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Diesel engines

A friend is thinking of buying a yacht with twin diesel engines. He doesn't trust the people who inspect boats because he believes they are in cahoots with the yatch brokers. He asked me if I'd take a look at the engines in the boat he made an offer on. Are there some things I can check on without taking a lot of time and using expensive equipment? He suggested checking the exhaust for smoke but since diesels burn oil anyway I wouldn't expect to tell much from that. Oil analysis is out because the owner just changed it. engineman1

Reply to
Engineman1
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If it were me buying it then I'd want to do a compression test.

Reply to
Mike Graham

AFAIK, any modern diesel is going to have recirculating coolant and a heat exchanger. Check the PH of the coolant. I don't know if it affects marine diesels but the trucks are running higher temperatures to burn cleaner and the coolant starts etching if you don't watch the PH. Bubbles in the recovery tank when the engine is running should cause you to start running from this deal also. (Or at least give your buddy one heck of a talking point in negotiating a better price.)

Later, Joe

Reply to
Joe Kultgen

Have him call several insurance companies for quotes. They will recommend very independent expert marine surveyors who do this stuff for a living and could care less what a yacht broker thinks of them. If you pay for a valuation survey you'll get a thorough report and a fair estimate of the value.

There's lots more to a boat than engines, and there's an awful lot to marine engines. What you don't know can cost a fortune if it doesn't actually kill you.

Reply to
Bill Price

I would ask to see the maintenance records.

John

Reply to
John

I guess the missed that pertinant final line in the original poster's message, there: the oil was just changed.

Reply to
Mike Graham

There are two kinds of smoke from either Diesel or SI engine. First is white/bluish smoke. Although we frequently say an engine smoking like that is 'burning' oil, it is not really burning it. In fact, that is vapor from hot oil, unburned, and comes from oil leaking into hot cylinder from bad rings or valve seals, and is the same in SI or CI.

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Reply to
Don Stauffer

Too bad.

-- Ed Huntress (remove "3" from email address for email reply)

Reply to
Ed Huntress

How sensitive are the tests? Obviously, they will pick up 'normal' levels of wear, but might you get reasonable indications at lower levels, from 10 hours of wear? Not to mention the fact that all the oil won't have been drained out.

Reply to
Ian Stirling

Luther King, Jr.

Reply to
Don Stauffer

On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 19:19:27 GMT, Carl Byrns wrote something ......and in reply I say!:

There can be white _smoke_ (stays around and does not dissipate as fast as steem) caused by too lean a mix, IIRC.

Luther King, Jr.

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Reply to
Old Nick

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