because once you start it never stops particular where engines are of great age like these. and this is why the boat was for sale the owner realised his pride and joy was going to turn into a money pit.

Exactly. This is what I did with mine and when you say labour is essentially free, this is it. If you have to start paying someone then it really spirals out of control and doesn't become a pleasure any more.

I purchased mine for €10k knowing that the engine would be worth €5-6k if it all hit the fan and I had to demolish the boat.

Since spent about €12k on it (NOT including mooring, insurance, fuel).

Could sell it for €22-24k. Have done all the work except some extremely specialist work on the sterndrive leg which requires special tools etc.

 

[oldgit]

Funny you mention such a thing Bouba. Just the other day, I was made aware of a fella that has ditched the old and terrible VP Petrol inboards from his lovely old princess/pilgrim 25…and unbelievably…made a fine job on the adaptations, allowing a single outboard…but that’s not the unbelievable part. The two outboards he is torn between and had on trial, was a 300hp Evinrude and then a ridiculous mercury 400r. Fair play, I say. Nearly 50 mph from her without fine tuning reported.

50 mph from the P25 hull designed for 15-25mph and all the deadweight weight moved right aft ?
Be interested in the stability in a hard turn .

 

[oldgit]

Chum has got one with a pair of duo props on diesels, it was once possibly one of the quickest boats on our moorings. and in regular use .
Outdrives a constant source of grief even with regular rubber ware changes,. Lift rams, water in gearboxes and this year a jackshaft bearing in the transom shield disintegrated taking out the damper in the process, course its an engine out job because that knackered inner bearing will only come out from inside the boat and the outer bearing removal means the leg off.
This guy can do all the work himself and has access to lift out and storage ashore virtually FOC.

Those petrol engines , boat moored behind me was leaking water and exhaust gas out of the riser on his AQ170 6 cylinder petrol engine.
The riser was eventually removed to reveal a master class in welding bodges probably to avoid having to buy a new riser.
It was a work of welding art and really should be exibited in the Tate Modern.
Had no idea you could persuade steel plate to adhere to cast iron, it of course only lasted for so long, he is now searching for a "new" riser in order to sell the boat.
Do you want to go boating or mend boats, still suggesting the new owners do their sums.

 

[Tranona]

This is definitely the way to go....a good truck mechanic will sort your engines for a percentage of the cost of a'marine' engineer.

Not sure why you think a good truck mechanic would know anything about a 1970s petrol engine from a Volvo car. There is nothing special technically about the engine except that it was not good when it was new, built in small numbers, availability of parts is limited to non existent and the marinisation is poor. Challenge will be finding anybody who knows anything about the engine and is prepared to take it on - plus hope that it does not fall apart from corrosion when trying to dismantle it.

I would imagine the previous owner found all this out and explains why the boat was offered for sale at less than half the price of a functioning example and suggested for use as a house boat.

 

[Freebee]

Those petrol engines , boat moored behind me was leaking water and exhaust gas out of the riser on his AQ170 6 cylinder petrol engine.
The riser was eventually removed to reveal a master class in welding bodges probably to avoid having to buy a new riser.
It was a work of welding art and really should be exibited in the Tate Modern.

he was lucky...... in my case aq145 manifold and head bodged with car filler to make the sale...........we had bought a project and the owner said no way would he run the engines without coolant.......... in our ownership it last a good 45 mins before what sounded like an f1 ferrari arrived in the engine bay....the head was rotted beyond belief in fact the previous owner had been lucky to find enough to stick the filler to...what followed was a steep learning curve in ohc volvo engine cylinder head models..... I cant remember how many variations of cylinder head fitted the same block but it was a lot and tracking down the right one involved a lot of detective work.

