Mercruiser Diesels

oldgit said:
I cant imagine the Volvo D4 and D6 range of engines being found in any commercial fishing boats even if derated to 150hp !

Time will tell.
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Will this one do.....10secs on google
http://www.charterboats-uk.co.uk/evgrace/[/QUOTE]

:D:D
I hope it hasnt taken you long to find that , I walked passed a who row of dinky fishing boats like that a couple of days ago, most had mercruiser outdrives which surprised me , wish Id taken a snap now ;)
 
DAKA said:
Will this one do.....10secs on google
http://www.charterboats-uk.co.uk/evgrace/
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:D:D
I hope it hasnt taken you long to find that , I walked passed a who row of dinky fishing boats like that a couple of days ago, most had mercruiser outdrives which surprised me , wish Id taken a snap now ;)[/QUOTE]



"I cant imagine the Volvo D4 and D6 range of engines being found in any commercial fishing boats even if derated to 150hp"

So it wont do then ? :)

How about this
http://www.windcatworkboats.com/#/fleet/ws_series/
 
I decided to sit this one out however examples now being quoted are sure sign of of reckless stupidity either by the builder, owner and VP in signing this off,,,,,,,,http://www.charterboats-uk.co.uk/evgrace/

#1 Volvo D6 435 is a darn good engine. However it is not a true commercial rating. I had a real head to head at Seawork on just this very subject.

Remember the thread on modern engine durability and the guy bad mouthing D6 who turned out to be a high hour commercial operator masquerading as leisure operation.

Charter boat operators can be a pain in the butt, and VP not the only manufacturer who is reckless about their reputation, Yanmar distrubutor signing off pair of 6LP's on high hour commercial application. Three years, big bang, loads of anger over lost revenue, plenty of finger pointing. Who needs it.

Too many dealers out there with 'flog em a box' mentality as well as red neck charter boat operators. I used to get regular calls asking me to represent this body or that body in legal wrangles over a specifications I would never have put together in the first place!

As to wind farm vessels, outdrives, give me a break. When you are throwing loadsamony at North Sea wind farm infrastructure good sense and engineering go out the window.
 
oldgit said:
I cant imagine the Volvo D4 and D6 range of engines being found in any commercial fishing boats even if derated to 150hp !

This is because they are designed specially for high speed leisure ( low hours/ year) use.Where compact and quick installation is important,in high speed planning boats.
VP did and prob still do an attractive inviocing incentive for the builders ,but that does not mean the other competitors are more reliable or conversely VP are masking reliability issues .
Commercial boats are better off with a Perkins john Deere or Vetus engine ,designed for long hours at lower rate .
In terms of Numbers i suspect VP ,s share is massive compared to Merc diesels- in the diesel outdrive market
But in the US the Oppersite in relation to petrols( a different market segment with different drivers) eg merc,s masive V8 - 700's and 1050's powering 40 ft " - poker run" cigarette type speed boats on Merc legs with herring cleaver type props ,running anywhere between 80-120 knots .Often offered as a triple insallation ,staggered to fit in ,with a straight through exhaust .
VP have no presence in this market .
They have 40 years experiance in the other segment the average diesel high speed planning craft ,Fairprinseeker etc, where 35 knots @ WOT is the norm.
Each is a compromise and the manufacturer details a maintenance schedule .
When this is not followed then probs occur.
Leisure engines only become sick through lack of use and poor maintenance .A high specific output is only detrimental if they are in a high hours commercial boat, which as LS infers is crazy .
It's seems daft forum members bickering like children over this and " having a go at " Volvo Paul.
So it's back to service history really that's the divider not the marques ,in other words how well / close has the manufactors service schedule been followed .
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In my dream..........

Think you will find this is all just the usual forum "sticks and stones" exchanges !

I have a set of Perkins blue anchors and frequently dream of flying past Daka at 5000 RPM with my Lumishores blazing :):):)
 
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Anyone who thinks regular service is the key is off their rocker !

Paying someone £1000 to service your engines is a real lottery.....

for a £1000 you may get one of two engine filters changed.
you may get both pre filters changed assuming they are easy to get to or you may just get them wiped with T-cut (clayed).

Impeller changed ? well it depends how easy it is to get to.

gearbox oil........ :rolleyes:

gearbox oil filter :D:D:D:D

Tappets :D:D:D:D


Even when it is done properly by a trusted mechanic such as Volvopaul and Col, you still have to rely on the boat manufacturer designing the instillation correctly , get passed all that and you are at the mercy of cheapscape designs such as

external steering rams
plastic end caps on coolers
 
DAKA said:
Anyone who thinks regular service is the key is off their rocker !

Paying someone £1000 to service your engines is a real lottery.....

for a £1000 you may get one of two engine filters changed.
you may get both pre filters changed assuming they are easy to get to or you may just get them wiped with T-cut (clayed).

Impeller changed ? well it depends how easy it is to get to.

gearbox oil........ :rolleyes:

gearbox oil filter :D:D:D:D

Tappets :D:D:D:D


Even when it is done properly by a trusted mechanic such as Volvopaul and Col, you still have to rely on the boat manufacturer designing the instillation correctly , get passed all that and you are at the mercy of cheapscape designs such as

external steering rams
plastic end caps on coolers
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Pete, will you ever be a green engine man?

You say installation, well even the very best of uk builders get it very wrong, just like yesterday on a princess of 2002 vintage , the pre filters tucked up in such a place I had to fight to change the separ element, they could have moved the a foot closer to the centre of the boat, but no doubt the bean counter at Plymouth said no as another £5 worth of hose would be req, how on earth would the owner or crew change it in anything but a flat sea. The starboard impeller required the sea water pump to be removed 63p motor as it had the oil filter remote conversion so hoses and unions in the path of the impeller tool. Honestly where do these idiots learn how to fit out boats? .
 
