Engine hours

[Grimgrak]

On most of the ads for sale I rarely see anything with more than 3500 engine hours on diesels I thought these were supposed to be robust?
Or do they reset the hours after a overhaul? What would be the cost of overhauling say a 75hp yanmar or volvo? Or do people just get new engines?

[a64pilot]

An overhaul resets the hours.
However what defines an overhaul is pretty nebulous, some thing scuff up the cylinder walls and toss In new rings is an overhaul.

For reasons that I find hard understand many do buy new engines, but then many do checkbook maintenance, most in fact.

Although from what I have had to pay for some work that I’m not equipped to do, it may in fact be less expensive to buy new, who knew a rigger made 4 or 5 times as much as a Certified aircraft mechanic?
Assumption is they don’t bill many hours so they have to jack up the hourly rate

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by Grimgrak

On most of the ads for sale I rarely see anything with more than 3500 engine hours on diesels I thought these were supposed to be robust?
Or do they reset the hours after a overhaul? What would be the cost of overhauling say a 75hp yanmar or volvo? Or do people just get new engines?

Common rule of thumb -- worth exactly what anyone paid for it -- is that powerboaters often only run a boat about 100 hours/year. Could be true-ish, on a huge average, likely because many powerboaters often do spoke-and-hub cruising (if they cruise at all), out to a lunch and back or out to a weekend area and back, etc.

Takes a boatload of years -- at 100 hours/year -- to get up to 3500 engine hours.

There are big differences with more of the long-distance cruisers, though, so averages aren't really all that great for specific boats.

-Chris

[chrisr]

our engines have got about 6850 on each, but you won't see that in any ad as we've got no intention to sell

could be that most boats being sold are lightly used ie low engine hours. the boats that have high hours are used / loved and not for sale.

cheers,

[Simi 60]

Desperately trying to put a shittonne of hours on ours
Has about 100 years of engine life left but we sure as hell do not.
(Its not uncommon for 855 Cummins to get 30,000 hours between in frame rebuilds)

[MicHughV]

Yah, engine hours do not really tell the story. Sailboat diesel engines typically have sporadic run times, often run to just charge the batteries, other times, sailboats are tied to docks for ages and engines are not run at all.
Engine " maintenance" is the key requirement. A well "maintained" diesel can run forever, as they generally are very robust engines. It's the little things that give a problem...heat exchangers, water pumps, exhaust risers, etc, etc.
There are those that are diligent in their maintenance effort....and those that simply " hope for the best"...important to know which owner you are dealing with.

[tkeithlu]

Over and over neglect of a boat prior to selling comes up. Some people sell because they are moving to a new boat, or because they are too old to cruise (Ain't gonna happen to me!), but many sell because the boat has been sitting unused for years and has become more of a PITA than an asset. So, that diesel hasn't been run in a LONG time. That's not good for diesels. 3500 hours could be wonderful-just-broken-in or could be totally trashed. Do find and employ a good surveyor.

[CruisingCouple]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

(Its not uncommon for 855 Cummins to get 30,000 hours between in frame rebuilds)

Yeah, we got a N14 525 on a generator. It has 42,000 and some odd hours on it. But it wiped out the accessory drive bushing in the front cover and tore the cover up, so had to put a new front gearcase on it at about 30,000. But otherwise the heads never been off it since new. And the liners are still tight in the block and not leaking. Those were some of the best engines ever built by the human race.

[Tillsbury]

You'll often see surprisingly new boats out of charter with 5000+ hours on the engines. These are likely to have been misused as they will be near-idle hours for charging batteries at a guess.

Mine has 100hrs/yr on it, but it won't get much more as I rarely motor more than enough to raise or lower sail or to anchor. I'm only half of the way through the tank of diesel I bought two seasons ago. But then I like sailing

[Emmalina]

Got given an outboard once I was told it had only been used once ! It was a block of rust ..the one time it was used was in the 70's LOL

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Grimgrak

On most of the ads for sale I rarely see anything with more than 3500 engine hours on diesels I thought these were supposed to be robust?

Probably a sign that the engine hour meters are not all that robust.

[Grimgrak]

Safe to say this theory of having to run a diesel hard is also applies to gensets. Alot of the sailboats now are getting more and more solar and rarely turn on their gensets which cause them to fail. Yet from the indications i'm getting in here 30 mins a day isn't even enough.