 

[stelican]

Can't find the mentioned book.
Mentioned on this forum in 2010:
80's volvo penta question

(note the correct author name spelling)

Title
The Volvo Penta Aquamatic Boat Engine.
History of the invention of inboard outboard boat engine manufactured by Volvo Penta. Plenty of technical information for aquamatic engine owners tables of technical data from p145 - 220. ; B&W Illustrations; 226 pages

Author
Beardow, Keith

ISBN 10
0715380001

ISBN 13
9780715380000

Publisher
David & Charles

Place of Publication
Newton Abbot

Date Published
1980

View attachment 168933

Available online.

Nice Glastron on the front page, btw.

Bet you've even got his phone number!

 

[scottie]

Yeah. You’re spot on there I’d say. Was the diesel there a GM too ? Wasn’t certain around that. Was in my mind that a ford engine crept in there around those days on some boats like this. A variation of the Windsor 5.0 and 5.7/5.8 engine. There was certainly an AQ v8 around them that might have been ford derived. Can’t mind quite which in particular it was called right now though.AQ240 might have been the ford 5.7/5.8 maybe. Not an option in this regards and boat perhaps, but a little known bit of trivia perhaps.

Gm had a supply issue (strike?) so Volvo did a deal with ford

 

[scottie]

Not sure why you think a good truck mechanic would know anything about a 1970s petrol engine from a Volvo car. There is nothing special technically about the engine except that it was not good when it was new, built in small numbers, availability of parts is limited to non existent and the marinisation is poor. Challenge will be finding anybody who knows anything about the engine and is prepared to take it on - plus hope that it does not fall apart from corrosion when trying to dismantle it.

I would imagine the previous owner found all this out and explains why the boat was offered for sale at less than half the price of a functioning example and suggested for use as a house boat.

The more posts you make the more I think that we share a number of opinions!

 

[scottie]

Not sure why you think a good truck mechanic would know anything about a 1970s petrol engine from a Volvo car. There is nothing special technically about the engine except that it was not good when it was new, built in small numbers, availability of parts is limited to non existent and the marinisation is poor. Challenge will be finding anybody who knows anything about the engine and is prepared to take it on - plus hope that it does not fall apart from corrosion when trying to dismantle it.

I would imagine the previous owner found all this out and explains why the boat was offered for sale at less than half the price of a functioning example and suggested for use as a house boat.

Possibly anyone knowing much about marinised B30 know to let them rot in peace or has access to large a money and component source

 

[DavidJ]

Just chatting to my wife about your boat.
Her suggestion is to take it to a pretty marina and enjoy weekends on it just pottering around, entertaining and generally relaxing. She says “……that’s what we do the majority of the time anyway.”
Forget the engine project!

 

[ean_p]

Not sure why you think a good truck mechanic would know anything about a 1970s petrol engine from a Volvo car. There is nothing special technically about the engine except that it was not good when it was new, built in small numbers, availability of parts is limited to non existent and the marinisation is poor. Challenge will be finding anybody who knows anything about the engine and is prepared to take it on - plus hope that it does not fall apart from corrosion when trying to dismantle it.

I would imagine the previous owner found all this out and explains why the boat was offered for sale at less than half the price of a functioning example and suggested for use as a house boat.

Not sure why you want to waffle on about the pro's and con's of a 1970's engine in response to a post that merely pointed out that it was in agreement to a previous post that the use of a 'truck mechanic' would be a much cheaper route in a repair situation then the use of a 'marine engineer'.
I'm very happy to have said that because I know that there is nothing in the make up of a 1970's engine that would tax the skills and experience of a good 'truck mechanic'. You of course from your comments seem to have a different opinion based on extensive experience. Maybe you can enlighten me as to what features of a 1970's engine would be beyond that of a 'good truck mechanic'.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Not sure why you want to waffle on about the pro's and con's of a 1970's engine in response to a post that merely pointed out that it was in agreement to a previous post that the use of a 'truck mechanic' would be a much cheaper route in a repair situation then the use of a 'marine engineer'.
I'm very happy to have said that because I know that there is nothing in the make up of a 1970's engine that would tax the skills and experience of a good 'truck mechanic'. You of course from your comments seem to have a different opinion based on extensive experience. Maybe you can enlighten me as to what features of a 1970's engine would be beyond that of a 'good truck mechanic'.