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volvopaul said:
Pete, will you ever be a green engine man?

You say installation, well even the very best of uk builders get it very wrong, just like yesterday on a princess of 2002 vintage , the pre filters tucked up in such a place I had to fight to change the separ element, they could have moved the a foot closer to the centre of the boat, but no doubt the bean counter at Plymouth said no as another £5 worth of hose would be req, how on earth would the owner or crew change it in anything but a flat sea. The starboard impeller required the sea water pump to be removed 63p motor as it had the oil filter remote conversion so hoses and unions in the path of the impeller tool. Honestly where do these idiots learn how to fit out boats? .
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I used to have Volvo (AQAD41), I am a green engine man, used to be very good engines .

I did predict that when volvo were forced to dump the reliable 1960's engines , volvo would suffer teh same as BMW did in the 80's.

I believe my prediction has been proven to a reasonable degree but accept I got lucky when volvo penta designed steering rams submerged in salt water FFS :rolleyes:and POD drives :eek: which destroyed their reputation for reliability but they got lucky with the D4 series in that the cost of fuel meant that many only cover 15-30 hours a year now

I dont believe the 1996-2012 black / white 4.2 VMs deserve the bad press some throw at them, thats all.
 
volvopaul said:
I have heard them called worse than black scrap! however if I was buying and had the choice dependant on price of the boat I would steer clear, they dont have the parts back up as volvo, yes some parts are getting scarce, you dont have a dealer at nearly every port, the drives are a nightmare, the engines are underpowered in some applications, the engine base unit is Italian anyway, they have 6 cylinder heads instead of 1, so stripdowns are more complex, you get oil leaks, they do overheat when the coolers are just slightly blocked, I could go on, I would put a search on the forum about mercruiser to give you an idea, thers plenty on here.

I a word, buy a volvo!
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Yes Paul, but apart from that are they OK???? Just realised this goes back to 2009?
 
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Chum has just bought a Broom with pair of these engines.
Brokers value any boat with Merc engines at a considerable discount over those with a pair of the Green horrors with similar output.
Both boats were apparently in similar condition but the boat with Volvos was posibly slightly nicer.
The 1993 Mercruiser powered boat was originally up for sale at around £15K less than the 1990 Volvo powered one.
Chum figured you can do lot of repairs for £15K.

Ps anybody in the market for Turbo 36 :)
 
I’ve just bought a pair and checked this forum with mixed reviews that I could live with and then noticed the date of the thread .. 9 years ago haha .. oops
 
Bandit said:
I had a Halmatic 34 with a pair of Mercruiser 3.6l 180hp 6 cylinder engines on shafts that i bought in 1993.

The boat was a semidisplacement.

The engines were about two or three years old when i bought the boat so about 1990.

I had so many problems with the engines following overheating that I replaced them in 1998 as they were uneconomical to repair.

The engines were VM base units with BMW badges and Mercruiser badges on as mecruiser took over BMW marine.

Spares were a problem, and i sold the gearboxes and scrapped the the engines.

I think the 220 is the same base engine.

My advice is dont touch them with a barge pole.
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Slightly different engine, the BMW version at 3.6L suffered overheating issues until the cooler kits were added, the last of these engines were sprayed black by Mercruiser and rebadged. The 3.6L as you had HATED heavy boats and became evident when fitted to the Birchwood 37, this is when the problems really came to light !
 
This is an old thread but I am pleased to report that I still have the same boat Princess 360 with twin Cummins-Mercruiser 4.2L 300HP each , still very pleased with the boat, engines 2004 . I had a problem back in 2009 and Cummins repaired under warranty, since then no real issues to report . The gearbox ( Hurth ZF 63A) has just been an issue but it is the exact same as Volvo Penta use anyway.

Cummins-mercruiser are the same straight 6 (4.2 L diesel ) as the mercrusier 4.2L detronic , its made by VM in Italy and rebadged.

I have only had one overheat problem , over 10 years ago turned out to be a faulty Jabsco impeller which was spinning on the boss.
 
Hello Daka

Good to see you here. I know you will now probably promptly disappear again, but do consider sticking around. I miss your posts.
 
Hi Daka.
Skipper who moors behind me has just bought a P 360. Very pleased with it indeed. Powered by pair of big Volvos.
Getting at the impellers on the Volvo is an absolute nightmare as we discovered recently.
 
Hi Oldgit,

I bought the P360 after admiring a friends P360 with Volvo 63p , he couldnt get to one of his impellers either , from memory it was only two bolts to take the whole Raw water pump off (it is above teh oil line so not a huge task).

It was teh reason why I looked for a P360 with the Mercruisers , loads of room for teh impellers ( I mentioned above having an overheat issue once , it was in teh alderney race and I changed the impeller while underway on one engine , didnt take long apart from teh fact I took it out , couldnt see a problem and put it back in, and then took it out again to exchange it , only later did I establish that the neoprene was spinning on the boss.
 
Did yo
DAKA said:
This is an old thread but I am pleased to report that I still have the same boat Princess 360 with twin Cummins-Mercruiser 4.2L 300HP each , still very pleased with the boat, engines 2004 . I had a problem back in 2009 and Cummins repaired under warranty, since then no real issues to report . The gearbox ( Hurth ZF 63A) has just been an issue but it is the exact same as Volvo Penta use anyway.

Cummins-mercruiser are the same straight 6 (4.2 L diesel ) as the mercrusier 4.2L detronic , its made by VM in Italy and rebadged.

I have only had one overheat problem , over 10 years ago turned out to be a faulty Jabsco impeller which was spinning on the boss.
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u have problems with the ECM and Mass air sensor ?
 
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