Servicing intervals on 4 year old Single Volvo engined boat

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Mark H

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I was interested in hearing any opinions on sticking to service schedules. I am interested in a boat which has a D4 260 inboard. It is only 4 yrs old and is of typical hours use.
The engine has been serviced by the main dealer but the last service was a whole summer season late (18 months since last service). I am told that the engine has been worked hard on occasions, cruising regularly at speed in excess of 3000 revs.

The boat is premium priced (and would be subject to possible negotiations) but would be an ideal boat for me.

If it was you what would be the considerations?

Thanks in advance for any views.
 
some one on this forum gave me this advise:

When you do a sea trial, do what my engineer advised (DIY engine assessment as good as any pro would do):
Warm the engine up with a short cruise first.
Note engine oil pressure at idle on a warm engine
Go flat out for 10-15 minutes
If nothing falls off or blows up it's looking promising

Drop back gently to idle and look at the pressure again. The oil is now as hot as it will ever normally get and should still provide enough pressure. If the pressure warning light goes on then you have some worn bearings letting the now-runny oil leak out into the sump and not stay going around the system.
That's what he advised, I did it, bought the boat and am happy with it!
On the leg, ask about service and when the bellows were last replaced. Look at the anodes and any evidence of pitting on the leg casing. Look at the oil reservoir for the leg (inside the transom somewhere), it should be brown or black and not milky. If milky it means the seals have gone and possibly gearbox knackered.
Corrosion on leg, should be minimal if anodes used and replaced, AF paint can be a problem
 
The only drives that have an internal oil reservoir are Mercruiser and the oil should be green, any other colour indicates problems
 
Some interesting points to bear in mind for a sea trial, I didn't make it clear that this is on a shaft so no drives. Apologies for not being clear!

It has 290 hrs on the clock by the way.

Also I was particularly interested in the considerations regarding the servicing omission (18 months and two summers between services). I guess some would consider this splitting hairs but I consider that it might make a difference to the durability of the engine (with it having been driven reasonably hard?). It is a lot of money to part with to me!
 
If it has been serviced late and then used it most likely any problems would have shown up
Don't think that cruising around the 3000 mark will do much harm
Rule of thumb is WOT less 10%
 
It really depends on the number of hours used in that period. More often than not service intervals are stretched on boats in the UK as they see little use - maybe 20 - 50 hours per year. It's unlikely there's anything to worry about because of this.

You should be able to get a printout of time vs rpm for the engine if it's a concern.
 
If you wait for a boat with full service history and every service completed exactly annually you may wait a long time. 290 hours is not a lot so if there is evidence of services done at approximately 100 hour intervals there should be nothing to get concerned about.
I do tend to stick to engine services at 100 hours which for me is almost exactly annually . And I guess a lot on this forum will do so too. But I expect there are many others that do not.
If in doubt have an engineers inspection in addition to a survey.
 
You should ask to see the service records..should have the engine hours noted. If it had done 270 of those hours with no attention I would be more worried than if the hour /service intervals look OK, and there was just a period that it wasn't used much. Could be a host of reasons for that, none of which were to do with the boat. I would hope to see the service sheets showed that it was serviced when the hours started being put back on..which is sort of what you might expect?
 
Providing that the oil is in good condition, the fact it has been worked hard I would say is a good thing. Diesel engines are made to work. I have twin d6 's in the med and they have been serviced every other year. I had them in for maintenance and the engineer checked the year old oil and reported it was one of the cleanest, and viscous oils he had seen, so did not change it. Also v important to have used the correct oils, mine has only used vp. Dammed expensive though
 
I fit firmly in the service them every 12 months regardless brigade and the most important point is having a specialist crawling all over the engines and inspecting them.

Its important to replace the internal engine anodes in the fresh water system every 12 months.

The impeller can loose its ability to spring back into shape and pump water effectively after a long time layed up in the same position.

Clean oil in an engine is better than used engine oil.

The D4 at 4 years should have the coolers closely examined for leaks on the plastic end caps. the later bolt on lids on the sea strainers should be fitted and the engines should be flushed out with Rydlyme to remove the scale in the seawater side of the engine cooling system as this builds up and pushes off the cooler end caps and can block up and cause an overheat.

Otherwise they are a good strong engine with a good torque curve.

Running at 3,000rpm I would not think is a problem should cruise at 3,000 to 3,200 rpm, tops out at 3,500 rpm.
 
Thanks for the suggestions and considerations. I am still in the 'weighing it all up phase' and the internal 'swingometer' in my head is working overtime. I appreciate all the views, and I am pretty convinced and reassured about the D4 unit.
 
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