Is this mainship 34 trawler has some big problem?

Hi Mates, My name is Ty and from Australia. I just joined the forum last week and it is my first time to post. I used to have a Jeanneau Merry Fisher 925 and currently looking for a mainship. I just found a 2005 Mainship Trawler 34 with twin 240 hp yanmars with only 300 hours in AU. But I found there is excessive white powder built-up in various spots in engine room. I asked the dealer for the maintenance record or log book of the book, but was told, the owner doesn't have any of them. Could it be the sign of any serious problem. Thank you very much.

Salt buildup? What area is pic 1 showing? Fortunately the mechanically inclined Mainship guys will soon come to help you. I`d have expected a boat with 300 hours would have a Yanmar dealer service history even if the 300 hours were acquired over 14 years, which is highly atypical in itself.

One warning. I looked at a different brand of boat, same age, same engines. Several knowledgeable TF people thought the placement of the raw water entry point to the exhaust could allow salt water to drain into, sit in, and rust the turbos.

From memory the advert pics of the Yanmars on this boat show similar placement. Advice was reconsider or at least inspect the turbos internally at survey, which would require owner consent to partial dismantling and goes beyond usual engine survey.

A 2005 build boat with only 300 hours on the engines.

Really?

Are they the original engines. If yes, then there can be lots of problems with under-utilised marine engines that have sat idle for long periods. If no, when were they installed and who did the install?

The Cummins guy Tony Athens has written a good article about ‘marine age’ of boat engines - if the engines in question here are the originals, then their ‘marine age’ is likely v different to 300 hours only....

Hamish.

Hi Hamish, It is original engine. 305 hours exactly. I will find more about the service history tomorrow. Thank you very much!
Ty

Greetings,
Welcome aboard. Get a GOOD engine survey. Get 2 engine surveys if the first raises ANY questions.

That looks like raw water fittings that leaked a little and the water evaporated leaving the white salt behind. In most cases it should be easy to fix. Remove the hose and clean the joint, then reinstall with some non hardening sealer like Permatex on the joint.


David

Ty,
I'm sure many will have opinions and I would say the green is not an issue but I have never seen the white powder.
To me, more of an issue would be such low hours, just a vacation home ? not a cruiser and if that was the case was any maintenance done ?
When I purchased our boat there were no logs and a survey including oil analysis said no issues and it appeared to be in very good shape but I soon replaced both turbos, heat exchangers etc.

Good luck,
Bil

I have the same motors on our Mainship 400, so I'll chime in on what I know, though I am far from an expert and you will likely get better advice from others on here.


Pic 1, strainer. No worries there, I have the same strainers, probably just a bad seal under the cap or dried salt from spills when checking the basket. Clean it up and keep an eye on it.


Pic 2, Wiring harness under the heat exchanger. This is a common spot to get wet as well, maybe the HE needs a new gasket or leaked at one time. This spot generally gets wet if you pull the cap off of the HE. PO should have cleaned the harness with fresh water after the service and sprayed it with some sort of corrosion spray, but if the connections there are OK, it's not a deal breaker.


Pics 3 and 4, transmission oil cooler. I'd replace that. $500 to $1,000 depending on who does it is my guess.


Pic 5, Oil cooler (?) not sure on this one.


Pic 6, shaft seal, Is the hose clamp tight? It looks like it is or was leaking. Or maybe the seal is going bad and the water drips down onto it?


I had a lot of this sort of thing on my motors when I bought the boat 6 years ago. The mechanic who did our survey said that it MIGHT be and indication of an overheat at one time but he wasn't sure. Most of the spots you took pics of are areas that I cleaned up on my motors as well. I keep an eye on them, but haven't had any more issues. Maybe the hoses all need to be replaced with new clamps?

The new finding of the mainship 34 trawler

Thank you very much for every one giving me advice especially Dougcole.
This morning I told to an experienced marine diesel mechanic who confirmed what you guys told me here.

He recommend me do a proper cooling system service if I want the boat since the low usage of the boat ( marine aging).

The owner confirmed that the boat hasn't been done 1000 hours or 5 years service.He has "acid flushed" the cooling system and he hasn't found over heat problem.

