Fairline Turbo 36/TAMD61's

[clartius]

Recently purchased a Fairline Turbo 36 (1989, with twin VP TAMD61A's) and have a few questions that I thought you educated people may be able to help me with:

1) Stupid but driving me crazy; where is the fuse box/circuit breakers? I looked behind the console and could only find breakers for the items controlled by the switches on the dash, what about other stuff i.e. stereo, nav equipment etc?

2) I know the TAMD's are fairly smokey but I am getting a lot of white smoke from the starboard engine in particular, I guessed at contaminated fuel (when I bought her in April the tanks were only half full, suggesting a winter of condensation in the tanks) but ran the bowl filter and was suprised to find nothing but red diesel pour out. (the port on the other hand had engine oil present! but thats another matter) On our trip down the east coast (bought in Norfolk kept on Thames) after approx 2 hours of running over 2000 revs the starboard engine dropped from 2200ish down to 1200 without warning (very disconserting!) and continued to give problems untill it was kept at a maximum of 1900 at which she ran fine for the rest of the 14 hour trip. Also found that she was beginning to get a little hot when run over the 2000 mark, nothing dangerous just more than I would like to see. A turbo issue?

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated, my thanks in advance.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Welcome to the forum. I had a Turbo 36 with TAMD60C's many years ago and it was a brilliant boat so I'm sure you'll be happy with yours. I still shudder at some of the sea conditions we took the poor girl out in. We were very keen but very green at the time.
I seem to remember on my boat that there were some breakers hidden in one of the aft cabin cupboards but I'm really not sure. I'm sure there'll be more qualified forumites along in a minute to answer your engine question but I wonder whether it's an injector prob. Again I'm no expert but I would have thought a blown turbo would have produced black smoke due to the unburnt fuel not white smoke

 

[PaulGooch]

I'd certainly start by replacing all of the fuel filters, you might find each engine has two. The starboard engine problem definitely sounds very much like filters. It's a good place to start anyway and it never hurts to have new filters and is a cheap job. Good idea to get a spare set to carry onboard too.

 

[photodog]

And give the cooling system a real good flush out or something.. we had a 36 sedan with the same engines... and it had lived on the trent for a few years... when we moved it to the south coast we started to have cooling and fuel problems... years of toodling along at 6 knots didnt do them any good.. our stbd engine had a cracked cylinder head which turned out to be a bit of a nightmare...

Good Sea boat though.

 

[kashurst]

sounds very much like fuel filters to me and a cooling system that needs a good clean and probably new impellers. All DIY able and not expensive, a good opportunity to learn how to change all these bits in the peace and quiet of a marina - I wouldn't panic, if it went that far there is not much wrong.

 

[photodog]

new impellers. All DIY able and not expensive, a good opportunity to learn how to change all these bits in the peace and quiet of a marina - I wouldn't panic, if it went that far there is not much wrong.

The main reason I got shot... (apart from the growing list of major mechnical issues)... was the unbelievably poor access to the routine service items on the engines.... The access to the impellers in particular was a nightmare... as they were located on the front of the engines butting up against the fwd bulkead of the engine compartment... I simply could not see how I would have changed these in a seaway... and the oil filters were almost as bad.. in particular on the stbd engine iirc...

Shame as it was a nice boat..

 

[clartius]

The main reason I got shot... (apart from the growing list of major mechnical issues)... was the unbelievably poor access to the routine service items on the engines.... The access to the impellers in particular was a nightmare... as they were located on the front of the engines butting up against the fwd bulkead of the engine compartment... I simply could not see how I would have changed these in a seaway... and the oil filters were almost as bad.. in particular on the stbd engine iirc...

Shame as it was a nice boat..

Many thanks for your thoughts. This is a complaint i have heard levelled several times, however access to the front and inboard sides of the engines is excellent, Dont get me wrong, anything towards the gearbox end of things or on the outboard sides is likely to need a ambidextrous, double jointed dwarf to service but the bulkhead fwd of the engines does not appear untill you are in line with the steps down into the galley, am I right in thinking this is a modification from standard?

