Perkins diesel education

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has recommendations on learning about the Perkins diesels as far as educational classes go, I have one on my mainship, 1982 165 hp turbo.

I have a full time schedule as a pilot so I struggle to find things besides a college that offers diesel classes. Any recs will be well received.

I live in Boston, but as a pilot I'm lucky enough to travel world wide so location isn't a problem. Anyone know if Perkins dealer themselves have such classes?

Stay safe out there these days!

Chris

Sorry Chris, they stopped making the 6.354 a while ago. They're pretty stock engines though, any Diesel course would be applicable. The only tricky parts of those engines are the oil/air/trans oil/ coolant coolers, depending on which model you have.

We had two in our last boat. Anything specific, feel free to ask. I'm sure someone will recommend boatdiesel.com and trans Atlantic diesel (TAD) as resources. The best education I got with those engines was spending a day following the water pipe, then the fuel lines, then the air, etc etc. And cleaning, along the way. Definitely get the shop manual too. It will have expanded diagrams of each component.

Good luck

The Perkins is an old school mechanical injection diesel. Books by Nigel Calder and Peter Compton are very applicable.

I don’t think there is a class on the use of JB weld on corroded o-ring grooves and filing back to shape, but there maybe should be.

Ask a lot of questions here (or at boatdiesel.com).

Read the owners and workshop manuals and look over the figures in the parts manual. If not familiar with diesels in general, read about them online or take a community follege class.

The 6.354 is really just a classic old school engine, much like the Lehman (different than Detroits). They are pretty ztraight-forward, really.

ghost said:

I don’t think there is a class on the use of JB weld on corroded o-ring grooves and filing back to shape, but there maybe should be.

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Nailed it!

I have a pair of 4.236 Perkins like your 6 cyl, but shorter with smaller components and no turbo. Very simple to work on once you know the right processes and the locations of all the relevant parts. With a Service Manual, you can figure it out if you have basic mechanical skills. (It also helps to have a friend show you...)

I just thought of this but have you tried to search YouTube for this? Maybe an engine familiarization video. I bet they already exist, but if they don't, I hope some wise mechanic puts some out there. (Hint, hint to the Technical Gurus and wise mechanics here on TF.)

Thesaltyrudder said:

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has recommendations on learning about the Perkins diesels as far as educational classes go, I have one on my mainship, 1982 165 hp turbo.

I have a full time schedule as a pilot so I struggle to find things besides a college that offers diesel classes. Any recs will be well received.

I live in Boston, but as a pilot I'm lucky enough to travel world wide so location isn't a problem. Anyone know if Perkins dealer themselves have such classes?

Stay safe out there these days!

Chris

Click to expand...

There are 10's of thousands of these engines still in use around the world. They were used in farm equipment and generators in the high Andes and Africa. Best marine diesel ever ! If you can find one of the 5 ring versions even better. Buy your parts through farm equippment dealers, usually at least 40% less than marine dealers. i.e. the intercooler was $600 from a farm equipment outfir rather than $5k from a marine dealer.

The HT6-354 5 ring version in the photo went from Toronto to Duluth MN and Antigua then Honduras three time with no issues other than one intercooler and two lift pumps. At the time of this photo she had 20,000hrs.

Wish I had never sold that boat.

What everyone has said is spot on!

I had such in my Mainship. My now marine trader has two SP275. Basically the same concept.

Remove the “marinized” parts, and same easy engine.

Manifolds and mani-coolers are the rub, service and way then. Plan to replace ($$$) at some point. Good engines!

I purchased a trawler in 2017 that had M135 6 cylinder naturally aspirated engines. I have a long term mechanic that I used on the previous boat. I paid for a couple of hours of his time and he showed me the maintenance points on the engines , along with quirks and tricks. It was the best money I've ever spent on a boat. I have a good method for changing the cannister 'on engine' fuel filters with minimal mess when you get to that point. Best of luck