Bavaria 40 with Volvo-Penta engine with hole smashed in the side

[Yacht Breeze]

The new Volvo-Penta engine on our new Bavaria Cruiser 40 has smashed a hole in its side. How many other Volvo-Penta engines are there, perhaps in Bavaria boats, which are at risk? Our blog has the gory details www.yachtbreeze.blogspot.com

Have you had similar problems?

Follow the developing story on twitter @HambleBreeze

 

[VicS]

What caused it? I take it thats a big end bearing visible inside........ Did it hit the side of the crankcase ? ... if so how?

 

[Rhyddid]

This may not help but some years ago Volvo had a car engine that "put a leg out of bed" (No3 cyl always).... it was a design failure ....... Seems scary same same....

(Rhyddid) Ex Volvo Product Support Engineer..........

 

[mjcoon]

What caused it? I take it thats a big end bearing visible inside........ Did it hit the side of the crankcase ? ... if so how?

Don't know the answer, but years ago on flotilla we were happily motoring along when the engine just stopped. Cue for crew to look at each other accusingly! Attempts to re-start just produced a clunk. Flotilla leader towed us into port where a broken crankshaft was diagnosed; pretty terminal condition. Fortunately they could supply us with a replacement yacht. Last we saw of the original was the engine being lifted out...

Mike.

 

[trapezeartist]

The OP seems to be suffering a sense of humour failure. Clearly V-P engines do not routinely knock holes through the side of the block. Nor can I imagine that V-P send all their breakable engines to Bavaria. It shouldn't happen, but every now and then it does. The measure of a company is how well they respond when things do go wrong.

For what it's worth I had a big-end seize on a Ford Kent engine many years ago. It went in such a big way that it even broke the camshaft in three pieces. I salvaged a few valves, and two pistons, and the rocker cover, and, well I think that was about it.

 

[PetiteFleur]

Reminds me of the time many moons ago during my apprenticeship and I was driving an ancient Rover 10 - I knew I had a big end gone(it was knocking) but had to get to work so decided to use it (it was a friday) and sort the engine at the weekend. It nearly to work when there was a BANG and a conrod went through the crankcase. Surprisingly the engine kept running on 3 cylinders clanking well! Fitted a 12hp engine at the weekend....... In those days engines were simple and easy to work on.

 

[TQA]

A glance at the pic suggests that one of the conrod nuts is showing less thread than the other and possibly coming undone..

May have been the reason for the failure.

I can sympathize as I had a Tohatsu 18hp OB fail catastrophically recently with the defect reported at 11 months. 17 months of runaround from the supplier and silence from Tohatsu.

I wish you better luck with Volvo.

 

[J Neeves]

We had a bent con rod from new on a Volvo. It was detected by the Volvo commissioning engineer who detected an odd noise. Volvo lifted it out to find the cause of the 'odd' noise and found the, slightly, bent con rod. They looked hard for someone to blame (without success). They paid for it all (but would not give me the con rod as a paper weight).

Good luck

Jonathan

 

[Yacht Breeze]

Thank you all for the helpful responses.

The cause of the catastrophic failure appears to be a nut coming undone on the con rod and striking the engine case knocking a hole in the side. Obviously it should not happen, but it did. If the manufacturing fault occurred in our engine it is likely the same fault will appear in the same batch of engines. There could be many V-P engines afloat with this time-bomb.

As has been said, manufacturing faults do occur – even in the best of makes – but what sets the goods guys apart from the bad guys is how they respond and how quickly they put right the problem.

So far Volvo-Penta have been rather quiet.

Trevor Taylor.
sy BREEZE

 

[JumbleDuck]

The cause of the catastrophic failure appears to be a nut coming undone on the con rod and striking the engine case knocking a hole in the side. Obviously it should not happen, but it did. If the manufacturing fault occurred in our engine it is likely the same fault will appear in the same batch of engines. There could be many V-P engines afloat with this time-bomb.

I wouldn't worry too much about that. A materials defect could be different, but a single nut not done up tightly enough is less likely to be a systemic defect.

 

[30boat]

I wouldn't worry too much about that. A materials defect could be different, but a single nut not done up tightly enough is less likely to be a systemic defect.

I don't know about Volvo but when modern engines are built by robots the con rod nuts are machine tightened to the specified torque.If this was the case then the machine may have been improperly set up so several engines may have been affected.

 

[davidej]

I don't know about Volvo but when modern engines are built by robots the con rod nuts are machine tightened to the specified torque.If this was the case then the machine may have been improperly set up so several engines may have been affected.

Are marine engines made in big enough quantities to justify that level of automation?

 

[Lakesailor]

Just looking at the piccy, I guess not. Maybe he had a bad day. http://www.volvopenta.com/volvopenta/global/en-gb/our_company/production/pages/production.aspx

 

[Tranona]

Are marine engines made in big enough quantities to justify that level of automation?

It is not a Volvo engine, but a Perkins made in their Japanese or UK factory (dependent on model) in the thousands for industrial applications. The Volvo marine units only use up a small fraction of output.

 

[Tranona]

Just looking at the piccy, I guess not. Maybe he had a bad day. http://www.volvopenta.com/volvopenta/global/en-gb/our_company/production/pages/production.aspx

See above - engine is not made by Volvo.

 

[Bandit]

What model is the engine and what age?

 

[sailorman]

What model is the engine and what age?

The OP stated new

 

[VicS]

What model is the engine and what age?

The OP stated new

and is a D2-40

 

[NorthUp]

The OP stated new

In the blog "less than three years old", which is stretching 'new' just a bit.

 

[J Neeves]

In the blog "less than three years old".

For a diesel, that should effectively mean new (but might be outside warranty).

Jonathan