Hours on non Lehman engines

Ok, the Lehmans have a post about engine hour, but what about us that have other motors.

Rochepoint has a Perkins 3.6544M (135HP) with 2980 hours, built in 1985. She has never caused any grief and never let us down with normal maintenance. A little smokey on cold startup but it quickly cleans up, burns 1.7 GPH at 2100 RPM- 7.5 to 8 Knots. 17 years ago we met the North America Perkins distributor in Princess Louisa Inlet, he told me at that time the engine would still be running long after I was gone.....I believe him.

Many years ago when I had my old Mainship 34 with the oem Perkins T6.354, I bought 2 used engines for spare parts. One had 7500 hours on it and the lobsterman was getting rid of it because he kept going thru the cast iron exhaust manifolds at $2000 a pop (early 90s). Nothing else wrong with it.
I later (after 7 years sitting in my barn) pulled the head and oil pan and a few of the main caps and the guts were pristine. Cross hatch pattern was still visible in the bores, no ridge to speak of, crank journals looked perfect.

The guts of those naturally aspirated, 6 cylinder diesels- Perkins and Lehmans, that were installed in trawlers in the 70s and 80s would last forever. It was always the external bits like the Perkins manicooler that would fail over time, but those failures rarely took out the guts of the engine.

Today with turbocharged, seawater aftercooled, common rail engines, a failure of the external stuff- injectors, aftercooler, even a seawater pump, can trash the whole engine.

David

Perkins

Our previous boat had a rare 5 ring, Perkins HT354. We bought the boat with 8,000 hours on it, added another 12,000 hours over fifteen years and rebuilt it at 20,000 hrs. Sold the boat in 2006 and it's new owner is now his second great loop trip. Wish I had that engine back.

Have Volvo TAMD 60B now and it's been no trouble. I just don't have the faith I had in the Perkins.

boatpoker said:

Our previous boat had a rare 5 ring, Perkins HT354. We bought the boat with 8,000 hours on it, added another 12,000 hours over fifteen years and rebuilt it at 20,000 hrs. Sold the boat in 2006 and it's new owner is now his second great loop trip. Wish I had that engine back.

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20,000 hours, that great! That means our engine has 158.8 more years at the current rate of use. I guess the distributor was right when he said it would be running long after I was gone

Mike we have two of the turboed version of your engine (3.6544M), from 1984. Only around 1800 hours on them, though. Run great. The PO took very good care of them and we are trying to keep to his standards.

We've got 2 Perkins 6.354 naturals in JaT....and I know both are well over 6000 hours, but the hour meters have died...gotta put in new ones.... But both run extremely well, are fuel efficient, and have had little or no trouble with either one other than replacing one heat exchanger and the wet manifolds and elbows...that were 10 years old....

Probably have another 10,000 hrs to go on them....

boatpoker said:

Our previous boat had a rare 5 ring, Perkins HT354. We bought the boat with 8,000 hours on it, added another 12,000 hours over fifteen years and rebuilt it at 20,000 hrs. Sold the boat in 2006 and it's new owner is now his second great loop trip. Wish I had that engine back.

Have Volvo TAMD 60B now and it's been no trouble. I just don't have the faith I had in the Perkins.

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This sounds great, we have a HT6.354 in our boat (turbo 145hp), because of the age (1973) i have been a bit nerveuos about it but with "only" 3050hrs and newer turbo and some of the exhaust replaced i now feel quite calm.
ps: pardon my english, im from Sweden

Bygge said:

This sounds great, we have a HT6.354 in our boat (turbo 145hp), because of the age (1973) i have been a bit nerveuos about it but with "only" 3050hrs and newer turbo and some of the exhaust replaced i now feel quite calm.
ps: pardon my english, im from Sweden

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3050 hours ! Its almost broken in now .

2,985 hours on the Starboard motor and 2,656 on the Port motor. Just getting broken in.

Bygge said:

This sounds great, we have a HT6.354 in our boat (turbo 145hp), because of the age (1973) i have been a bit nerveuos about it but with "only" 3050hrs and newer turbo and some of the exhaust replaced i now feel quite calm.
ps: pardon my english, im from Sweden

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Your English is fine!

On an engine that old...with low hours...the one thing I would be cautious about is making sure that the oil feed to the turbo does not get blocked or clogged with oil junk.... Make sure that tube is has no old oil blockage in it.