 

[photodog]

the bulkhead fwd of the engines does not appear untill you are in line with the steps down into the galley, am I right in thinking this is a modification from standard?

Err.. I am not sure what you mean by that... the fwd engine bulkhead ran across our boat in line with the steps down into the galley... and we could lift away part of the floor to gain access from above as well...

I was going to make a couple of alterations if we had kept the boat...1) Remote oil filter kits to remove the filters from the outboard position into someplace better... and 2) access panels through the bulkhead to directly access the impellers from the twin cabin and the galley area...

I also had a idea to put a steal frame in the saloon floor which would have allowed us to temporarily remove some of the wooden cross members which obstructed access from above..

So, I think a bit of alterations could solve the problems.

If I was a bit less of a tubmeister as well that may have helped!

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Many thanks for your thoughts. This is a complaint i have heard levelled several times, however access to the front and inboard sides of the engines is excellent, Dont get me wrong, anything towards the gearbox end of things or on the outboard sides is likely to need a ambidextrous, double jointed dwarf to service but the bulkhead fwd of the engines does not appear untill you are in line with the steps down into the galley, am I right in thinking this is a modification from standard?

Yeah you're right. Getting to the back of the engines was impossible on mine. I used to employ a thin agile mechanic solely to check the gearbox oil

 

[volvopaul]

Recently purchased a Fairline Turbo 36 (1989, with twin VP TAMD61A's) and have a few questions that I thought you educated people may be able to help me with:

1) Stupid but driving me crazy; where is the fuse box/circuit breakers? I looked behind the console and could only find breakers for the items controlled by the switches on the dash, what about other stuff i.e. stereo, nav equipment etc?

2) I know the TAMD's are fairly smokey but I am getting a lot of white smoke from the starboard engine in particular, I guessed at contaminated fuel (when I bought her in April the tanks were only half full, suggesting a winter of condensation in the tanks) but ran the bowl filter and was suprised to find nothing but red diesel pour out. (the port on the other hand had engine oil present! but thats another matter) On our trip down the east coast (bought in Norfolk kept on Thames) after approx 2 hours of running over 2000 revs the starboard engine dropped from 2200ish down to 1200 without warning (very disconserting!) and continued to give problems untill it was kept at a maximum of 1900 at which she ran fine for the rest of the 14 hour trip. Also found that she was beginning to get a little hot when run over the 2000 mark, nothing dangerous just more than I would like to see. A turbo issue?

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated, my thanks in advance.

Hi shame you didnt buy my mates with the 350 yanmars in would ideal for the slow running on the thames, anyone interested in it send me a pm.

The 61a is a smokey engine on start up, but the smoke should go at 80 degrees c.

The front of the engines is good to work on, unlike the sister sedan 36 is a real pain unless its been modded for impeller access.

If you have steel tanks then it may be the rust thats blocking the prefilters, id cahnge the filters to start with, the rpm situation is low as they should with a clean bottom pull 2800rpm.

The intercoolers and heat exchangers are getting in in years and are probably ready for stripping down, cleaning out and resealing, there may also be turbo and bypass valve problems, id also remove the injectors and get them tested if near 1000 hours by now.

There are also the well know horrors with the exhaust elbows, ive worked on these boats and engines for years now, ive also got the later versions in my own princess the 62s.

 

[Bandit]

I had a Sedan 36 same hull and machinery.

Mine was a 2006 and had steel tanks they rusted through on the top, have a look.

Sounds like a mixture of problems, Start with prefilters, drain them are they clean. What are the cartidges like.

Treat the fuel, grotamar 71 is good.

The 12 volt breakers on mine were below the dash in a cupboard.

Overheating could be cooling stacks?

A very good sea boat which punches well above its weight.