Low hours diesel engine- concerns?

[bugs]

I am looking at a 9 year old boat which had very little use. Engine hours are around 200. Its a 50hp yanmar.I am confident they are legitimate hours and the engine certainly looks very lightly used. I am wondering about potential pitfalls of little used diesel engines? corrosion?
tks
h

 

[captainslarty]

Start it up, check the oil pressure, check the exhaust.. be happy

 

[VicS]

If when it has run it has been run under load for long enough to reach full working temperature all should be well but if it has had many short periods of running things may not be so rosy.
It should ideally have had the oil changed every year but provided it has been changed several times over 9 years I would not be unduly worried.

Hopefully if it is raw water cooled the anode, assuming it has one, has been replaced when necessary, like every year.

Short periods of operation, lack of regular oil changes regardless of low running hours and lack of anode renewal if applicable would all be grounds for beating the price down IMHO

 

[ytd]

one thing to check are oil leaks from seals. Sometimes if an engine sits idle for a few years rust develops on the unoiled bearing surfaces. when you start it up this rust can damage the oil seals leading to leaks. Pretty rare but it does happen. Changing seals is not a huge job but something to factor in.

 

[Marsupial]

It all depends how its been used. AS Vics says if its been run at operating temp for most of its running life then there's little to be concerned about. On the other hand if its 200 hours of 10min trips then I would want further inspection to be happy.

You could ask the owner for a trial, say 2 or 3 hours at 80% of full revs and see how the thing sounds and looks after that. It should sound sweet and have no fluids where they shouldn't be and the exhaust should clear (in diesel terms). Take an engineer with you if all are agreeable.

On the whole marine engines put up with quite alot of "abuse" and the yanmar is a good strong basic engine so it should be OK - IF its been looked after.

 

[nigelhudson]

[ QUOTE ]
one thing to check are oil leaks from seals. Sometimes if an engine sits idle for a few years rust develops on the unoiled bearing surfaces. when you start it up this rust can damage the oil seals leading to leaks. Pretty rare but it does happen. Changing seals is not a huge job but something to factor in.

[/ QUOTE ]This also applies to the water pump(s).

 

[earlybird]

If the engine looks outwardly OK, the oil looks reasonably clean, and it starts easily with no smoke, I wouldn't worry too much. Many yacht diesels accumulate their hours in mostly short spells and survive. My previous boat, when bought, had a Yanmar 2GM20 with less than 50 hours in over 5 years. In the next 5 years and 500 hours, apart from routine servicing, I replaced anodes once, and I might have replaced a pump impeller. The only difficulty I had was that it chewed up alternator belts until I realised that the crankshaft pulley had rusted through lack of use.