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
Diesel engines
Jul 19, 2003
10 Replies
If it were me buying it then I'd want to do a compression test.
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
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.
I would ask to see the maintenance records.
John
I guess the missed that pertinant final line in the original poster's message, there: the oil was just changed.
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.
Sec>
Too bad.
-- Ed Huntress (remove "3" from email address for email reply)
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.
Luther King, Jr.
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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