anual maintainance

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captaindan

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www.discountfascia.com
Hi
I have a sunseeker san remo with kad42 volvos and legs. I wondered what your views on servicing legs and other parts such as bellows etc should be carried out and how long the periods should be in between. Is there anything which is critical to do for the safe running of the vessel is there anything i should look out for and how to spot:confused:

thanking your opinions and answers in advance

regards

Danny
 
A lot will depend on the hours you do each year, as a rule most of our customers have a service each year as often faults are picked up before they become too expensive. Volvo say the bellows should be changed every two years but we always did them annually, you have to have the boat up anyway to just inspect them and the anodes so its not a lot more work to just service the drive and have peace of mind.. if you get water in the drive and you will, the drive will survive with just new seals and a rinse out, but if the water content gets too high then the lower pinion gear which is the smallest and therefore most heavily loaded can start to shed its teeth which is big money. I have rebuilt more than I care to remember because they weren't caught in time, and have replaced the seals in several hundred Volvo drives in the past 20 yrs and if you have two drives then there is a 50% chance one will have water in the oil.
The engines need a service at every 200 hrs which includes adjusting the valve clearances and belts, again a lot of customers have an oil and filter change plus impellor and diesel filters every year.
We call it cheap insurance as its better to know all is well and drive with peace of mind each season instead of wishing you had the service done before you break down on holiday or in bad weather.
The main thing is to go down in the engine room and do the basic checks each time you go out, and if leaks appear get them fixed as they will only get worse and cost more especially salt water leaks. Get to know the normal readings on the engine instruments when cruising, if they start to go out of those parameters then this is a sign that all is not well, the most normal to go astray is engine temp, this can creep up with time on these engines as the coolers start to get clogged, they should be cleaned out every few years for trouble free boating, other than that the KAD42 is a solid engine.
I am sure others may have a few suggestions also.
 
I have my engines serviced once a year which is about 100 hours. I have the kad32 which is much the same as yours but you have more cylinders. I thought the recommended interval is 100 hours but don't want to start an argument.

I have the boat lifted once year and the legs serviced and anodes checked - the bellows last two years easily in my experience.
If you don't have an annual lift you could be going a long time with water leaking in - and this is when people complain about outdrives. I do know people who leave their boats in two years or more and don't have the legs serviced then complain when it costs them a packet. Outdrives do need a regular coat of 'looking at' to keep them in order. It's not a cheap hobby.
 
I would like to thank you both for taking the time in answering and in depth too. I took it out last year and anti fouled done the anodes and did some work to the legs and impellors (rubbing down and anti foul).I thought it be a good idea to see what is commonly done to keep a good ship excuse the pun. I probably run my boat around a 100 hours a year too. I kind of use it most of the year too as im in the med with the boat. Its funny that you should say about the temp guage mr spannerman as I think my port engine might need to be de scaled (heatexchanger as i have been going through the notions with it running hot or getting hot when under load and checked and done the usual things. I was thinking of doing them this year but would like to find someone i am comfortable with hence there is a bit of a language barrier were i am at the minute. There is a volvo penta dealer here but its hard to get them to even come and look at the boat let alone actually work on it :)

thanks lads you have been very informative

regards

Danny
 
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