The things concerning me now is the stern gland and shaft service. According to insurance policy, the boat should be carried out the two services every 5 and 10 years respectively. I am sure the boat hasn't done either of them.

One of my neighbour's boat have been flooded due to the failure of dripless shaft seal. The insurance company didn't give him a dime because he failed to do the stern gland service.

Thank you again

Ty

I`ll raise a query about the salt residue. I`ve seen the advert but Ty hasn`t posted it and therefore I won`t. The listing broker usually does meticulous pre sale detailing preparation,at sellers expense. The engines look perfectly clean otherwise, as if detailed (or owner cleaned), but salt residue is seen in multiple areas. It may not matter, but it`s odd. Maybe the engines were run and the salt returned after detailer cleaning. I just can`t see this broker not getting it cleaned up.
Also, David Marchand has not commented of the exhaust raw water injection point, but he hasn`t seen the engine pics,which are identical to the Beneteau ST42 I posted about, ie not on the outbound exhaust side which would allow salt water to flow away from the turbos.

Huang said:

Thank you very much for every one giving me advice especially Dougcole.
This morning I told to an experienced marine diesel mechanic who confirmed what you guys told me here.

He recommend me do a proper cooling system service if I want the boat since the low usage of the boat ( marine aging).

The owner confirmed that the boat hasn't been done 1000 hours or 5 years service.He has "acid flushed" the cooling system and he hasn't found over heat problem.

The things concerning me now is the stern gland and shaft service. According to insurance policy, the boat should be carried out the two services every 5 and 10 years respectively. I am sure the boat hasn't done either of them.

One of my neighbour's boat have been flooded due to the failure of dripless shaft seal. The insurance company didn't give him a dime because he failed to do the stern gland service.

Thank you again

Ty

Click to expand...

Hmmm, interesting. I'll admit that I haven't done a 5 year or 1,000 hour (my motors have 750 hours) service either. I'm not sure what they would do, honestly. I've done a couple of closed loop cooling system flushes, changed the exhaust elbows and mixers, adjusted the valves, serviced the intercoolers, pulled and rebuilt the raw water pumps, kept up with oil/filter/impeller changes, and replaced hoses as needed, including the exhaust hoses. My theory is to keep up with stuff as needed rather than take it in for a "service" but different people do it differently.


I replaced my shaft seals in 2013, I haven't touched them since, other than inspections. I have a spare seal on each shaft, when they start to drip I'll put it on. That was the recommendation from the mechanic who installed mine. I've never heard of servicing shaft seals on a per year basis, but I could be way off on that, this is the first boat I've owned with them.



My engines had around 300 hours on them when we bought our boat so I know what you are facing. I was worried about there being problems associated with lack of use, and there have been a few, but nothing that terrible. I have tried to be aware of "marine age" in my maintenance schedule, for instance I replaced my mixers with only about 500 hours on them, but they were pretty chewed up.


Good luck with the boat.


Doug

Hi Doug, What you have done is much more than the 5 years or 1000 hours service. Well done!

Yesterday, we finally persuaded the owner knocked down his asking price a bit and signed the contract. Tomorrow, we will put the boat on slippery for survey.

Currently I have a question about the Delkor Battery ( AGM). The three banks of battery all were replaced in 2014. The Delkor website says this kind of battery normally lasts two times than traditional batteries.

Do you think the batteries should be replaced now or still have have a couple of years to go?

Thank you very much again.

Ty

Welcome aboard. Good luck on your boat. Depends on how the batteries were maintained but probably will go for a couple on years more. I would not change them unless you have a problem.

Huang
Pic 3 & 4 of Trans cooler not out of ordinary. It seems the cast ends do not hold the paint well - it may be prep???
My fresh water MS 34 had similar corrosion on trans cooler. I'd suggest removing and cleaning it and repainting.
I use self etching primer and engine paint on mine.
Best practice would include pressure testing while out just to make sure all is well.
Before & after after pics.

That looks nice Don. How big of a job was it to get off?

Dougcole said:

That looks nice Don. How big of a job was it to get off?

Click to expand...