How well would the average truck mechanic understand the marinised bits ? Bet he'd have fun with the triple carbs.

Unless he's an old fart, he won't be able to fix anything without a laptop.

But i get the point that it might not have to be marine engineer. What i'm, somewhat skeptical about is the claims throughout the thread that someone experienced in marine engines would be vastly more expensive than a car/truck/bus mechanic. My local Merc garage want £180 plus VAT just to plug the diagnostics in, without fixing anything.

 

[Freebee]

any mechanic who might take this repair/overhaul on would be weighing up the risk V reward, I suspect many would decline.

 

[JOHNPEET]

To be honest, for anybody that knows anything about engines, there’s nothing too technical on these Volvo engines that even if a bit of research is required, is overly technically demanding! The real problem comes if and when the owner has to start paying people to do whatever may be required. From the advert, the boat and engine bay looks to be pretty tidy. If the engines have been well maintained in the past and all that required now is to replace a cracked cylinder head in order to get the boat into a suitable condition for pottering about, then that’s not going to require the engine to be lifted out and won’t cost an arm and a leg to sort. If both engines and legs are in a sad state due to a lack of maintenance as a result of the boat being used as a live aboard, then that’s a different story and might be best addressed with a couple of good 6 cyl GMs

 

[QBhoy]

Gm had a supply issue (strike?) so Volvo did a deal with ford

Was that for the later period, in the ‘90s and the 5.8fi

 

[QBhoy]

O

Can't find the mentioned book.
Mentioned on this forum in 2010:
80's volvo penta question

(note the correct author name spelling)

Title
The Volvo Penta Aquamatic Boat Engine.
History of the invention of inboard outboard boat engine manufactured by Volvo Penta. Plenty of technical information for aquamatic engine owners tables of technical data from p145 - 220. ; B&W Illustrations; 226 pages

Author
Beardow, Keith

ISBN 10
0715380001

ISBN 13
9780715380000

Publisher
David & Charles

Place of Publication
Newton Abbot

Date Published
1980

View attachment 168933

Available online.

Nice Glastron on the front page, btw.

Thanks for this. I live a nice Glastron too obviously. Having my own Roger Clark cvx16 !

 

[QBhoy]

50 mph from the P25 hull designed for 15-25mph and all the deadweight weight moved right aft ?
Be interested in the stability in a hard turn .

First question I asked about it.

 

[Tranona]

Not sure why you want to waffle on about the pro's and con's of a 1970's engine in response to a post that merely pointed out that it was in agreement to a previous post that the use of a 'truck mechanic' would be a much cheaper route in a repair situation then the use of a 'marine engineer'.
I'm very happy to have said that because I know that there is nothing in the make up of a 1970's engine that would tax the skills and experience of a good 'truck mechanic'. You of course from your comments seem to have a different opinion based on extensive experience. Maybe you can enlighten me as to what features of a 1970's engine would be beyond that of a 'good truck mechanic'.

The expertise will lie in all sorts of places, but your outright assertion that a truck mechanic is the place to go - and will be cheaper than "marine" is just not supportable. i happen to know a "marine" old school engineer who would have the knowledge and skills to deal with a 1970s Volvo, but I doubt he would come out of retirement to have a go.

Truck mechanics do not automatically cost less than than marine. Charges are hugely variable. The one I mentioned has a rate of £50 an hour, a similar one I use who also deals with Volvos is £60 an hour, but the local Volvo dealer is £90. doubt you will find a truck repair business less than £50 an hour.

The OPs original question is still valid. He is looking for somebody to take on the job in Essex and he is most likely to find it amongst the old school like my friend who was familiar with them when they were current (or a Marcos sports car specialist as they also use the engine!)

 

[[165042]]

Maybe time to see if the OP even comes back with a reply?