Izuzu diesel engines

Have anyone any experience with izuzu 6bdi natural 135 hp??

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i am looking to buy a boat with this engine.

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any information or advice would be appreciated.

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thank you.

I just looked up the engine on boatdiesel, in summary*- Isuzu made a good base engine but the marinization (aluminum in manifolds for one)*issues bedeviled their entry into the boating business. Some posts said Macboring would be a good source of information.

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I haven't owned a 135 hp, but had a 50 hp. *They are rock solid, widely used for irrigation pumps in the Far East where they have to run forever with third world maintenance; in other words, ideal for cruisers.

Marinization, as Tom indicates, is pretty meager, but if it doesn't use sea water for cooling, it won't matter that much.

I loved the engine, and chose it for a re-pwer because of its weight to power ratio. *I wanted heavy and slow turning for longevity and the Isuzu was the best in that size I could find.

Same experience here,

GREAT engines that suffer from an attempt to low ball the price by skimpingon on the marinization.

Factory or after market.

Would be great choice for keel cooled and dry stack !

A bit off the subject, but I believe Isuzu was the*first with*common rail technology - may*even have*invented it.

Denso introduced common rail engines to automotive use in the 1960s. The first common rail diesels were made in the mid 1910s when blast injection fell out of favor. It was common even after the injection pump was invented in the 1920s.

There are still a*few engines running with the early common rail system that requires the engineer to juggle rail pressure by contolling a manual bypass valve while setting injection start and duration by manually controlling the position of wedges between the lifter and the injector push rod. The proportions were related to the rpm and load and you fiddled with them to obtain the best performance.

Hey Rick, while you are there....a question I'm sure you can answer. I was watching a doco on cruise liners last night, and it featured the maiden voyage of what was at the time, and maybe still is, the largest cruise liner in the world, the 'Oasis of the Seas'. Halfway out to St Thomas from Ft Lauderdale, the no 6 diesel engine was found to have varying compressions between the cylinders, an issue which had them all worried, as it was burning oil and there was potential they said, for total failure of the engine. However, they (allegedly) fixed it by altering the ignition spark a tad - all solved. That struck me as odd. Do any diesels use electronic ignition like that, or was the TV explanation a load of taddle...?

The engines used on that ship (Wartsila 46) are available as natural gas burner (Wartsila 50) but the engines on the Oasis are oil burners. The pure gas burners use a spark plug, the dual fuel versions use a shot of diesel to ignite the gas.

They are very sophisticated engines with an electronically controlled common rail injection system and the fuel quantity and timing can be tweeked for each cylinder. It isn't done by the watch engineer by turning a rheostat or something that simple but the manufacturer and the shoreside engineers can remap the engine control system remotely. Some of it is done automatically based on fuel quality and energy content.

Even old style mechanical engines are monitored to balance the power output of each cylinder and there are mechanical adjustments we can make to equalize things. We regularly take what are called "indicator readings" that create a chart of cyliner pressure relative to crank angle. Modern engines can display that on a computer screen in the control room. That is how they discovered there were problems on the Oasis. That kind of thing is routine maintenance.

Some versions of that engine use variable valve timing so if things got out of whack there, it could cause differences in compression but I don't think that version of engine is installed on Oasis. It is more likely that there were firing pressure differences but the TV producer chose to simplify the explanation.

Thanks Rick, I figured the explanation was a bit of a Jo Blo explanation Although they did seem to be checking compression figures all right - varying from ~225 down to 190 from memory, but I thought their explanation of how they corrected then was a bit sus...

Peter B wrote:Although they did seem to be checking compression figures all right - varying from ~225 down to 190

Click to expand...

Which seems even more odd since the compression pressure on those engines is anywhere from 100 bar to 130 bar which equates to about 1500 to just under 1900 psig.

I think there was a lot of creative license since it was entertainment rather than a training film.

