Volvo TAMD31a engines

[Dasboot4]

Just recently bought a 37’ Hershine Newburyport trawler with Volvo TAMD31a twin engines with @ 4000 hours. Both engines run very well but smoke at cold startup for about 10 minutes; is this normal or should I be looking at a repair?

 

[Ski in NC]

I have a good bit of experience with the 41 series (six cylinder) and they do smoke like heck cold. I tell the guys to fire them up, make sure all is well, then shut them down. Then get boat all ready to go. Fire them up and GO. Keeps the neighbors from bitching too much. Once under a load they should clean up pretty quick.

One thing that might be worth doing is to check the injection pump timing. If for some reason it is late (retarded), smoke is way worse. Takes a special tool from bosch to measure the VE pump plunger lift relative to TDC. If someone has fiddled with the pumps the timing could be anything. See if the paint is disturbed on the pump hold down nuts.

 

[ghost]

The 31 was the notorious pair of Volvo’s that ate me out of house and home with multiple cylinder failures, no support from Volvo and three separate rebuilds on two engines before getting rid of them. Yes, they smoke when cold. Personally I would not run them at all until you compare your serial numbers to the Volvo service bulletin regarding improvements to mfg process for oils cooling nozzles, though it is not in Volvo’s electronic record. paper only. If they have made it to 4K hours without multiple failures, almost certainly not in the impacted serial range, but if the seller did not include their history, think seriously about dumping them. Narrow range of engines with high failure rate and Volvo did not do a recall or assist. Bulletin was misleading at best.