Looking for a new boat - with some questions?

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subaruboating

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Hi all

This is my first post on this forum and I am newly registered. So please be gentle lol.

I am in the market for a new boat - in Japan, so my options are limited. Although my native home is England. And I have some skill with a spanner...lol

I have been looking at several options, and have been having some hot debates about the practicalities and maintenance of those various options.

So I have a few questions as I would like to get a better understanding of my current choices. If you could help that would be great.

This is my situation

I have the choice between: Yamaha FR 26 or 27, Yamaha FC 24,26,27 Yamaha PC26,27,30. All of which vary in age from 1991/H2 to 1996/H6 with inboard and outboard combinations, most of which are inboard's. The engine options are AD31 105 BHP twin IB, AD41 200 BHP twin IB, AD41 150BHP single IB, Yamaha 150 single OB

In Japan it would seem that Volvo have a mixed reputation, however because the Japanese have a paranoia for anything old or not Japanese, they feel that the older Volvo engines are rubbish/costly and Japanese outboard engines are far better.

So the FR 26 and 27ft are with single 150BHP AD41 penta inboards

The PC 26ft are with both AD31 x 2 105 BHP OR TWIN AD41 150 BHP Pentas inboards

PC27 and PC30ft ft have TWIN 200BHP AD41 Pentas

The FC 24ft have single outboard 140 bhp 2st or 150BHP 4 st yamaha OR Single 150 BHP IB penta

FC 27ft have a single 240 BHP yamaha inboard

A good variety of choice except all the Volvo Engines, as I understand, are old.

From what I can see the average hrs for the various Volvo engines are from 592 to 3120 hrs with service and maintenance, or Overhaul. With most of the boats in DRY storage.

All of which are stern drive, of varying quality and age.

What i would like to know is.

How good/ reliable are the old Volvo Engines given how old they are?

What kind of problems would you expoxct given that they have been in dry dock?

Are the penta 31 and 41 better than outboards for off shore (not to far off shore though)?

What sort of service intervals/costs would you expect for these engines under average use?

How many hours would you expect under average use before a major overhaul.???

Are AD41 engines better than say older 4.3ltr V6 carb petrol mer-cruisers of the same age ?

are older ad41 or 31 engines to be trusted given the age ???

(Personally i like the FC 27 with the Yamaha diesel at 240 BHP. cracking looking boat)

would it be better to go for outboards ???


I will probably have a few more questions, and sorry for the shocker post but, I really have nobody who speaks any sense to talk to about this. So your help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers in advance
 
Simplistically, any older engine or powertrains will be very dependant on how well they have been maintained over the years, that is both engine and outdrive (if applicable). Clearly outboard are more consumable, it is not so hard to throw an old one away and fit a newer one. If you have some technical ability you should be able to tell quite quickly how well something has been maintained.
 
rafiki_ said:
Simplistically, any older engine or power-trains will be very dependant on how well they have been maintained over the years, that is both engine and outdrive (if applicable). Clearly outboard are more consumable, it is not so hard to throw an old one away and fit a newer one. If you have some technical ability you should be able to tell quite quickly how well something has been maintained.
Click to expand...

Cheers for the reply.

I have some technical ability but I am no expert on marine engines. In the UK i used boats everyday for about 4 years mainly RIBs. But they were maintained by an authorised engineer. I owned two old boats, an old shetland and and a microplus, both with outboards.

I have never worked with or used Volvo penta engines and trawling through the internet for info takes time so, I figured I would post on a forum like this to see what the general consensus is to my predicament.

Regarding the stern drives. Some of the ones I have looked at, are clearly fubar'ed, bits missing and obvious problems. Are there any specific checks that I can do as a way of ascertaining usability without doing a water test???

I am looking at a Yamaha PC26 tomorrow with twin AD31 engines, they have just recently been serviced and furbished with some new parts. I am fortunate in that he can fire them up at the least, and there is the option of a sea trial. Are there any pearls of wisdom that can be passed on regarding engine inspection and things to look out for????

