TD Power Marine, Chinese Marine Diesel Engine

[neilpride]

According to the website,Ms. Zhen-li Zhou is the CEO.. the boss.

Who know, maybe there is a lot of suction from the air filter sucking air from the hose and kinked by presure??

[pagu]

Originally Posted by neilpride

According to the website,Ms. Zhen-li Zhou is the CEO.. the boss.

Who know, maybe there is a lot of suction from the air filter sucking air from the hose and kinked by presure??

The hose came from the factory fitted with that kink.



It's not created by suction but simply from a length of hose being bent 90 degrees. It took just moments to correct it - once I was aware of the problem - sadly though by the time I'd learnt that lesson I was standing in a bilge full of oil with a seized brand new engine.

[Davey1000]

Originally Posted by neilpride

I can sugest you, take off that shity piece of rubber, get some wire reinforced marine hose , a 90 degres bronze elbow with niples, and voila!!!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Have you come across the plastic cyclone separators yet? These take the blow-by from the crank-case and centrifuge-out the oil. (no moving parts are involved) The reclaimed oil drains back to the crankcase. The blow-by gases are fed into the engine intake. On some stupidly designed engines the crank-case fumes are put through the air filter which soon gets oiled-up (its OK with an oil-bath filter!) Better designed engines feed the fumes into the engine after the air filter.

Very sorry to read of your troubles however these things do happen. For example I heard about a huge American diesel engine that was bought by Jack-Holman-Compair of Cornwall. When the engine was mated to an air-compressor and all built up it was time to try out the machine. There was a loud bang and one of the diesel cylinder heads flew-off! The cylinder which allegedly was about a foot across was full-up with nuts! Presumably someone had been using the cylinder to store nuts in whilst he was building the engine. Probably there was a shift change and the nuts were forgotten, whoops!

A similar tale involved a Russian or Ukrainian motorbike. It was new but the engine seized! The owner was a highly practical man so he stripped-down the engine. It was a crankshaft problem as one of the oil-ways had never been drilled properly and it still had a broken piece of drill-bit in it! The broken piece of drill bit was removed and the oil-way was re-drilled to how it should have been done at the factory. After that the bike was OK (I suspect that new shell bearings were fitted)

Good luck!

[Bruce626]

I have again requested a factory picture of the TDME 385 in overhead view, even suggesting that they might post it on their site where the picture of the engine (from the front left corner) is posted with a nifty zoom feature as you move the cursor around. Their response was to send me another pdf manual. My previous request for a picture of the top of the engine as built in the factory was ignored. If they do this install routinely, they should not have anything to hide by posting the picture.

[pagu]

Originally Posted by Davey1000

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Very sorry to read of your troubles however these things do happen. For example I heard about a huge American diesel engine that was bought by Jack-Holman-Compair of Cornwall. When the engine was mated to an air-compressor and all built up it was time to try out the machine. There was a loud bang and one of the diesel cylinder heads flew-off! The cylinder which allegedly was about a foot across was full-up with nuts! Presumably someone had been using the cylinder to store nuts in whilst he was building the engine. Probably there was a shift change and the nuts were forgotten, whoops!

A similar tale involved a Russian or Ukrainian motorbike. It was new but the engine seized! The owner was a highly practical man so he stripped-down the engine. It was a crankshaft problem as one of the oil-ways had never been drilled properly and it still had a broken piece of drill-bit in it! The broken piece of drill bit was removed and the oil-way was re-drilled to how it should have been done at the factory. After that the bike was OK (I suspect that new shell bearings were fitted)

Good luck!

Thanks very much.

Yes you could well be right, perhaps the day my two engines were assembled they were short of hose so made the bends too tight, or the guy was new to job, who knows. What I would love to know though is just how 'standard' that kink hose assembly is. Would love to hear from somebody else who has one of these engines and compare.

There is an element of the Ukrainian motorbike tale here in the Solomon Islands too. You can't just go buy stuff and have to be creative. The seized engine is back at the yard now and should be unbolted and lifted out next week so will have a diagnosis on the damage.

[bobconnie]

These engines were not used as main engines, but were tryed for Hyd sets and refers, and for gen sets, as most shrimp boats use larger engines then this for main engines. They did not work well at all !

[manitu]

Hi folks! I got a Universal M12 engine based on a genuine kubota base engine.

The Chinese 2cylinder engines are based on kubota engines, (8,10,21hp) . I don't know about the larger engines. I'm using nanni 2.10 parts on my engine, should be the same with the td-p 10hp engine.
I'm typing on my phone now, will check the water pump/European dealers when I get back to my computer.

.manitu

[delcrest]

sent you PM

[Cheechako]

[QUOTE=pagu;1324863][QUOTE=Bruce626;1324560]Just a followup - based on all the research and opinions expressed on this thread and the previous one, I have decided to get a Beta 38 instead of a TDME-385.

Good call and I'm sure you won't be disappointed. If I was re-powering a large cat where you've a lot of value at stake and also resale value to consider, I don't think that I would be considering anything other than a trusted and known engine.

