Taiwanese Trawler Question

Hi Everyone!
I'm hoping to soon join you in the trawling community. Have been looking at a 1987 40 ft Marine Trader Sundeck with twin Ford Lehmans (turbocharged I was told) and I had an opportunity to do a short one hour run on her the other day. She handled well but seemed to be pretty noisy and there were a lot of fumes as we traveled. Were running at about 1800 rpm. I know the engine compartment is below the salon but is it normal to be very noisy? ... and fumey (is that a word)? Thanks for your advice!

Greetings,
Welcome aboard. Mr. gj. "...hoping to soon join..." Too late! You're already here!







Nope. You're in. Noise on any boat is relevant to what you may be used to. Do you have any boating experience?



There should be NO fumes or odor in the saloon OR anywhere else inside the boat. Zero. Perhaps post the vessel if you want more specific comments. Or not. Your choice.


EDIT: Mr. HW. Ah. Hadn't thought of that at all. It IS a possibility. Mr. gj. Take my Zero fume comment with a grain of salt...sorry

Welcome aboard!
Was this a double cabin or the sundeck version? If you were heading downwind you could have the exhaust traveling faster than you or maybe the station wagon effect of a large aft cabin.

The access hatch to the ER in the cabin deck/floor could lack sealing. That would let noise in, but the fumes suggest blow by,which suggests engine wear, as could excessive engine noise.Or you could have an exhaust leak,maybe at one or other or both turbos, which poor hatch sealing allows normal exhaust gases to enter the cabin.
If you run the boat with a breeze following you can get exhaust gases entering the cabin via aft cabin doors.
Comodave who has those engines is almost sure to respond.

Thanks everyone for your quick responses. It's a sundeck. We did have the side and rear cabin hatches open but the wind was mostly coming off the starboard side, not following. I know they had some engine work done earlier this year after completing a round trip cruise down the ICW and into the gulf. On their return one of the engines was overheating. Fixed now.

I currently have a 1987 32 ft Chris Craft with twin 350's. Have had her for 20 years. Diesel will be new to me.

Greetings,
Mr. gj. Barring the "station wagon effect" and in spite of lack of hatch sealing there should be NO fumes. Something is leaking somewhere.

I have the SP225s in our President 41. It is a sundeck model. Our boat is a bit noisy underway probably due to the lack of really good insulation. I replaced some of it that was on the underside of the deck in the salon. I used Soundown 1” vinyl loaded foam insulation. It helped and cost around $300 to complete. We really don’t care too much how noisy it is in the salon since we only have a helm on the flybridge and are only below when running to use the head.

As to the smells, most any diesel of that vintage will have some exhaust smells or a bit of smoke. We get diesel smell in certain wind and speed conditions. Particularly when running downwind. Lehmans are incredibly long lasting engines. The one possible serious issue with the 225s is the intercooler. They are not available anymore. Brian at American Diesel says if the intercooler goes bad you just pipe around it and then you have a 180 hp. I would have a Lehman knowledge mechanic check them out and if they check out I would be more concerned about the rest of the boat, wet deck core, rusting fuel tanks and stringers, etc. good luck.

Thanks again for all of the ideas. I will try to investigate them this week. Also, Comodave, thanks for the tip about the 225's. Of course I'll get a thorough survey done if the price gets down to my "comfort" area. One other area that bothers me is that the engine hours are not known. The current owner has been very meticulous in recording his maintenance and cruising log but said that the hours are just what he has accumulated. The hours meters did not work when he purchased it. I know the Lehman's are solid engines and if well maintained can last a very long time so maybe this isn't a big concern. The marina owner and his maintenance chief (both of whom I know well) said that the current owner always had his maintenance performed on schedule and was always quick to repair anything that failed. Any thoughts on this?

I have a 1987 marine trader sundeck. The difference in mine is a Mercedes engine. I have beautiful teak and holly floors and put an inexpensive area rug in the salon. I put it there to protect the floor but found it also gives some nice insulation to sound. I do not have an overwhelming smell of fumes on the sundeck from the diesel. At times I can smell it but faintly. Never inside. I also run at 1800 rpms.

My sundeck is a double cabin, 2 heads.

My thoughts on hours is that they don’t matter. What matters is the maintenance. I took the last seminar that Bob Smith gave before he passed away. His take on them was that at around 20,000 hours they would need a preventative rebuild if they were maintained. So look at the maintenance records and if the engines check out during the survey then don’t worry about the hours. The one real advantage of knowing the hours is to know when to change out things like the oil coolers and do valve adjustments, etc. That can be gotten around by looking over maintenance records and setup a schedule for proactively replacing common wear items like the oil coolers. I have 2 new coolers in my garage waiting to be installed this winter. I am pulling one engine this winter in order to replace the fuel tank, not leaking just 32 years old, so I will replace the damper when I have the engine out and easy access to the transmission. Next winter the other engine will come out for the other fuel tank replacement.