New boat
- Thread starter cloud7
- Start date
pvb
Well-Known Member
OK, so it's a brand new boat. You say it was designed for a Volvo engine but a Yanmar was fitted - was this your choice? Regardless, at only 4 weeks old you're still in the "snagging" phase, so your dealer should be able to do something to help.
If you haven't already, it would be worth posting your comments on an owners' forum; there may be others with the same boat who have experienced similar problems. And, if you do post on an owners' forum, please include some actual details of the boat and engine, don't expect people to guess.
doug748
Well-Known Member
Yes, for God's sake don't post any photos here or let on what boat it is, or all sort of hares will start running.
You will want to get back to the supplier with the problems and see if they can sort them amicably. It's the wrong time to get shirty with them, if they are trying their best. I would put the snags down in a letter "for their convenience" and gently float the idea that an independent surveyor might be able to suggest the best way forward.
prv
Well-Known Member
Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
All the images that I can see show the bully housing on Yanmar engines to be accessible from the front https://www.yanmarmarine.com/products/sailboat-and-small-craft-engines/
Perhaps the OP or Rotrax can explain why and how it cannot be removed and the drive belts made accessible?
Perhaps the OP or Rotrax can explain why and how it cannot be removed and the drive belts made accessible?
cobolt
Well-Known Member
Indeed they are, working on the assumption it's a 4JH80 or similar, an issue could arise if they've left the protective plastic cover on...it's secured with 5 machine screws which may or may not be accessible. But the issue tends to be you need at least 55mm clearance to pull the cover towards you and over the pulleys/belts....you also need 50mm Clearance to pull out the impeller.
If they've installed it with cover on, and it's butted pretty close up to some joinery, then that would be a fairly major issue!
Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
It would and I had considered that the front face of the engine had been installed against or close to a bulkhead but I in my innocence dismissed the notion. What clown would install an engine so close to a bulkhead without it having a removable inspection hatch? Would the corresponding Volvo be any better? Although they don't appear to be fitted with covers.
cobolt
Well-Known Member
Yep there's no covers I don't think, and also the equivalent Volvo is overall a little shorter, so presuming sail drive position remains same, the Yanmar will project further towards whatever obstacle the OP is facing.
pvb
Well-Known Member
Do we know it's a saildrive? There's a lot of pointless speculation; the OP hasn't given enough information. For all we know, he might simply not have found the right access hatch yet.
Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
Looking at the range of likely boats in the 45' region they all seem to have companionway steps that are removable for engine access. I am intrigued to know the facts behind the claims.
dom
Well-Known Member
I honestly first thought he meant *he* was too big to get into the engine housing
Pete
Although to be fair, marine cramped engines can be a PITA: I've just had a leak on a freshwater cooled exhaust manifold for which I received an outrageous quote to replace the 'corroded' unit (multiple £'000s). Turned out to be an inaccessible core plug worth £2.50!! To get at the damn thing the manifold needed to come off, fair enough.
First off came the cabin door as PITA trying to bend around it. Then the alternator to create a pit of access, but all the rear manifold bolts were still concealed. Grrr. Off came the exhaust elbow, then the bloomin turbo, and finally I was good to go.
Except.... some genius invented such a tight turn on the waterpump-to-manifold water-pipe that it required the feckin water pump to come off also.
Technical complexity: 1/10. But lying feet in air, back to the floor while wriggling around to undo bits and pieces made me realise why only contortionists should be marine mechanics.
A few beers Sat night, then back to work with the aid of a vital new tool: Ibuprofen :sour:
Edit: speaking of access, you might want to stick up a pic of the access mods you made to your engine: for me it's the best yacht installation I have ever seen :encouragement:
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Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
Although to be fair, marine cramped engines can be a PITA: I've just had a leak on a freshwater cooled exhaust manifold for which I received an outrageous quote to replace the 'corroded' unit (multiple £'000s). Turned out to be an inaccessible core plug worth £2.50!! To get at the damn thing the manifold needed to come off, fair enough.
First off came the cabin door as PITA trying to bend around it. Then the alternator to create a pit of access, but all the rear manifold bolts were still concealed. Grrr. Off came the exhaust elbow, then the bloomin turbo, and finally I was good to go.
Except.... some genius invented such a tight turn on the waterpump-to-manifold water-pipe that it required the feckin water pump to come off also.
Technical complexity: 1/10. But lying feet in air, back to the floor while wriggling around to undo bits and pieces made me realise why only contortionists should be marine mechanics.
A few beers Sat night, then back to work with the aid of a vital new tool: Ibuprofen :sour:
Edit: speaking of access, you might want to stick up a pic of the access mods you made to your engine: for me it's the best yacht installation I have ever seen :encouragement:
See post #10 the vast majority would say it can't be done but the few and motivated would just get on and do it, you fall into the latter category as do I and I have the scars and back problems to testify to it.
prv
Well-Known Member
Whoever installed the engine in our boat
(Which, to be fair, unlike the OP's was a re-engine with a different model, and the bulkhead not cut into was the heads which I'd prefer to remain waterproof.)
The service points on that side are the oil filter, fuel filter and lift pump, sump drain, coolant drain, and dipstick. I moved most of them for convenience:
- Oil filter relocated with a screw-on remote kit and flow/return hoses
- Fuel filter unbolted from the engine and moved next to the twin Racors, while still connected at the same point in the system
- Priming bulb mean I don't need to operate the lift pump by hand
- Sump drain extended via a hose to a convenient point to connect a vacuum extractor
- Dipstick tube carefully re-bent to curve forwards instead of upwards
The coolant drain is the only one I still have to access directly, which is only once every two or three years, and there's just enough room to get a hand round there to slip a tube over the spigot and open the tap.
Pete
cobolt
Well-Known Member
No we don't know, but it's highly likely...I can't think of any 45ft boats with shaft drive, from a manufacturer who wouldn't take extreme care about service accessibility and so on.....unless of course it is as something as simple as he's not found an access panel yet, but I'm giving benefit of doubt to the OP's abilities.
Cactus Sailing
Well-Known Member
4 pages and i'm non the wiser??
i think we need more info to help.
i think we need more info to help.
Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
pvb
Well-Known Member
How about the Beneteau Oceanis 46.1, or the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 440, to name just two off the top of my head?
dom
Well-Known Member
cobolt
Well-Known Member
You cut quite a key part of my comment off the quote.....
Anyhow, both manufacturers fit only Yanmar engines.
The implication is that a Yanmar engine has been fitted in a slot not designed for it.
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Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
I think Bavaria are the ones that claim Volvo as fitment and if it is a Bavaria then the thread could take on a whole new life.
