Bajansailor
Well-Known Member
Yes, it certainly has been a saga with our Volvo 2003T!
We finally put the boat back in the water a few weeks ago after a year ashore. Had started the engine briefly a couple of times just before putting her in.
Then we found various problems, firstly with battery connections, then alternator not charging, then air getting into the system - found a crack in the fuel hose in way of the crimped on banjo fitting on the fuel lift pump, so got a new fuel hose made up. That seemed to do the trick.
Ran the engine for a bit, got the oil nice and warm, changed oil and filter.
This was while alongside the dock by the haul out yard. Plan was to sail up the coast the next day, back to our mooring.
Started up engine next day, ran for a few minutes, then 'Kerlunk'.
Ooops, that sounds ominous.
We were thinking maybe something had happened at the top of the engine. Took the head off, nothing untoward, but middle piston not moving.
Then had a look at the port side of the engine - I dunno how we didnt see this before - and this was what we found :
Oh dear. Look like we need a new engine. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
I am a bit baffled - it hadnt 'hydraulicked', there wasn't any water in the oil that was changed, it had run happily a few times before.
And although the engine is now 17 years old, I doubt it has 1,000 hours on it. Lack of use probably just as bad or worse than too much use (?).
So I started asking around - found a Volvo 2003T that came out of one of the day charter sailing catamarans here last year when they re-engined to a pair of Yanmars. Photo below.
It was 14 years old when it came out, and probably has about 7,000 hours on it, perhaps more. The owners want approx GBP 800 for it including various bits, which seems a wee bit steep to me, but they are not budging.
And I have been told that if we did get this engine, it would be a good idea to re-build it before putting in the boat, hence that would be a fair bit more expense.
Does anybody know of any Volvo 2003 engines that have been reconditioned (ideally with some sort of warranty) and are for sale?
If no go on the Volvo front, then we are thinking about 'biting the bullet' and getting a new engine - I think it would be worthwhile in the long run. The Beta 28 hp seems to be a nice engine, and that would be plenty enough power for us - the standard Volvo 2003 is 29 hp, and we never needed the alleged 41 hp from the 2003T.
More about the Beta here at http://www.betamarine.co.uk/Templates/sea_going.html
And another nice aspect about the Beta is that the width of the mount bolts is the same as the Volvo (410 mm) so we only have to worry about the (not very large) changes re the longitudinal and vertical dimensions.
This is the space the engine came out of :
I took lots of dimensions off the engine beds yesterday, and am now going to draw it out on paper and see how the Volvo and Beta dimensions compare - we might find that we need to go for the shallow sump option on the Beta if we do decide to buy one.
Freight from England is easy - just put it on a Geest ship in Portsmouth, and it is here 10 days later - however Customs will then probably want to charge 40% in compounded duties..... have to do some research here first....
What are your thoughts? All opinions gratefully received!
We finally put the boat back in the water a few weeks ago after a year ashore. Had started the engine briefly a couple of times just before putting her in.
Then we found various problems, firstly with battery connections, then alternator not charging, then air getting into the system - found a crack in the fuel hose in way of the crimped on banjo fitting on the fuel lift pump, so got a new fuel hose made up. That seemed to do the trick.
Ran the engine for a bit, got the oil nice and warm, changed oil and filter.
This was while alongside the dock by the haul out yard. Plan was to sail up the coast the next day, back to our mooring.
Started up engine next day, ran for a few minutes, then 'Kerlunk'.
Ooops, that sounds ominous.
We were thinking maybe something had happened at the top of the engine. Took the head off, nothing untoward, but middle piston not moving.
Then had a look at the port side of the engine - I dunno how we didnt see this before - and this was what we found :
Oh dear. Look like we need a new engine. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
I am a bit baffled - it hadnt 'hydraulicked', there wasn't any water in the oil that was changed, it had run happily a few times before.
And although the engine is now 17 years old, I doubt it has 1,000 hours on it. Lack of use probably just as bad or worse than too much use (?).
So I started asking around - found a Volvo 2003T that came out of one of the day charter sailing catamarans here last year when they re-engined to a pair of Yanmars. Photo below.
It was 14 years old when it came out, and probably has about 7,000 hours on it, perhaps more. The owners want approx GBP 800 for it including various bits, which seems a wee bit steep to me, but they are not budging.
And I have been told that if we did get this engine, it would be a good idea to re-build it before putting in the boat, hence that would be a fair bit more expense.
Does anybody know of any Volvo 2003 engines that have been reconditioned (ideally with some sort of warranty) and are for sale?
If no go on the Volvo front, then we are thinking about 'biting the bullet' and getting a new engine - I think it would be worthwhile in the long run. The Beta 28 hp seems to be a nice engine, and that would be plenty enough power for us - the standard Volvo 2003 is 29 hp, and we never needed the alleged 41 hp from the 2003T.
More about the Beta here at http://www.betamarine.co.uk/Templates/sea_going.html
And another nice aspect about the Beta is that the width of the mount bolts is the same as the Volvo (410 mm) so we only have to worry about the (not very large) changes re the longitudinal and vertical dimensions.
This is the space the engine came out of :
I took lots of dimensions off the engine beds yesterday, and am now going to draw it out on paper and see how the Volvo and Beta dimensions compare - we might find that we need to go for the shallow sump option on the Beta if we do decide to buy one.
Freight from England is easy - just put it on a Geest ship in Portsmouth, and it is here 10 days later - however Customs will then probably want to charge 40% in compounded duties..... have to do some research here first....
What are your thoughts? All opinions gratefully received!