Actually Rick, I still had it saved on my Foxtel IQHD drive, and replayed that bit. it was the DG 4 engine, and the read-out stated the compressions were being tuned @ 11400 kW load, and all but 2 were ranging from 195 to 197, (whatever the unit is - I thought that would be PSI..?), however one was down at 194 & another 192 - both on the B bank of a 12 cylinder. They definitely say they fixed it by adjusting the timing of the spark that ignites the fuel....
Might they be the gas burning engines..although in another place they call them diesels...
I notice the techy checks and adjust the 'timing' with a meter with Wartsila WIP 10 on the dial and it shows 100% @ 515 rpm...any clue there...?

Peter B wrote:
I notice the techy checks and adjust the 'timing' with a meter with Wartsila WIP 10 on the dial and it shows 100% @ 515 rpm...any clue there...?

Click to expand...

I wonder if they were just having a bit of fun with the producer. The WIP-10 is an instrument panel display, it is like the instrument panel on your car. It is not capable of making any adjustment to timing.

The Wartsila 46 engines used on that ship are diesels, there are no spark plugs.

Peter

Another thought - maybe the diesel operators on camera were no more knowledgable of the true engine details than the AF pilots were of their Airbus controls.

I have seen it where the most complex of industrial control rooms are staffed by bright people who have too little understanding of what is happening in the field.

Scary thought. However, whatever they did, they suddenly threw their hands up and said congratulatory things like "all fixed" and things went smoothly for the rest of the maiden voyage. So presumably someone knew what they were actually doing...
Yes, that Air France thing is a real worry....a whole plane load of people appear to have lost their lives so valuable information about Airbuses and their pilots, and what they did and did not know, could be learned...
Talk about learning the hard way about what Rumsfelt called "unknown unknowns"...when I'm flying I want them to KNOW..!

.when I'm flying I want them to KNOW..!


That does not fit the profit picture , as training coats $$$.

I bought my Mitsubishi engine from Klassen Engines in Seattle. The home office is in between Vancouver BC and the border. Mitsubishi is not their flagship product * .....it is Isusu. There are many many fishboats and more than a few pleasure boats w Klassen/Isuzu engines. I've heard nothing but good about them. The first Isuzu I knew about was in 1970 in a fisheries patrol boat (private) and it was a 6 cyl about 125hp NA. One of the things I really like about Klassen marine engines is their welded up steel exhaust manafolds. Call David Rowland at 206 784 0148 about the Isusu's or repowers. They are located in the NW corner of Seattle (Ballard). Or PM me.

Several years ago I purchased a 31' Cruise-a-Home in Maple Bay, BC. I bought this ugly duckling in part because it came with a single Isuzu 6 cyclinder engne (same as the model you're asking about). Before bringing it home to Washington state, I had the engine and tranny pulled to replace a leaking seal between the engine and the v-drive transmission. Back in the boat it ran like a charm. Very smooth power and reasonably quiet. Probably the smoothest running diesel I've owned to date.

No experience with that model. I run boats with Volvo, Cat, GM and the one I have now, which has an Isuzu. This one is great, it's well built. Sorry I can't help on yours.

I had an Isuzu engine (D500 6 cyl). It was WAY too big for my old 32 foot Monk cruiser. Apparently the prior owner had replaced a gas V8 and thought a big diesel would somehow be the same? That engine was used a lot on pocket trawlers in the 60s. Probably used more in trucks.

At the time, MER Equipment in Seattle was my local dealer. I bought a couple of things when I first got the boat and the guy at the counter said "see you in 2,000 hours." Good service, but I never needed to go back. So I have no idea on parts availability as I never needed any during the 3K hours I owned the boat.

I installed an Isuzu D500 in my 40' Ed Monk Sr bridge deck sedan in 1979. 88hp marine rated, 120hp in a truck. Was a tight fit in a shallow bilge, but a very nice engine. Purchased from Klassen when they had a Ballard location.

The Isuzu C240 was also a good engine, and probably could have served well, around 60hp or so.