My own circumstances: I literally pulled the hulls out of a junk yard, and the project is a bit of an experiment.

Attachment 66134

Attachment 66135

Still, even then with the relatively 'disposable' thinking around my project, I now regret my choice in engines. With this in mind, I was surprised by the post from 'bobconnie' alluding that shrimp fishermen in the US had bought these engines? Seems an odd choice for a professional boater. 'bobconnie' it would be great if you could share more specifically what were the problems that were encountered with these engines?

Originally Posted by Bruce626

I wasn't entirely happy with the lack of answers from the Chinese salesman who ignored my questions about servicing, and would only say that I could get parts shipped from China.

Yep, that's my bugbear really, I haven't run the working engine enough yet to be able to state here openly online they are junk or otherwise, but what I know for fact is THAT THERE IS NO BACK UP FROM THE MANUFACTURER. If you couldn't get answers up front, while you still held the bargaining chips (an impending sale) then what hope for a mug like me whose bought and paid for getting any back up ......

'Delfin', before you rub yet more salt into my wound with another I told you so reply, hey, someone has got to be the guniea pig and go first! and I hope others reading this can benefit from my mistake. Horses for courses as the saying goes and there are lots of different boating needs, but in conclusion, safe to say that an unreliable donk of no use to any of them!

Looks like a big ole Panga... cool...

[delcrest]

thanks for the pm, tried to send you mail, but mail returned, have resent by pm withmy email address

[pagu]

I've had the engine lifted out and inspected. Email from the mechanic reads:

Got the sump open and Bearing have run dry the numbers are.

(1). Main Bearing LQ 385T 0.00 1 set
(2). Conrod Bearings LQ 08480 0.00 1 set
(3). Sump Gasket 1 only
(4). Inlet manifold gasket 1 only

Engine now turns over with one set of shells removed ok.
Head not removed. Can you get these part and should be ok.

[gabilo]

Originally Posted by pagu

I've had the engine lifted out and inspected. Email from the mechanic reads:

Got the sump open and Bearing have run dry the numbers are.

(1). Main Bearing LQ 385T 0.00 1 set
(2). Conrod Bearings LQ 08480 0.00 1 set
(3). Sump Gasket 1 only
(4). Inlet manifold gasket 1 only

Engine now turns over with one set of shells removed ok.
Head not removed. Can you get these part and should be ok.

Maybe a friendly phone call in Chinese will get the spare parts to you. Send me a PM if you needs help with your supplier, will see what I can do.

[Teknav]

Hiya Pagu! Thank you for sharing your experience with Chinese-built diesel engines! Would you buy again, Chinese-built engines? As a US Engineer, I have yet to find a reason to, but I'd like to hear your unbiased opinion. While it's one person's opinion, I will keep an open mind. Take care!

Mauritz
Simplicity and elegance through engineering.

[pagu]

Originally Posted by gabilo

Maybe a friendly phone call in Chinese will get the spare parts to you. Send me a PM if you needs help with your supplier, will see what I can do.

I emailed the factory who replied right away that they would be able to supply the parts.

[lifeofreilly57]

I've done a lot of work in China, my company makes and exports large automatic production lines. The biggest issue with where the Chinese are now in the manufacturing curve is lack of regulation or standards for home grown companies, most European or American their companies use ISO or other standards based systems for quality control and manufacturing standards.
Currently there is not a big consumer market in China so the advent of customer service and aftermarket support is a new and still developing field which they have not fully embraced, it's one thing to get the money for a product and ship it abroad, never seeing the customer face to face again, it's another when they live in the same neighborhood, so to speak. Also there are no government regulations in that vein and even if there are they are not enforced, the manufacturing sector there is currently the wild west, so to speak, with little or no regulation. It's buyer beware, and even when the company in question is trying to make a long lasting go of it, there are not too many business models internally to show them how to successfully set up and maintain a consumer support network.
Yes their engineering and manufacturing capabilities are crude compared to the rest of the industrialized nations but they are improving, they are still way behind when it comes to after sale support since it was never a priority before, this will only come as they develop a more home grown consumer market and competition forces it.
Our company came under pricing pressure from the Chinese about a decade ago, they produced machines for about half the price we could, unfortunately they did not stand up well and there was no support once the machine was in place, none. If it broke, too bad, you weren't getting a return call, that competition has gone away, the companies that bought that equipment have had to replace that equipment at an extra cost, it's a costly lesson. Are all Chinese companies this way? No, but until the Chinese government starts to actually set standards and enforce consumer laws I don't see it changing, which is too bad for those companies in China who are trying to make an honest go of it, they are at a disadvantage.
So as in this case, it's a gamble, without a traceable track record it's buyer beware, so tread cautiously when dealing with a bargain that seems too good to be true. Perhaps the company really is trying to make a name for itself, maybe it is just the individual your dealing with who's being difficult, try seeing if you can contact others within the company before giving up on a warranty claim. I'm curious to see what the outcome is.