Yanmar Engine Troubles

[Guest]

My Yanmar 3GM30 has just thrown a piston ring and is chucking oil out the exhaust. Had to be towed into St Valery, N France. Question is -what to do now?
Any suggestions? Is it a big job?

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[steve_cronin]

You'll only know after it's been stripped down after it's been lifted out.

If there is no damage to the cylinder in question then a new set of rings (all three cylinders) & glazebusting will soon see you afloat - and I would be very surprised if there isn't other damage, obviously first of all to the piston. Do you know for certain that it is just one cylinder?

Then of course the reason for this otherwise extremely reliable engine to fail must be investigated. What were the circumstances & how many hours has this unit done?

It is said of the GM series "Keep 'em full of clean oil and they will run for ever at 2400rpm"

Unless you have access to proper workshop facilities AND good general working skills you must put your engine into the hands of an authorised yanmar service centre. The spares aren't cheap but be thankful you don't have a Volvo.

Steve Cronin

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[Birdseye]

be careful of french spares prices. one agent (bourgenon) tried to charge me £600 for a starter motor. got one couriered from blighty (what ho, chaps!) for £200

if you have really thrown a ring, then a re-bore is very likely, together with new pistons rings and bearings etc. however, you may have had exhaust elbow failure (as I did on my 2gm) which lead to head corrosion and oil in water. new cylinder head required, so on a 15 year old engine, I replaced the lot

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[Guest]

Thanks to everyone for their response.
The news is that the engine is fine. (Phew!)
A visit by a diesel mechanic suggested the cause of the oil in the exhaust was the oil being thrown about in the rough weather. After a couple of minutes running the cooling water cleared.
What my colleague didn't tell me because he didn't have the heart to add to my worries was that the lifeboat pulled out a deck cleat leaving a 6" by 4" whole in the deck. Still, that I can fix. Now where to get some teak for the decking?

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