First trawler. twin FL120. Maintainance questions.

[Andrey]

Warm Hello to all members.

My name is Andrey. I am form Thailand.
Going to buy old trawler. Hull looks ok, but boat is near 40 years old. The same is engines. There are FL120 (2715E).
I going to use boat for charter. Before had only brand new boats with Yanmars.
What kind of spare parts do I need to stock with this engines exept basic stuff like belt and alternator. I internet i find that exhaust elbo can fail. also can be problem with oil coolers.

Sorry, English is not native. All recomendations are welcome)


Cheers,
Andrey

 

[Vadim]

Primary and secondary fuel filters. Ford Lehman's are workhorse engines. follow preventive maintenance schedule and you would be fine.

 

[Airstream345]

There is a company in the US called American Diesel. You’ll see them references on this forum often. They essentially took over the parts business for Ford Lehman’s and offer a lot of advice including recommended spare parts.

A spares kit is a bit of personal choice. If you’re like most here and mostly cruising close to shore and have access to towing services via radio you don’t necessarily need an large ‘offshore’ spares kit.

But if you’re far from services, mechanically capable of repairing failures at sea and need to rely on only yourself to fix things when cruising you could carry a full set of spares for most failures.

Here are a few:

Filters (primary and secondary)
Belts
Raw water impeller
Injectors
Fuel lines
Lift pump
Starter
Raw water pump
Oil
Coolant
Alternator

A call or email to American Diesel could help you decide based on your needs.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Welcome aboard, Sawat dee krahp. AD (American Diesel) used to sell a complete kit of spares with most of the parts mentioned by Mr. A345 (above).

 

[TJM]

Wonderful engines, dont plan on spending much time in the engine room fixing things. My President Trawler is a 1982 with the FL120's and all I do is change fuel and oil filters.
Learn how to bleed the fuel system, Youtube has good videos.
Glad we could help around the world.

 

[rjwilliams11741]

Also have 40 year old Lehman 120's in our boat. Great engine. They are simple, easy to work on and dependable and, thanks to American Diesel, parts are easily available and unlike Volvo and Perkins parts they do not cost a fortune. The Lehman 120 is a Ford industrial / tractor engine that was marinized by Lehman. Many of the non-marinized parts are available at New Holland tractor dealers. As suggested by other posters call American Diesel about what spare parts you should have for the type of chartering you are planning on.

 

[Comodave]

Congrats on your new boat. One thing to note on the 120s is that you need to change the oil in the injector pump on a 50 hour basis. The injector pump oil will get diluted with diesel and needs to be changed regularly. Depending on each individual engine, some may be able to go longer than 50 hours but that is the recommended interval. As you get to know your engines you may be able to go more than 50 hours but according to Bob Smith, the Lehman guru until he died, you never want to go over 100 hours. Good luck.

 

[Andrey]

Thanks guys! Very friendly forum. Will contact american diesel!

Next thing is Velvet drives) Who is support this gearboxes?

 

[BruceK]

As well as the excellent American Diesel Corp,there is fredwarner1. Find him on ebay. He does Lehman cooling system parts and is cheaper for Seakamp heat exchangers than Seakamp. Good service too.

 

[firstbase]

As suggested by other posters call American Diesel about what spare parts you should have for the type of chartering you are planning on.

I have the Bob Smith list of spares for cruising with Ford Lehman's which I could post tomorrow if anyone would like. I remember reading it and thinking that I would have to buy a second boat to tote around the spares for the first one.

 

[Airstream345]

I have the Bob Smith list of spares for cruising with Ford Lehman's which I could post tomorrow if anyone would like. I remember reading it and thinking that I would have to buy a second boat to tote around the spares for the first one.

I’d love to see that list. I’ll just put it all in the dingy

 

[firstbase]

Here you go. Old docs with some PO notes but you get what I got. All from American Diesel in what looks to be the early 90's. Not sure what the differences are between the cruising lists and the regular "Spare Parts" lists are. Now that I know my boat a little more and the intimidation has subsided SLIGHTLY, the list isn't as daunting as it was at first.


1. Extended Cruising Spare Parts List
2. Limited Cruising Spare Parts List
3. Spare Parts List
4. Other Spare Parts List

 

[Andrey]

So cheap! Thanks!
For Yanmar gearbox cooler more expensive than extended kit.

 

[rjwilliams11741]

Here you go. Old docs with some PO notes but you get what I got. All from American Diesel in what looks to be the early 90's. Not sure what the differences are between the cruising lists and the regular "Spare Parts" lists are. Now that I know my boat a little more and the intimidation has subsided SLIGHTLY, the list isn't as daunting as it was at first.


1. Extended Cruising Spare Parts List
2. Limited Cruising Spare Parts List
3. Spare Parts List
4. Other Spare Parts List

When we cruised Mexico (out for 10 seasons) we carried all of the items noted in the extended cruise parts list plus a complete gasket kit that included a head gasket. We used most of the parts over these 10 seasons except for the injector pipes and the starter. Our boat is a Hatteras 48 LRC (yes we may be the only 48 LRC to have Lehmans rather than Detroits) and we were lucky enough to have adequate space to store them.

Just before heading out on our adventure I had a friend who was a licensed captain check my spare parts inventory and he gave his blessing with a interesting caveat saying that often the one part you will need you will not have. First minor repair I found that to be true.

Cruising Mexico getting parts was not that much of a challenge. The process was a bit expensive because of shipping and broker fees but I don't think I ever waited more than a week to 10 days for a part. Being in Thailand may be more of a problem although many of the engine parts are available at New Holland Tractor (Ford Industrial Engine) dealers who should have locations world wide. Since you are into chartering I suspect that downtime is a major issue so a good supply of spare parts on hand is a good idea.

 

[Bryant]

First trawler, twin FL 120s

I was going to suggest you get in touch with American Diesel in Virginia. They are the experts on FL 120s. Brian will happily provide you with all the info you require. Congratulations and good luck.

 

[Airstream345]

Here you go. Old docs with some PO notes but you get what I got. All from American Diesel in what looks to be the early 90's. Not sure what the differences are between the cruising lists and the regular "Spare Parts" lists are. Now that I know my boat a little more and the intimidation has subsided SLIGHTLY, the list isn't as daunting as it was at first.


1. Extended Cruising Spare Parts List
2. Limited Cruising Spare Parts List
3. Spare Parts List
4. Other Spare Parts List

Thanks for sharing this info. GREAT list. I wonder how much the kit pricing has increased since 1997?

 

[firstbase]

Not sure of exact cost of each piece but an inflation calculator says the price would be $2282 today.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
I vaguely remember paying just under $500 for a limited cruising kit around 2001 or so.

I called AD regarding 1 injection tube about 3 years ago and seem to remember 1 tube being in the $200 range.

 

[firstbase]

Greetings,
I vaguely remember paying just under $500 for a limited cruising kit around 2001 or so.

I called AD regarding 1 injection tube about 3 years ago and seem to remember 1 tube being in the $200 range.

Ouch. I can't seem to make sense out of their pricing from back in the day and online search for parts today. Some don't seem to far off i.e. impeller that was $16 then is $23 now. Not too bad. Starters and alternators are hard to compare as I don't have a clue exactly what they were selling and prices vary greatly today. I guess we could call Brian but...that wouldn't be much fun now would it?