JAT said:

Your English is fine!

On an engine that old...with low hours...the one thing I would be cautious about is making sure that the oil feed to the turbo does not get blocked or clogged with oil junk.... Make sure that tube is has no old oil blockage in it.

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The turbo were replaced in mid 90:s with new hydraulic hoses for the lubrication but it can probably be a good idea to check it out.

We have approx 200 hours on our Cummins 5.9BTA 330 HP engines.

This is a high performance turbo charged and aftercooled design.

The old engines lasted approx 900 hours. They died early we think because the PO had the boat over propped, ran the engines hard, and never performed preventative maint on the heat exchangers or aftercoolers.

The Cummins 5.9L engine is a known workhorse. That said, in a high performance configuration engine life will be reduced Vs a lower HP output version of the same block.

Over propping becomes critical. Maintenance of heat exchangers and aftercoolers becomes more critical (than lower hp versions of the same engine) because of all of the heat that needs to be removed from the block during high performance operation.

We are expecting around 5,000 hours of engine life because we intend to run the boat at hull speed 90% of the time, and run at fast cruise the other 10%. If we were to run the boat at a fast cruise of 15 knots for the entire life of the engines then properly maintained we'd feel great with 1/2 that lifespan.

I have approximately 3300 hours on my Volvo TAMD41P. No issues, it starts right up and runs fine.

I had twin perkins 4-236 in my old boat, hour meters at time of sale read about 2,500 but they (the meters) were not original, so who knows?

An interesting story. I used to go down to Anegada and bonefish with a guide who ran the power plant for the island. They used a pair of 4-236 to run the generators. They would run one for a month (non stop, 24-7) then shut it down and fire up the other one. While down they would change the oil etc. I asked how long it had been since a rebuild and he said they had not rebuilt either motor since he got the job more than 20 years before. Quick math says 87,000 hours. He was an honest sort of guy, so it is likely true. Also, they tend to run things a long time on remote islands.

Repowered about 7 - 8 years ago w Mitsubishi 40hp and have 900 hrs on the meter.

boatpoker said:

Our previous boat had a rare 5 ring, Perkins HT354. We bought the boat with 8,000 hours on it, added another 12,000 hours over fifteen years and rebuilt it at 20,000 hrs. Sold the boat in 2006 and it's new owner is now his second great loop trip. Wish I had that engine back.

Have Volvo TAMD 60B now and it's been no trouble. I just don't have the faith I had in the Perkins.

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I too have a Perkins HT6.354M in my'71 Bruno, it has 13000 hrs and has been run at 2200 most of it's life. Still runs great. Has had only a valve job as far as the basic engine is concerned.
My Willard still has it's original '62 Graymarine engine 55hp@2000. It is loaded much more lightly as I run @1200. It has also had a valve job due to warped head by PO. Now has 8500 hrs if I recall.

Cummins 5.9 at 210 HP - turbo, NO aftercooler.

I run it normally at 1500-1700 rpm, which is using around 40hp. Expect it to last a very long time under that type of use.

2000 hrs since launched in 1998.

Replaced raw water pump once due to shaft leak.
Replaced exhaust elbow once - just this past winter - no leaks, but 14 years is pretty good life for a stock elbow.
Replaced oil cooler for gear once - just this past winter.

Otherwise, normal maint.

Just taken ownership of a 30 yr old Volvo MD17 36hp raw water cooled with 2200 hrs.

Runs well without any smoke, even on a cold start.

I'm sure it will rot out before it wears out, but I'll flush her on a regular basis and see how long she goes.

30 yr old Volvo MD17 36hp raw water cooled with 2200 hrs.

Never too late to add a FW cooling loop, and add a HW heater for fun.

These engines are great , but suffer from the same cheap crappy oil pan construction as CAT .

Be sure there is no water standing touching the oil pan.

FF said:

............... Be sure there is no water standing touching the oil pan.

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If I had standing water in my boat touching the oil pan, I would be very concerned and not just for the engine.

The design of a boat is intended to keep the water on the outside.

My 1991 Perkins 6.354.4 has zero hours now she's been fully stripped and rebuilt with genuine Perkins parts and has an alloy sump pan. I'm stoked after reading this thread. Wooh Hoo :-D

Just gotta finish building the boat now :-/ lol

FF said:

30 yr old Volvo MD17 36hp raw water cooled with 2200 hrs.

