G
Guest
Guest
I am about to instal a Vire 7 petrol inboard to our 24ft yacht. Anyone any experiance of these engines and any advise??
Shanty
Member
Advice? Yes - DON'T DO IT. I had a boat fitted with one of these horrors. Just about everything that could go wrong did. Over the years I rebuilt the bloody thing so many times, I could do it blindfold. I ended up selling the boat, mainly to get rid of the engine. The guy I sold her to did what I should have done at the start - after a season of problems, he ripped the Vire out & fitted a diesel.
BTW - You will find the spares expensive, and you will need lots of them.
BTW - You will find the spares expensive, and you will need lots of them.
yoda
Well-known member
If you need a lightweight and small engine consider a Dolphin instead. Not everyones choice but ours has been good to us. The spares are reasonable and secondhand engines plentiful (people don't like petrol).
toad
New member
Do a forum search on vire,i had no problems with mine as a lightweight engine in a small boat
oldharry
Well-known member
I had few problems with the one in my old Westerly back in the early 80s. It had the advantage that it was so light that I could dismount it and take it home for the winter for checking and overhaul - which was very useful living 130 miles from the boatyard at the time!
One thing to watch: make sure there is PLENTY of water going to the rubber flexible exhaust. If not, the inner sleeve will break down, and cause intermittent blockages, resulting in sudden and embarassing engine failures. Why does it ALWAYS wait to the worst possible moment? Is this a characteristic of its Finnish ancestry?
Being 2 stroke it is subject to the vagiaries of the breed - several spare plugs, and the engine crank seals MUST be in good nick as well as the piston rings. And they are a bit touchy about what oils to use in the 2T mix: modern motorcycle oils will almost certainly foul the plug, so find a good make of outboard oil and stick to it. Bikes run much faster and much hotter, but the old Vire runs too cool to burn off the additives to modern high grade 2T oils, leading to wicking (metallic particles shorting the plug electrodes) and fouling with soot and oil not being dispersed quickly enough. It was quite critical too to install a plug of the correct heat range, for the same reason.
One thing to watch: make sure there is PLENTY of water going to the rubber flexible exhaust. If not, the inner sleeve will break down, and cause intermittent blockages, resulting in sudden and embarassing engine failures. Why does it ALWAYS wait to the worst possible moment? Is this a characteristic of its Finnish ancestry?
Being 2 stroke it is subject to the vagiaries of the breed - several spare plugs, and the engine crank seals MUST be in good nick as well as the piston rings. And they are a bit touchy about what oils to use in the 2T mix: modern motorcycle oils will almost certainly foul the plug, so find a good make of outboard oil and stick to it. Bikes run much faster and much hotter, but the old Vire runs too cool to burn off the additives to modern high grade 2T oils, leading to wicking (metallic particles shorting the plug electrodes) and fouling with soot and oil not being dispersed quickly enough. It was quite critical too to install a plug of the correct heat range, for the same reason.