Inboard Diesel which one ?

H

headlight

New Member
Joined
12 Apr 2010
Messages
3
Visit site
Hi all,
I have had outboards for the last 25 years but am now considering buying a boat with an inboard diesel for the first time.
The following are the makes & sizes I am looking at & I would like some opinions/advice on these engines. Also the boat will be second hand with the engines out of warranty. I will be doing the routine servicing myself if that will make any difference to the best option.
Yamaha 275hp duoprop
Yanmar 260hp 6cy, 6by, 260z through leg exhaust
Volvo D6 280hp DPH
All advice & recommendations gratefully received as I know very little about these engines.

headlight
 
May be a passable idea to visit the nearest two marine engineers and see what they know about. You don't want to be greeted with a sucking of the teeth and a "never worked on one" when your floggle pin goes ping a day or so before you want to go away.
 
Yamaha I know nothing about, but the Yanmar is a superb engine, runs very smoothly and never give any trouble, there were issues when connected to Bravo drives but they are resolved now, just make sure it has the correct raw cooling setup and the drive is right for the boat/engine combination.
The D6 I know a lot about as nearly everything we sell has one, they had injector issues now resolved, and the Duoprop is very reliable but all Volvo drives suffer water ingress some time during their life, it runs into several hundred now that I have replaced the seals on.
The DPH drives have had problems with steering cylinders and hoses leaking, get an engineer who knows the engine type you buy to give it a once over, and make sure it has a service history.
 
headlight said:
Hi all,
I have had outboards for the last 25 years but am now considering buying a boat with an inboard diesel for the first time.
The following are the makes & sizes I am looking at & I would like some opinions/advice on these engines. Also the boat will be second hand with the engines out of warranty. I will be doing the routine servicing myself if that will make any difference to the best option.
Yamaha 275hp duoprop
Yanmar 260hp 6cy, 6by, 260z through leg exhaust
Volvo D6 280hp DPH
All advice & recommendations gratefully received as I know very little about these engines.

headlight
Click to expand...

#1 Yamaha ME422 275, Toyota base engine. Excellent base same as Yanmar LP, however imminent announcement that the engine supply agreement with Toyota has ended http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245229. No immediate issue re: support, but just wait for the head shaking when you come to sell the boat. If you think Volvo parts prices are $$ just triple them for Yamaha.

#2 Yanmar 260 BY, ouch just about the worse thing to happen to Yanmar. The BY base motor is BMW with poor marinisation by Magna Steyr (Nothing to do with Steyr engines now) Every single BY1 engine has been campaigned to BY2 spec at huge cost. The new BY2 water cooled manifold has been subject to early life failures. The Yanmar Spannerman refers is I believe the old Toyota base 6LP engine which was super package. I would let others find out how successful the BY2 revision work has been.

#3 Volvo D6, hate to say it as I am no Volvo loyalist, but pretty much the benchmark in this power node at the present time and safest option in terms of resale.

Everything is a bargain until you get it home!
 
I told you on the other forum, stay away from anything remotely connected to BMW. I appreciate your position, i.e buying used therefore no choice as to what machinery is fitted, from what I am able to gather Yanmar pre BMW appears to be the best choice,but does it have to be outdrive??
 
A liilte more info

The boat I am looking for is a Hellraiser 223 (built by O"sullivan Marine, Southern Ireland). I wish to have a cruise speed of around 25kts (obviously weather permitting) due to the distance to the mark I wish to fish so I figure an engine that will do around 35-37kts flat out should not be working to hard at 25kts.
The engines I have posted are the makes & sizes the builder fits that I believe will give me the above performance. Bigger motors from the 3 makes are available but I believe 260-280hp will be ok.
There may be the option of 2 big outboards but I would imagine that that option would be considerably thirstier on juice than an inboard diesel.

headlight
 
In Norway we don't pay tax for marine diesel so the savings are big and diesel is popular.

In cars i have been driving diesel engines for 20 years. But after the new diesels with common rail nozzles advanced electronics partikkel filters turbochargers and so on, the fuel savings is gone if you only get a small problem.

In a normale plessure boat its the total cost that counts. A inboard petrol engine is not a very good option but a 300hp outboard might be a good choise if you are not going around the world.

