Beta or Yanmar?

[BrianH]

About a year ago, after an incident of very minor problems with my 30-year old VP MD17C engine, I posed the question here as to what did the team think about whether I should invest in a new engine. The replies were well up to the high standard of debate we sometimes get on here and the weight of opinion was heavily biased to getting a new engine with many cogent reasons why. Strangely, this was in direct conflict with all the comments and advice I received face-to-face with all my knowledgeable sailing friends, most of whom were familiar with my engine's performance and reliability; "do it when it's bust, not before" was the general consensus, "at 2500 hours that engine's just run-in".

But I was swayed by what I had read here and looked into which one and my trusted mechanic, although a Nanni dealer, said he could source whatever I wanted and the choice focused down to Nanni or Beta. I eventually gravitated to the former, considering it a better marinization - besides, my cabin colour scheme is blue ....

In the event the project didn't get off the ground due to other factors - but is not abandoned - although another season of faultless running rather tilts the argument towards my local panel of advisers.

 

[Mavis]

I think many of us find ourselves in the same predicament at some time or other. In the three years of owing my boat the engine (VP2002) has let me down four times. Each time was during a longish trip away, and included an engine fire in the middle of the night. Each time we managed to self rescue our way back to a harbour (outboard on back of tender tied alongside when the wind died) and get it fixed. All the problems stemmed from the external components, starter motor, electrics, stupid push in water pipe seals, etc. etc. The main block is probably hardly worn in, starts first time and runs like a sewing machine.

The tight git in me wants to whip it out and refurbish all those parts and save buying a new engine. But captain sensible feels that his luck is running out and maybe next time it will be a call to the coastguard. So for peace of mind he is considering red or blue this winter. The engine you choose is the easy bit, making the decision to change is the hard part.