What do you guys think of inboard to outboard conversions ???

Also as I mentioned, there is a bit of a bad rep with the Volvo engines here, well at least from what I've heard so far..well actually the personal reviews are quite polarised. Not being fluent enough to really communicate properly makes it that much harder. I always though that Volvo engines were solid, and well maintained should run for up to 10000 hours before needing major internal overhaul???
 
subaruboating said:
Cheers for the reply.

I have some technical ability but I am no expert on marine engines. In the UK i used boats everyday for about 4 years mainly RIBs. But they were maintained by an authorised engineer. I owned two old boats, an old shetland and and a microplus, both with outboards.

I have never worked with or used Volvo penta engines and trawling through the internet for info takes time so, I figured I would post on a forum like this to see what the general consensus is to my predicament.

Regarding the stern drives. Some of the ones I have looked at, are clearly fubar'ed, bits missing and obvious problems. Are there any specific checks that I can do as a way of ascertaining usability without doing a water test???

I am looking at a Yamaha PC26 tomorrow with twin AD31 engines, they have just recently been serviced and furbished with some new parts. I am fortunate in that he can fire them up at the least, and there is the option of a sea trial. Are there any pearls of wisdom that can be passed on regarding engine inspection and things to look out for????

What do you guys think of inboard to outboard conversions ???

Also as I mentioned, there is a bit of a bad rep with the Volvo engines here, well at least from what I've heard so far..well actually the personal reviews are quite polarised. Not being fluent enough to really communicate properly makes it that much harder. I always though that Volvo engines were solid, and well maintained should run for up to 10000 hours before needing major internal overhaul???
Click to expand...

The problem comes back to, there are no easy answers, as it boils down to how well the engines and drives have been maintained.

With the drives, external check includes:
Anodes
Props
Corrosion
Oil leaks
Bits missing
Chunks of alloy knocked off.

Engines, you know what to look for. If they are scruffy, and you cannot get a service history, walk away. 10,000 hours is unlikely, if well maintained 2 or 3,000 hours is OK.

Possibly bad rep in Japan due to parts and dealer availability?
 
I appreciate your point about being handy with a spanner, but I think the biggest issue here will be the availability of parts and the support of any local OE parts suppliers.
It's ok being able to fix things, but if you have to search (and 'DHL' ) parts from half way round the world, it will be relatively expensive, and (from a time lost 'on the water' point of view) rather frustrating!
I've no idea about boats in Japan, but from my limited knowledge of cars out there which seem to go from 'new' to 'zero' even quicker than the UK, maybe you will find some absolute 'bargains' for 'older boats'?
But I think, unless you find something that has good local technical and spares support, you'd better be prepared for a lot of waiting (non boating) time to use your spanners:)
 
I had a look at a Yamaha FC27 with a 240bhp Yamaha Diesel engine and stern drive. Really good price the stern drive looked great and the hull looked great too, 1996. It's being refurbished inside. However even though the engine looked very clean it had done near 3000 hours. It does have a service history.

As I type I'm on the Shinkansen heading towards Tokyo to look at a PC 26 with twin ad31's. Apparently the guy has spent some good money on refurb for both boat and engines. I want the FC, however the wife likes the PC.

Johntheoil.
You are correct about the price of used boats. Their are definitely some bargins to be had. From my reaserch so far there are plenty of Volvo engines about. And according to one boat company the maintenance costs are different but not by a huge amount. This does seem contrary to opion on forums here though. Where maintenance and repair costs seem to be quite pricy and a big issue. So your point would seem substantiated according to those folk on the forums.

A lot of people are converting inboards to outboards. This seems to be a developing trend for the older inboard Yamaha PC type boats.

One boat yard charges 1,000,000 yen for the conversion before parts. Quite lucrative by all accounts.

The search continues. I'll pop up some pics later if I can.
 
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