A complex common rail engine is very good when its new grat performance and no visible smoke, but check out spare part prices like : nozzles hi pressure pipes, rail pipe , hp pump, turbo, manifoilds, cooleres,and so on. Also remember that some new engines can't be repaired if a cylinder fails.
So you need a good insurance. Don't know how happy they are if you do the maintan it yourselves.

In this class i would consider a 256hp steyr. It uses more fuel but it has a take my home system and it has a independent high pressure fuel system for each sylinder. The rest of the engine is a bit old fasion. Belt driven camshaft and only tvo valves on each sylinder. Its used in a lot of mob boats.

My first choise in this class is the 290hp 24V 4.2 liter yanmar with the toyota landcruiser base engine. Reliable, repairable and a straight forward fuel system.

I don't fancy common rail in a pleasure boat. To complex, to expensive to repair(Needs a spesialist) to sensitiv to fuel qality(needs exstereme filter mesh) elektronics wich fails after a winter without power.

Common rail is ok in a car designed for 6 years lifte time. In a diesel car its no way around. The high egr rates demands high pressure injection and the particle filters needs post injections to work. pre injection is good for cold starting noise in -20deg C. It will come egr and particle filters in boat engines also but a long as its sufur in the fuel its hard to demand.

Petrol engines are more dangerous to fire but a common rail engine can spray diesel into the engine room without losing power. That means that you can run for a long time with 1600bar diesel spraying in the engine rom. A hot spot can ignite it and if the mixture is correct a lot of fuel mist can burn.

I know that i'm quite negative to a spesific fuel system, but that's my opinion.
 
Last edited:
Sterndrives in general are great whilst new, but as they age they become increasingly troublesome and unless you have particularly good local support, I would avoid them.

I have just sold my Mercruiser powered boat, mainly due to the problem of little or no local support.

If I replace it I will go for the 150 to 225 hp Honda outboard, there is a good local dealer with knowledgeable grease monkeys. That combined with a 6 year (leisure use) warranty is enough to convince me.

The cost savings for diesel engines are less than they were. Their main benefit is waterside fuel. The safety aspect of petrol / diesel is largely an imaginary and does seem to appear in feal life.

Regards mikej
 
headlight said:
The boat I am looking for is a Hellraiser 223 (built by O"sullivan Marine, Southern Ireland). I wish to have a cruise speed of around 25kts (obviously weather permitting) due to the distance to the mark I wish to fish so I figure an engine that will do around 35-37kts flat out should not be working to hard at 25kts.
The engines I have posted are the makes & sizes the builder fits that I believe will give me the above performance. Bigger motors from the 3 makes are available but I believe 260-280hp will be ok.
There may be the option of 2 big outboards but I would imagine that that option would be considerably thirstier on juice than an inboard diesel.

headlight
Click to expand...

I may be showing my ignorance here as I have avoided I/O powered boats for the whole working life, however I took the trouble to look up the 223 specs, D6 280 makes no sense, what is wrong with D4 260/300 the 100 Kg weight difference will make big impact on light displacement vessel.

What am I missing?
 
Latestarter1 said:
I may be showing my ignorance here as I have avoided I/O powered boats for the whole working life, however I took the trouble to look up the 223 specs, D6 280 makes no sense, what is wrong with D4 260/300 the 100 Kg weight difference will make big impact on light displacement vessel.

What am I missing?
Click to expand...

You are not missing anything LS. I had been advised that for the performance I am looking for that 260hp or above is required.
The builders preferred engine would be Yamaha hence the 275hp. His other suggestions were the Volvo D6 280 or Yanmar 260 (he thinks I am looking at a new purchase). I was just going on his suggestions as as previously posted I have no experience of inboards.
I have already been advised prior to this thread that Yamaha may be pulling out of the market.
Basically I am just trying to get opinions of people with experience of inboards (such as yourself) & this thread is informtive.
Hellraisers seem to be pretty thin on the ground so it is not easy to find an owner to talk to or cadge a trip with. The only one in my area (as far as I know) is a 1996 boat with a 180hp VM engine. I have also spoken to an owner in Kent with a 2008 boat with a 245 Yamaha but that is it.
From what I have read so far the D4 Volvo may be a better option.
Thanks for the advice & keep it coming.

headlight
 
I love my simple as sin Detroit Diesels, ultra reliable and if you know what you are doing they need no laptop and software to interrogate the ECU, 550hp rated and mega reliability.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top