Volvo engine Ident help

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MengWalton

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Good morning,

Finally got around to buying a liveaboard, just in the process of making it perfect before moving onto there. I have what i think to be a volvo penta md engine but im not sure. It has a very small leak from a gasket on what i think is the water pump. Its only small but its SW so making everything rusty so would like to fix it, ive found the gasket number to order but i would like to confirm the engine. I have uploaded a pic and a pic of the leaky flange.
Any help appreciated
Jonjoe
 
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Tranona

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Easiest way is to use photobucket and upload s images(IMG) from there.

Your description suggests the seal in the raw water pump is failing although it could be just the gasket on the cover plate. MD series Volvos covers just about all the small (under 50hp) Volvo engines up to about 2005, but there is an enormous variety of different basic engine types. If you tell us what boat that might help narrow it down. You can get information on all Volvo engines on the Marine Parts Europe site or from Keyparts (aftermarket supplier of Volvo spares).

Sounds like you need to learn a bit more about engines in general if you are going to live aboard and maintain your boat yourself.
 
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MengWalton

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Thanks for the pic info.
I am marine engineering officer so i do know my engines however i will be the first to admit that my small volvo engine specific knowlage and knowlage of volvo engine history isnt the best. Ive had a good read through some forms and the marine parts europe i beleive i have a MD7 engine gathered from the single square rocket cover with one de compression lever among others I will get some pictures up shortly.
 
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MengWalton

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I did look for a serial but couldnt find one,
Ive just had the old owner confirm its a md7a so atleast i know what diagrams to be looking at. If anyone has a part number ect it would be a help
 
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scottie

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You are correct it s Md7 which is 2 cylinder originally built as an MD6 by Albin for Volvo
The serial number does matter for spares but various items have been superseded so and older engine may be mistaken for later
There are 2 different fuel systems cav and Bosch and the water pipes varied acording to engine number
As I recall the B did not have decompressor lever
As the spares are expensive and getting rare going much further than decoking is a serious financial decision and that is ban enough
If the engine is in an albin boat they may have their own electrics
 
AndrewB

AndrewB

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It looks like silicone sealant has been used in place of a gasket on the water pump. A bit of a fudge, not totally stupid but it will not last forever. You could just replace it and expect it to be good for a short while. Better would be to replace it with a gasket sealant such as Hylomar. Even better would be to buy a sheet of gasket paper and cut a proper gasket - there is a technique for doing this with a ball-pein hammer which is better than using scissors.

However, looking at the state of it, you ought to replace the impellor at the same time. Yank the old one out with a pair of long-nose pliers and take it to a supplier, quite possibly your regular chandler carries them, no need to find a Volvo specialist.

I hope that cap comes off easily!
 
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saltylegs

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Are you sure it is the impeller seal?
I had a similar looking leak on the Volvo 2002 (the replacement for the MD7 I believe) and i found that it was actually the water pump shaft seal that was leaking.
There is a Volvo repair kit available IIRC, but I was able to find a suitable "lip seal" via google for about a £1 (afraid I can't remember supplier)

Salty.
 
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MengWalton

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Good Morning,

Thanks for all the replies. Thanks for helping me confirm the engine model, that's appreciated.
I thought it was the water pump it just seemed so small, I'm so used to working on much much big engines this one would be the smallest I've ever worked on by a long way, so thanks for confirming that aswell.
I think its the back gasket/mess of silicone but I'm going to replace the lip seal and probably the bearing as-well. I already have a couple of spare impellers that came with the boat (new in packet and the rubber looks good) and a pump shaft so I will replace those while I'm there. TBH I will overhaul the whole pump assembly give it a clean and make up some proper gaskets for the cover.
Luckily the engine is easy enough to work on in the boat there's plenty of space around it, the only thing that concerns me is the rusted bolt heads, hopefully there not too bad, last thing I need is to snap one of those and start having to mess around with easy outs ect.
I'm also in the process of taking the paint off the engine and repainting (Normally I would take an engine to bits to do this however its easy enough not to on this, the only problem is I cant spray it so brush it will be)
As for its age it was fully rebuilt in 2007, it starts & runs fine apart from that tiny leak (1 drip a min) . and the only other problem I can see is a slightly perished fuel return hose that I will replace. Oh and the paint obviously! Parts seem to be available aswell so I will be maintaining this aslong as possible. I may even do a full rebuild if I get chance while the parts are still available.
From what I hear looked after these old volvo engines are as reliable as anything!

One last question, I'm redoing the electrics on the boat and have manged to do most of it but there's 2 wires (a +VE blue wire and a -VE black wire) coming from the engine wiring following it back the blue one comes from the ALT down to the starter motor and then into the electrics cupboard where it ends. Its not very thick I'de say about 4-5 mm ^2 it cant be the charging wire as that goes back through the +ve supply feed acc to the manual, it has 12v on it when the main isolation switch is on and 0 when off. I've tried looking at the MD7 manual (THANKS FOR THAT :) ) however I can't identify the wire, its strange.

Thanks again all and best regards
Jonjoe
I suppose I should rename this thread to my live-aboard help and advice!
 
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