Volvopenta at it again

[volvopaul]

Most of you will remember Mike from Imperial post about the non availability of ECU for the earlier engines , as far as we know the situation is still exactly the same a year on .

well I have an MD 22 stripped down to be told the gasket for the head won’t be available until August and at that I do not believe this , the reason is that last September I ordered an overhaul kit for a TAMD41, straight away it was on back order with a lead time of 4 weeks .
while waiting Volvo do not give any updates on lead time unless the supplying dealer asks , so of course me being keen to get on with it I keep asking , all the time Volvo just tell lies about the lead time saying we are waiting for a seal or a gasket to make the kit up , they will not say what is missing and will not send what they have so I can get on with the job , eventually the TAMD41 kit arrived early December.
I am only posting this because my job is a constant battle to obtain parts from just a simple seal current no DPH drive shaft seals available, so drives sat waiting in my workshop to rebuild from water ingress .

The moral of this post is for you guys to think carefully what you buy in the future as you may well end up re engineering your boat due to lack of parts availability.

Rant over .

 

[oldgit]

Cheers Paul. Your comments are always noted.
OG.

 

[petem]

I feel for you Paul, and the owner.

My gut feel is that all manufacturers are in the same position. It's just we don't have any Cummings, Man engineers reporting the horror stories on here.

For example, I've been waiting for a new VHF from Garmin since November and despite their legendary aftercare service their website is still showing a 2 month rolling lead time.

 

[Canopy Locked]

If you have templates / old gasket it may well be possible to have them made. I recall around 20 years ago when we could not get particular seals (for example an undercarriage oleo seal) I got them made by a firm in Reading IIRC who used water cutting. I would image that if you have a template of the shape and a spec for the material, gaskets should be a piece of cake.

 

[PilotWolf]

I will help if they're available in the US.

PW

 

[petem]

Volvo Penta MD22 top gasket set (parts4engines.com) any good?

 

[Portofino]

I feel for you Paul, and the owner.

My gut feel is that all manufacturers are in the same position. It's just we don't have any Cummings, Man engineers reporting the horror stories on here.

For example, I've been waiting for a new VHF from Garmin since November and despite their legendary aftercare service their website is still showing a 2 month rolling lead time.

Speaking for MAN they stock legacy parts no issues what so ever .
Over night them in the EU .
Having said that they are modular separately cylinder heads and valve gear .So the inventory is lower .
eg Paul Gasket is universal etc .

I had a injector sensor fail on a 2003 motors in 2021 .Part came next day once the MAN tech eyeballed it .

They probably do a greater % commercial albeit detuned but the parts are the same so the dealer network and parts availability part of the buying equation is stronger .
Also when I mean commercial I mean rail cars , trucks busses + plant .
Not just standby vessels RNLI and ferry operators.
As said it’s the same gasket in a U.K. diesel rail car , a MAN truck you see on the roads and my boat , MapishM s and Chris H s .



In marine they go from 8 L upwards to iirc 24 L and closing in on 2000 Hp .
Above 2000 Hp MTU take up the batten .

MAN tech are not giving out warning on social media .

 

[julians]

not good....

but it is a problem that is affecting various sectors right now , eg some brand new cars are facing big delivery delays, same goes for mercury outboards - there's quite a few axopar boats sat in the factory and at dealers that should have been delivered to customers a while ago, but are stuck waiting for mercury outboards. I gather than some people have started switching to other outboard manufacturers because they're fed up of waiting for mercury.

and its not just high tech stuff thats affected - bicycle parts are in very short supply right now.

Think a lot of it is a hang over from the world shutting down due to covid in early 2020.

I had a problem in summer 2021 trying to get hold of a vp exhaust elbow for a d4 260 - VP said it was out of stock and didnt know when it would be back in stock, waited 2 months, and still no sign of it coming back in stock. Ended up doing a bit of digging with alternate and old part numbers within the VP parts database, and found some apparently superceded (from 2007) exhaust elbows for the d4 in stock, so ordered one of those, it also happened to be much cheaper than the newest design of elbow that replaced it, when it turned up it was the newest design that VP said were totally out of stock, so I think there is also a bit of confusion going on within VP themselves.

 

[Portofino]

The moral of this post is for you guys to think carefully what you buy in the future……..// ……

Rant over .

I did !




Used ……
-Forum chatter - sure filtered what I could .
-Mk1 eye ball - the engine shed at Arie d Boom ( engine rebuilders in the SoF ) the colours of the motors was the cue .
-Personal experience having had a pair of KAD 300 seen up close stuff rusting or getting wet .
Dock walked ( actually the dog ) saw far too many a disproportionate number of VP techs and far too many none consumable parts fitted .
- Far too many VP boats stuck in the marina(s) .
- Broker / dealers whispering in my ear “ don’t get the VP one go for the Cummins “ This was @ Cannes with the demo VP for sale .
He was / is a friend from another hobby so our paths crossed ex boats .

Contrary is like everyone else .
Boat mags stuffed with glossy VP ads .
Forum banners = VP adds .
Boat shows = huge VP static displays inc a kiddie IPS docking screen .Oh yeh my kids took beeline to that .Even u10 s can park a boat .
UK three dipping into VP motors to 12/13 L
Every new or most under 40 ftrs on VP outdrives / IPS …..the space mud cabin thingy = so cos everyone fitting them they must be good = Yes ??

How ever at Genoa a lot of none VP straight shafts as well so for Med users it’s ain’t that bad .

 

[tico]

Must be really difficult for you, you can't really change your name to MANPaul, it doesn't have the same ring

 

[vas]

... and it was me thinking only chip shortages were the issue!
[try to order smd components, some have delivery dates past 4-2023, not a typo NEXT year that is, and not even start of it!]

 

[jrudge]

The honest issue I suppose is how long they or anyone else find it profitable to stock legacy parts

 

[petem]

The honest issue I suppose is how long they or anyone else find it profitable to stock legacy parts

A formal support policy from all of the builders would be handy.

As I've said before, the advantage of VP engines is that there's a big enough market for 3rd parties to offer pattern parts.

Pete

 

[BruceK]

The honest issue I suppose is how long they or anyone else find it profitable to stock legacy parts

All them old engines are breaking down now. Should be a second wind.

 

[spannerman]

We have the same problems with getting parts for Mercury,Mercruiser,and Evinrude, often many months to get parts that are not in stock in Belgium the main warehouse for Europe.

 

[Richard10002]

On my MD22L, I used to buy parts for a Montego 2l diesel. Could the head gasket be the same, (my guess is that it wont be, as you would know).

Head Gasket Set Maestro/Montego 2.0 Prima Diesel Turbo & Non Turbo 1994cc | eBay

 

[Seastoke]

Must be really difficult for you, you can't really change your name to MANPaul, it doesn't have the same ring

It might be the same ring but well used.

 

[dpb]

Whilst buying our boat in France last year, we soon noticed that any boat that was powered with anything other than VP was promoted with that fact being a big plus.
We ended up with a pair of 15 year old Nanni's and once the cross referencing exercise was complete, sourcing all the service parts required for this years new season has been easy with most parts available from any motor factor.

 

[Farmer Piles]

Must be really difficult for you, you can't really change your name to MANPaul, it doesn't have the same ring

I know a nearby farmer called Paul Mann if that helps.