engine life

[355gtb]

New to power boating and we are In the market for a power boat someting like a Sunseeker or windy with KAD44 engines.

Looking through adverts it seems that some boats have had new engines. Obviously at great expense.

Can you give me some advice on the lifespan of the engines? I don't want to buy a boat and then find out the engines need replacing after a couple of seasons.

 

[DavidJ]

From what I hear the KAD43's and it's likely the KAD44's are doing well following some horrible stories of 42's. I suspect the new engines you are seeing are replacing the 42's. As for life I guess most people do less than 100 hours a year and then have a thorough service so the engines should be good for a decade.
David

 

[spannerman]

The answer is 'how long is a piece of string'
I have worked on boats that have engines 25 yrs old and still going. It really depends on usage and maintainance, the worst thing is not to use an engine, as it will rust and corrode from lack of use. We once changed a V8 petrol that had done !30 hours in 13 years! It just rusted away from inside out, only 10 hours a year is amounts to abuse. The second crime is to cut corners on servicing, thinking that well we didn't use it much so it won't need servicing, wrong! marine engines live in a harsh environment so they need regular inspection and servicing . Regarding the boats you have seen that have been re-engined, there can be a variety of reasons ranging from, converting from petrol to diesel, wanting more horsepower, or maybe wishing to take advantage of the new technology on electronic diesels.
A well maintained Volvo or Mercruiser will easily see service for 12-15 years, which is longer than you will keep the boat I imagine.
Good luck, Steve

 

[c_j]

The only boats with Kad44's advertised as having been changed I have seen (and believe me I have looked at a few ads in the past three months) are the two Sunseeker 34's one of which had one engine (from memory) around 1500 hours and the other with about 70. These particular two were charter boats and that in itself tends to attach some stigma IMHO. No I think that the KAD44 is a pretty good engine but remember it is built to have a very high power to weight ratio so everything is built to reduce weight.

When I sold my boat with 44's they had done around 400 hours and sounded great.
If you ask for an oil sample of any prospective boat engine (before suffering the expense of a survey) then you can tell a lot. Oil sample is around £50 an engine and Volvo will do this for you direct or you can use a 3rd party lab. Then you can ask Volvo agent to run diagnostics on engines via laptop. This will tell you actual engine hours and a whole load of other stuff as well including if the engine has ever overheated and to what temperature.

Overheating will normally be from plastic bag over water intake or dodgy impeller but if Skipper did not notice then it is possible for engines to suffer considerable overheating.

What made you think that many 44's had been changed?

CJ
chris@stone.uk.com

www.stone.uk.com

 

[Gludy]

"A well maintained Volvo or Mercruiser will easily see service for 12-15 years"
I find that interesting = are you saying that. given the average use of under 100 hours a year, the average, well mainteined marine engine only last 1200 to 1500 hours before being replaced?


Paul

 

[kimhollamby]

The point is, in that scenario, that the hours have nothing to do with it. The dominating factor is lack of use over that period, coupled perhaps with infrequent servicing, and the damage that causes in terms of corrosion, seal hardening and so on. I took a pair of TMD31s to 1600 hours in four years and, apart from needing an injector service, they were in good shape...better probably than the ones that would never reach that on the clock. But then my boat got hammered on resale because it had high hour engines, which was a bit of a nonsense.

I agree with posts elsewhere here - treat with great suspicion any boat with little or no use on engines, rather than worrying about ones that have run up some time. No leisure boat is likely to come to market with very high hours but the ones that have a few more than the 50-100/season norm are the ones I would look at first; provided that it didn't turn out that was because the owner had been idling them all weekend to charge batteries!

kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[oldgit]

One of the of 20 year old Princess 33s ( low power 130 hp 40A)I looked at had 4000 hrs on meters and very nice they sounded too.It also came with long list of regular oil and filter change receipts.

Oooh look its still not dark and its nearly 5pm

 

[spannerman]

Hi Gludy, no those figures are minimum time periods I would expect, but sadly most boaats I get to see around that age tend to have sorry looking motors as they tend to be on their 2\3rd owner and maybe fallen out of the dealer servicing level of maintainance. We once had in a Volvo 40 which had done 9,000hrs without major repairs, but it had been in a commercial boat and used nearly every day.