Diesel engine removal

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Russf

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Joined
Oct 15, 2009
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21
Using a Nordic Tug as an example, how do you remove a large diesel engine-say a Cummins 220HP engine-if it has to be remanufactured or replaced?*Thanks
 
Russ, It depends on the boat and engine. We have disassembled the engine then reassembled it both in and out, and cut sections of the decks or cabin side out to do re-powers. Chuck
 
Some Diesel engines can be re sleeve/rebuild in place so they do not have to be removed.* I am not sure about the Cummins engines? **I would not buy a boat if it did not have a diesel engine that could be completely rebuild in place, or had easy access to.*
 
A sawsall to remove what ever is in the way is the usual.

On tin boats they simply torch or cut a huge hole in the side reach in with a fork lift .

With GRP its usual to chop a hole in the overhead , if the boat is only one story high.

Some have been removed out the door or thru the forward window , sedans or the sliding rear doors.

Teardown and replace with a complete build up a a new engine taken apart would offer no advantages on a rebuildable engine.

The labor costs would be really high , and FACTORY folks would need to dio it if you hope for any warentee.

Non throwaway engines (the 3208 is a toss out) can be overhauled 2 sometimes 3 times in place , before the block must be removed to machine it.

Most folks would prefer a seasoned engine (all the heat stress and distortion is over) with what truckers call an inframe.

This would be new cylinders,pistons, rings , usually rods , new main bearings and all the gaskets needed. A new or rebuilt water pump and oil pump , if not in the kit is a good idea.

Most engine parts are created for the engine assemblers by outside mfg, so "AFTERMARKET PARTS" many times are from the origional assemblers supplyer.

Good luck.

FF
 
From what I recall seeing on the few Nordic Tugs I've been on, there is a hatch or removeable panel in the floor of the pilothouse, which is directly over the engine. So removing the engine is a matter of removing the hatch, lifting the engine into the pilothouse, turning it 90 degrees, and taking it out the pilothouse door. In theory, it should be relatively fast and easy.

On a Grand Banks, however, while the main cabin floor is made up of large panels that lift out, the challenge is getting the engine(s) out of the cabin. If the engine is a straight six like a Ford Lehman 120, I'm told that if all the side-mounted hardware is removed from the engine--- water-cooled exhaust manifold, air cleaner, raw water pump, oil filter, etc.--- the long block will just barely fit through the cabin door, assuming the helm consol is not in the way. But most of the time the usual means of removing the engine from a GB is to remove one of the large side windows in the main cabin and take the engine out that way after it's lifted into the main cabin.
 
Thanks guys. Hopefully I will soon be posting as the owner of a trawler-probably an older American Tug or Nordic Tug. By the way the engine is a B series Cummins 330 HP.
 
Its easy. Put the boat on the hard, bring a truck mounted HIAB crane in through the wider of the sliding doors, lift. I took less than 4 hours of truck time to lift out two and lift back in two other engines.
The port side door in my boat is 27 inches wide. The engines, Volvo straight 6 cyl, are more than that with the Heat exchangers on, but just slid through with them removed. Didn't need to strip them right down, just measure what was there.
The HIAB operator had to know what he was doing, and no varnish was scratched.

I wouldn't like to try that in a GB. The doors are in the wrong place, too narrow. The rail openings are in the wrong place. The windows are not tall enough for a crane and its load. You may need to go up, cutting an engine access panel in the overhead.
 
Great! Then you will be qualified to join in the never-ending argument over whether a "tug" can really be called a "trawler," and is there even such a thing as a "fast trawer" which is how I believe Nordic (don't know about American) classifies their boats? And if someone made a "Europa tug," would it simply be a subset of "sedan tugs," or would it be a configuration all its own?*
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koliver wrote:


I wouldn't like to try that in a GB. The doors are in the wrong place, too narrow. The rail openings are in the wrong place. The windows are not tall enough for a crane and its load. You may need to go up, cutting an engine access panel in the overhead.
Engines, including V-8s, are removed through the main salon windows of GBs with no apparent problems although they may have to be stripped down some depending on the engine.* I've never heard or read on the GB owner's forum of anyone ever having to remove an engine through the main cabin overhead although for awhile American Marine installed a "permanent" hatch in the overhead for this purpose.* So far as I know, it was never needed and not long after they started building the boats out of fiberglass it was eliminated.

I've watched a new engine being installed in a single-engine GB in the yard in our marina and the telescoping crane arm with the completely assembled engine (John Deere I believe) fit through the removed main cabin window just fine albeit with little clearance to spare.

*


-- Edited by Marin on Tuesday 17th of November 2009 10:01:17 PM
 
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