Yanmar 250hp's

[Dino]

Hi,
I recently viewed a boat with Twin Yanmar 250's (6LP DTE's). They have a full service history but high engine hours at 3700.
It works out at 195 hours per year for a 1999 boat.
Is this excessive?
At what stage would they need to be rebuilt?
Would they need a full or partial rebuild?
Would they need to be removed from the boat?
Sorry for all the questions but I just want to rule it in or out... but only if I could get a very good deal on it.
Any advice appreciated. Boat will be mainly inland based but I want to option to go coastal every year or two.
Thanks!
D

 

[oceanfroggie]

Hi Donie.

An average of 195 hours a year seems quite a lot of usage compared to a private boat. Could that boat have been operated by a training school? If it was a training vessel I would want the gear boxes and drive plates inspected because trainees may have put same under a lot of wear (i.e. in and our of gear much more than private boater, and possibly more aggressively changed direction than a private boater - shaft still spinning, etc). There is a lot of other stuff I'd want inspected including all control cables, steering, etc, in case it was abused by trainees over 19 years.

Those engines are based on the highly reliable Toyota land cruiser engines. If I've done the arithmetic correctly 3700 hours since 1999 is roughly equivalent to a minimum of 220,000 miles on a road vehicle. However constant RPM running on a boat may not quite have as much wear on engines as an SUV which is accelerating and decelerating constantly hence heat change cycles lower on marine engine than on a road vehicle.

If you really like the boat and you can get it for a knock down price I'd suggest getting a quote from a Yanmar agent or marine engineer familiar with Yanmar's to replace the engines or rebuild from salvaged compatible land cruiser engines (i.e. low milage RTA write off). Apologies if I sound over cautious. Spending a few hundred quid with an "out of town" surveyor may give you more solid factual information on the state of the vessel (i.e. no nod and wink between locals in the business who are long gone once you've sailed over the horizon). Alternatively fly your own engineer over to inspect and test run the engines to see what state they are in (e.g. somebody like Fergal)

Noel

 

[Dino]

Hi Noel,
Thanks for the reply. I agree with everything you’ve said. The hours are high and it might be too close to a rebuild for my liking, and my pockets liking.
The boat was used as a skippered charter boat for a few years early in its life. Not sure if it was used for courses.
The boat was based at sea for a good while and went through the French canals twice.
Does anyone know a good Yanmar specialist in the Thames region?
I guess it would want to be very cheap to make it an attractive proposition.
I did hear of a pair of those yanmars for sale up in the Northwest of Ireland at decent money. But I’m not sure that’s a project I want to get into.

 

[Greg2]

Plus one for everything that Noel said.

Also worth bearing in mind that Yanmar parts prices are eye-watering. I also understand that whilst being good engines they are very finely engineered so no scope for re-bore on the block. A re-build would be expensive - a couple were done locally to us and IIRC it came in at circa £15k per engine and that was with some parts being sourced from Toyota.