Repower project

[ranger58sb]

Q

This 55 which has been part of my inspiration in making this stupid decision was redone with Scanias in Australia.

Cat has a long delivery time right now. I wasn’t feeling so compelled by Cat to add several months to a project. Maybe that is short sighted.

Nice boat. I like the hardtop, too, which maybe isn't common.

I hadn't looked at the listing for the 2003 54 model on YW; going back to that, I see it has Cat C-12s, 700-hp.

Not a plug for Cats. Just that the QSCs seem a little light, to me. Tony knows way more about them than I do, though.

Because of this thread, and because we've been having trouble finding our next ride, I even reviewed likely available boats for possible QSC repower. Older Hatt Yachtfish, for example... but I didn't find anything I like well enough to mess with.

And then we looked more closely at the 1999 Offshore 54. Has several features we'd like, but so far doesn't check all our boxes. Rats!

-Chris

 

[Ross Macdonald]

repower in offshore 55

I looked at a 54 and 62 Offshore and they are really pretty boats. But I did not want an engine room that you had to be sitting down or on your knees to do anything. For me, based on the amount of time I spend in our engine room I would put stand up and access to everything down there a first priority. Helped a fellow boater trouble shoot something on his 54 Offshore and the engine room was an on your knees area and poor to no access to outboard of the engines and even aft of the engines. On long range trips I do an engine room check every hour and running for 30 hrs. I would not want to do that on my knees or on my butt.

 

[Bradenvlp]

The 55 is a larger boat than the 54 but still not true stand up for me at 6’1”. My wife is 5’4” and can stand so it’s about that height. I duck. Definitely trade offs but I’m coming from a true crawl room so I consider ducking a luxury.

 

[PacificBlue]

I am not a fan of replacing a 2300 rpm diesel with a 3000 rpm engine. I would weigh your speed requirements and try to see if you can get into the 2600 rpm version of the QSC which will give you more reliability. The extra hp and fuel consumption near the 3000rpm engine is pretty much useless in your application.

 

[timb7734]

There can be a problem with larger displacement/weight, where tha additional horsepower just goes to give similar performance to the increased boat weight. I had a couple of 55 footers with 550 hp Cats at 13 liters and always wished I had the available 15 liter engines. That was until I learned that the extra 1000 lbs. of the bigger engines only meant 2 knots top end, and some greater fuel consumption. I went from there to a full displacement trawler that got 4 MPG with 150 h.p. at 7 knots. Now have a semi displacement with 440 Yanmars that gets close to the trawler economy at 7 knots but will cruise all day at 16.

 

[Muriel 42LRC322]

Hello
3 years ago we decided to re power our Grand banks 52 model 1998.
We removed our olds Cat 3208 (435HP heavy duty) and we put new Cummins QSL9 (405HP medium duty) we changed also Gearbox and Hydraulic pumps. We did all the work by ourself. (When I order the news engines asked Cummins to get them customised, plug and play) Ready to fix to avoid modifications in the engine room (Isolators, filters and exhaust)
I Paid in 2017 The 2 engines, gearbox and Hydraulic Pumps about 105.000$
On request I can send you a complete pictures file of the re-powering
PS : We did the work in France.

Dear, I am just coming on this.... Having purchased an Hatteras 42LRC with 4-53 DD. My idea actually would to empty the ER and change engines, generator and AC. I have a preference for Cummins.... Would be happy to share experiences. The boat is in Spain now. Can come to Fran ce os stay there. I am based in the South of France.

 

[ranger58sb]

Braden, did you ever get rough $$$ estimates for the Cummins QSCs? Either new or factory reman?

-Chris

 

[Bradenvlp]

Yes - rough is $62k @ 500 - $67k @ 600 including gears ($15k I think) all new. I believe that includes WSST (10%) but I dont have a hard copy to confirm. Waiting on recon options but hearing there isn’t much of a savings. Everyone is so busy hard to get anyone’s attention. I should have better detail in the next few days.

 

[ranger58sb]

Thanks, very useful. Less than I'd have guessed, given "Pascal" (in another forum) said his reman 450s with gears were about $36K each.

-Chris

 

[Bradenvlp]

Those numbers are pretty close but don't include WSST. They do include an extra gauge panel. For budget, depending on options, I'd use $50-$55k for each engine and $12k for each gear plus tax delivered.

 

[Comodave]

Dear, I am just coming on this.... Having purchased an Hatteras 42LRC with 4-53 DD. My idea actually would to empty the ER and change engines, generator and AC. I have a preference for Cummins.... Would be happy to share experiences. The boat is in Spain now. Can come to Fran ce os stay there. I am based in the South of France.

Welcome aboard. Why do you want to repower? Is something wrong with the Detroits?

 

[BrisHamish]

To the OP,

I just went through the exercise of replacing my 455hp CAT C7s with the 550hp QSC 8.3 Cummins (on a Grand Banks 46).

I have been very pleased with the new motors, and also with Cummins more generally. The QSCs were the second most expensive option of what I priced/compared, and Cummins were by far the most interested in helping me to be sure the engines would fit and be suitable.

I priced up options from Cummins (QSC), CAT (c7.1), Volvo (D8), Yanmar (6L) and Nanni (JD6090 - the Nanni being a John Deere engine with Nanni marinisation making it smaller dimensions that the 'true' JD offering). I did a very extensive assessment...two options were quite substantially cheaper than what I chose, and a couple of these options also displayed pretty much zero interest in chasing a sale and making sure the product would fit/work.

From what you have posted above, I reckon you should compare the QSC 8.3 (in 500hp at 2600 rpm, and the 550hp at 3000rpm) and also the QSL9 which will give you about 410hp at 2100rp (I think).

I really rate the QSC and also the 'Cummins customer experience'.

Hamish.

 

[Bradenvlp]

Thank you Hamish - this is really helpful feedback. As a change from my original post, I have it narrowed down to the JD 6090 @ 500 or 550 and the QSC @ 500.

Cost is similar enough to not matter much. I will decide in the next few days.

 

[BrisHamish]

Best of luck - either the 6090 or the QSC will be a good choice. With either of those you will immediately notice a huge improvement in noise and cleanliness over the current powerplants.

Hamish.