Bukh DV20 and DV10 diesel engines

[nuku34]

I'm starting this tread to provide a central place for information about Bukh DV20 and DV10 diesel engines.



My 10m Cavalier 32 yacht has a DV20 and I've spend many hours on maintenance issues, one of which is the raw water cooling system, see:
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ed-253789.html


Yes, the Bukh is very old-fashioned; compared to modern high speed engines its heavy and not super fuel efficient. However it is a simple and reliable piece of kit designed originally for lifeboat propulsion, can be hand started, has no expensive ECU electronics to burn out, and once started will run with no electrical input (unlike most modern diesels which require constant electrical input). With proper maintenance by the owner, these engines will go for 10's of thousands of hours.



To start this thread off I'll mention a recent experience of a friend who had his DV20's high pressure fuel pump professionally rebuilt. Before my friend installed it back on the engine, he asked the pump rebuilder about injection timing (the pump is timed by adding or subtracting thin brass shims between the pump body and the engine block). The rebuilder advised him to either 1) reinstall the pump with the original number of shims or 2) follow the official timing procedure described in the engine workshop manual. The choice was his.
My friend opted to use #1, the easy method. The engine started, but within 10 seconds was shaking violently and the very heavy flywheel sheared off all its 6 hardened steel bolts, dropped off the end of the crankshaft and did quite a lot of damage to the engine space before it finally stopped moving. He's now having to figure out a way to get the sheared off bolts out the crankshaft without destroying the female threads, not a happy camper!
During performing the proper workshop timing procedure, it was discovered that injection was happening AFTER, not before, top dead centre which was the cause of the large vibration.

The Bukh DV20, unlike most 2 cylinder engines, have both pistons raising and falling together, and to balance the rotational mass of the crankshaft and pistons, they have a separate geared a counter-weight system. The stresses imposed by fuel burning at the wrong time could not be smoothed out by this system and the violent pulses sheared the crankshaft bolts (that heavy flywheel has a lot of inertia!).
Moral of this story is: if you remove the high pressure pump, perform the proper workshop method for re-timing!


I and other Bukh owners would appreciate any tips, experiences, questions you might have for this thread.
Sincerely,
Nuku in New Zealand

[GordMay]

Work shop Manual for BUKH diesel engine TPE DV10/20
➥ https://bukh.dk/upload_dir/docs/FAQ/...%2020%20ME.pdf

Or ➥ http://www.varen4u.nl/pdfs/bukh/DV10...hop_Manual.pdf

[nuku34]

Thanks for those indispensable references!

[Fore and Aft]

Spotted this DV10 in the Tin Can bay dump today. I had one in the first yacht I ever owned. Good motor despite being submerged for 3 days.
Cheers

[PaulvR]

I can't help anyone here, but when I moved from dingy sailing to keelboats back in the day, I had a Bukh 10 in my Muira.
It was running, and a great gentlemen called Peter Solon Palmer 3rd (where are you Pelican Pete??), taught me to change the oil, fuel, air filters, and the raw water impeller.
I religiously did that, and lived aboard and cruised the boat for 8 yrs.....the day I sold her, she fired right up, Bukh Bukh Bukh she went, as a tear rolled down my cheek...