Marine engines

[Andy G]

Whilst rummaging around in my engine bay the other day, talking to my old twin Lehman120's, I got to wondering are most(all?) engines used in boats marinised engines, like the Lehman's, or are the newer engines on the market designed from scratch as marine engines.

 

[Marin]

Most are marinized automotive or industrial engines. The boat market is far too small for most manufacturers to produce a separate line of marine engines designed and built for marine use from scratch.

Now when you get into the larger and more powerful commercial marine engines for tugs, big yachts, and ships, it's often a different story.

 

[2DASEA]

Mine started life as an industrial compressor motor. Big Construction outfit had it and were having a hard starting problem.They just took it off line and bought a brand new unit. Turned out to be a weak starter and minor fuel issue.Runs well now.

 

[FF]

Today it costs millions to get an engine "approved" by the air police.

The marine sales of small 50-250 hp engines is so tiny that real marine engines are no longer built.So an auto, lawn implement or small truck engine is all that is useful.

Go up to 500+ hp and genuine industrial engines are built . that will have 24/7 power ratings.

Of course for ships , with millions in engine cost , their engineering , air police costs are easy to absorb.

FF

 

[sunchaser]

The air police are on land and sea. There are plenty of built for long life lower HP (80 to 150) new diesel options out there, initially designed for land use but finding their way into gensets and marine use. Seems like Mark found a good one for Coot.

 

[Nomad Willy]

In the 50s there were "real" marine engines.... Lathrop (sp?)comes to mind. Chris Craft made their own engines and I do'nt think the Chryslers were made from car blocks. Many of the oil pans were cast iron and went all the way back to the end (back) of the transmission where the prop coupling is. So the gearbox was actually in the crankcase. This is common practice in motorcycles.

My previous boat, an Albin 25, was in 1970 powered by their own engine. Unlike most all boats Albin built the engine first and later designed the boat to go w the engine. I think that engine was a real marine engine and was used nowhere else. 22 hp and 2 cylinders. There are more than a few Albin 25s still powered by that engine.

 

[ancora]

Quote from Trawler Cruiser Yacht magazine Spring/Summer 1982, regarding the Volvo TAMD 40 marine diesel engine: " Volvo makes the only major line of mid-size marine diesels that are designed exclusively as marine-use powerplants."

 

[Larry H]

Although they are not inboard engines, Yamaha outboard powerheads are designed strictly for their outboard motors. Those powerheads were never used for anything else, unlike the larger Honda powerheads, which came from their automobile line.