Simple removal - hoses and fittings straight forward and its held in place w 3-4 hose clamps around an engine mounted bracket.
I've had it off again since cleaning / painting...
The anode stuck in it and it's easier to remove and work in the shop at home as a drill press comes in handy.
Best to have something to cap the hydraulic hoses but tape sort of works for temporary. A fitting you could screw both into to connect would be ideal. Water hoses need to be tied up to prevent draining but that's no big deal either.
The ends don't come off so something flexible to rod out any blocked passages helps.
Usual steps to clean... caustic to cut any grease then mild acid to clean. I used a couple rubber stoppers to block the ends so I could let the solution sit for awhile before a good flush... all EZ in the shop at home.

I have had several, salt water, power boats. All had salt, green stuff, etc, throughout the engine room. It all cleans up easily and is usually cheap to replace, Its just water after all. Heat exchangers are reparable DIY and they are the worst of your water problems.

What I worry about is oil or fuel leaks. Those tend to be expensive.

She spent her life sitting, hooked to the grid...... Galvanic Isolator..... Does she have one, is it hooked up properly and working with corrosion free terminations. Still more, have it checked by a marine electrician for leakage (balance) to ground. How about your zinks? The pencil zinks in engines come to mind..

Questions of My newly purchased 2005 Mainship 34 trawler

Hi mates, I have two more puzzles about my 2005 Mainship 34 trawler. 1) All three bilge pumps and the high level water emergency pumps have no power if I switched off the house battery during mooring . In order to have them function I have to leave the battery switch on all the time. 2) Deck wash and anchor wash pump (sea water) is 220V pump and I have to start the generator every time I want to use them. My question: Was the boat original designed like this or the previous owners have changed them like this? Thank you very much.

You need to start by studying the back side of the circuit breaker panel where the 1-2-all-off start/house batty sw is located... on the aft deck except access is from eng RM area by removing the fiberglass access piece... I took mine home and leave it there.
On my '08 34 HT the bilge pumps by pass the main SW and are powered all the time. That's the correct way IMO. What I have experienced is that the main emerg'y pump is powered from one of the main battys and the alarm is powered from the other. When I connect batty in the spring I sometimes get an alarm until both battys are connected.
My guess would be the buss bar that connects all circuits wired this way was not installed correctly/or the same as mine.
My CO2 detectors were wired constant on and drained battys if I left it w/o shore power for very long. I switched the feed to the output of the selector sw so I could easily disable all loads w the main sw.
My guess is that when gen is running you are powering these via the shore charger but would have to check that w a meter.
It could be a wiring error... I've found some of those on my boat. Ex: alternator excite V wired incorrectly through the ER fire suppression control box. They used NO instead of NC contacts that disabled the alt whenever the boat was started. PO had it and used it for several yrs w/o noticing/ correcting it. She was a dock queen and it got charged every night after a day use via shore charger.

As to the washdown pump being 220/240 and requiring the genset, my older (non Mainship)boat is set up the same way, so it`s likely original. Silly, but probably gives more output than a 12v set up, and does encourage you to run the genset, my Onan manual says run it weekly.
I agree the bilge pump etc issue is probably a wiring error, you`d think the PO might have picked it up. You do need to fix it for when the boat is left unattended,the house batt is usually on when aboard, out and moored.

Strange Hose Connection of Mainship 34. Hi mates, yesterday, I used the fish box of my 2005 mainship 34 first time and found the leakage at hose connection. I found the very irregular hole connecting. Pls see the attached the photo. The diameter of connector attached to seacock is smaller than the diameter from the drain. Without configuration, they are connected by using large size hose ( suitable for the drain connector). They have to forcibly squeeze the hose to connect the seacock connector and obviously they are causing leakage. My question is "Are 2005 Mainship 34 have the same connection by design?or it has been done by the previous owner of my boat?" Thank you

Ok, how about the photo?

Please see the photos

Thank you very much

Seems easy to fix. Just replace the barb adapter with one that fits????

Yes, change out the T to one that has one smaller barb or go to a reducer barb fitting but that will be longer and may not fit in the area without relocating the hose.

I just googled “hose barb reducing tee” and came up with a bunch. Just a matter of measuring to see what size you need.