lw395
Well-Known Member
A mate of mine bought a diesel car with 250k miles on it. It had about the power output of a Swiss watch....
Volvo Penta life expectancy
- Thread starter Delfini
- Start date
A mate of mine bought a diesel car with 250k miles on it. It had about the power output of a Swiss watch....
Stemar
Well-Known Member
That sounds like the MD1 in Jissel when I bought her Two knots max, or it laid a smokescreen worthy of a destroyer on the Murnmansk run.
As for the OP, I'd say that any engine of that age is a bit of a gamble, but more sailing boat engines die of under use than over use. I'd sooner buy an engine with 8000 hours in 23 years. than 800. If the price allows for the risk of having to re-engine, I'd go for it. Otherwise, negotiate it down or walk away.
You want to see it start from cold on a cold day. If it starts well, then pushes the boat along properly without any smoke, chances are it's a good'un. I wouldn't worry about a bit of steam on a cold day, especially when you're pushing it a bit.
[Egg sucking lesson] Steam evaporates quickly, smoke hangs around until dispersed by the wind [/Egg sucking lesson]
ghostlymoron
Well-Known Member
"That sounds like the MD1 in Jissel when I bought her Two knots max, or it laid a smokescreen worthy of a destroyer on the Murnmansk run.
image: http://www.ybw.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.png"
The MD1 in Cobblers was 50 yrs old when I sold it still started well and ran like a sewing machine (good).
image: http://www.ybw.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.png"
The MD1 in Cobblers was 50 yrs old when I sold it still started well and ran like a sewing machine (good).
dom
Well-Known Member
To be honest, I have a Yanmar with 800hrs; open the engine hatch at full chat and neither sewing machine, nor Swiss Watch comes to mind as it roars away in that slight blur many diesels seem to like living in 
macd
Well-Known Member
[Pedant lesson] It doesn't evaporate at all: it's a gas. It's also invisible.
Stemar
Well-Known Member
OK, so what do you call the visible stuff that comes out of a kettle just before it boils, or that condenses from invisible water vapour when the kettle's boiling nicely?
rszemeti
Well-Known Member
I had a Peugeot 205D ... it had 400,000 on it by the time I gave it to a friend and was still pulling strong.
Diesel trucks and buses regularly clock over a million miles without problem ... trains do even more.
There is no reason why a well looked after slow diesel should not last, if serviced and not abused.
dom
Well-Known Member
What one sees from the engine, kettle, steam train, etc. is as you say a cloud of water droplets forming, but not yet ready to fall to the ground. As this cloud of visible water droplets (steam in common parlance) moves off, it may subsequently evaporate back into the air, land as condensation on your windows, etc (not strictly condensation which of course happened at the kettle's spout!). The invisible water vapour also condenses on your windows hence condensation in rooms where there was no visible steam.
Edit: I think Victorian steam engineers used to refer to the visible puffs as 'wet steam' so perhaps you were right all along
Last edited:
lw395
Well-Known Member
I recall some Land Rover enthusiast putting an old diesel Deaf-Ender on a dyno. It has lost something like half its power.
It still started and ran well enough, it even returned a fairly normal mpg, it just wasn't in a hurry!
Carbon build up.
Cam and valvegear wear.
Injectors and pump.
Equally you can find tall tales of bike engines that were really fast, just before they blew up.
Personally, I would take the view that the engine probably won't be as good as new, but it's a reasonable size engine, so it can cope with being 'slightly' down on power.
If it ran well enough, I'd leave it, assuming I wasn't putting the boat in to charter service or other heavy use, because chances are, it will be much the same after 5 more years or normal use as it is now, but if you change it, the new engine will be out of warranty and not half as much of an uplift in the value of the boat.
Particularly true of spending money on a rebuild. An engine 'rebuilt 5 years ago' is just an old engine to me, unless I know it was rebuilt by some perfectionist.
Buying a boat with such an engine, I would have it in my head that I might need to spend time and/or money on the engine at some point in my ownership. But that's true of any engine over a few years old, particularly if you're not absolutely confident of the history.
It's also true of many other parts of the boat, there are an awful lot of things that can wear out....