Never too late to add a FW cooling loop, and add a HW heater for fun.

These engines are great , but suffer from the same cheap crappy oil pan construction as CAT .

Be sure there is no water standing touching the oil pan.

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Yes FF- I may consider going with a fresh water loop. She already has a HW heater. And I will make sure her bottom's kept dry. With some luck she might see her 50th birthday.

Volvo KAD44P, 3.6 liters, 260 hp, WOT is 3900 RPM. Electronic engine and shifting controls, 24-valves, turbo, aftercooler, and even supercharger. Duo-prop sterndrive.

5100 hours since launched in 1998. Runs like a top, still with very little smoke. We can cruise at 16-19 knots, 3000-3400 RPM, but since about 2000 hours we've run just above hull speed, 6-6.5 knots, 1300-1400 RPM, 90% of the time.

As said earlier, not over-propping is critical. Sterndrive is the weak point on this one.

Hendo78 said:

My 1991 Perkins 6.354.4 has zero hours now she's been fully stripped and rebuilt with genuine Perkins parts and has an alloy sump pan. I'm stoked after reading this thread. Wooh Hoo :-D

Just gotta finish building the boat now :-/ lol

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Hendo...did you have the crankshaft main journals ground? That is a Perkins weakness. I know of several Perkins engines that were rebuilt (by reputable dealers) with regrinding and the longevity is not so good.

Original 1977 Perkins 4.236 85 HP naturals with 2700 hrs on the hour meter. I've owned the boat for 5 1/2 years and have added 550 hours to the meter in that time.

No glow plugs, but they start right up in cold or warm weather. They smoke a bit on cold startup, but clear up nicely when they warm up.

Failures have been very few. A few years ago I had to replace the stbd exhaust manifold at $1600 and both exhaust elbows. My stbd water pump started leaking at the shaft seal recently and is in the pump shop now for rebuild at $65 for the seals and $90 labor.

my Volvo mechanic talked me into re-powering at 4500 hrs on the original TMD40s. I sold them to a commercial fisherman who planned to run th ecr*p out of them for many years to come.
My re-power was with 1500 hr TAMD41s, on which I now have 3000 hrs. Same mechanic says I will not live long enough to see a major overhaul due to hours. That never rules out a catastrophic failure, that any engine can suffer, regardless of hours.

I was at a remote generator site on a mountantop that was inaccessible 6 months of every year. Deutz diesels, with scheduled overhauls at 30000 hrs and scheduled replacement at 60000. They had never had any catastrophic failures, never needed to advance their scheduled refit.

koliver said:

I was at a remote generator site on a mountantop that was inaccessible 6 months of every year. Deutz diesels, with scheduled overhauls at 30000 hrs and scheduled replacement at 60000. They had never had any catastrophic failures, never needed to advance their scheduled refit.

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Here in Alaska we have mountain top microwave sites that run on the Lister TR series air cooled engine. They typically get around 70,000 between rebuilds, based on dozens of sites in service.

I designed the propane generators for the microwave sites owned by my last employer. (we could not use diesel because of enviromental concerns on the tundra)

I used an Arrow industrial engine running at 1200 RPM turning a 6 pole Marathon generator end. Part of the beauty of that paricular spark fired engine was that its designed to run on produced gas from oil wells. The engines typically run 24X7 for over a decade between full overhauls, although typical head replacement is every three years or so.

I do not work there anymore but maintain a very friendly relationship. We're now well into the third year of operation with no failures. Change the oil every three weeks, change the spark plugs and adjust the valves every other oil change.

2 Volvo tmd41As from 1988 with 1900 Hrs on them and they are still running strong and look good too. Poe[ple bad mouth Volvos for spares, But the more i work on mine the more i am impressed with the design and build quality.

Cummins 555, 1981 vintage and 1950 hrs when pulled. They always started instantly from cold. PO seemed to have little issue with them, just one turbo replaced after exhaust elbow failure, and one heat exchanger replaced. He loved them. Would have been happy enough to keep them, but I had to remove them to replace leaking fuel tanks. Parts are getting hard to find and expensive for the 555's, so I took a long term view and re-powered with JD. Sold the pair of Cummins to a guy who is warehousing them, for parts for the future......