Yanmar engine models

[skipmac]

Somehow in 40+ years of boating I have managed to avoid owning a boat with a Yanmar. Not intentional, just worked out that way. But, now I'm looking at a couple that have Yanmars and looking for expert opinions, especially since they are both seem to be turbo charged.

One is a 2000 4JH2-DTE with 3731 hours, the other is a 2004 4JH3G-TBE2.6 with 1567 hours. Both I think are about 75 HP with turbos which makes me a little nervous.

Any suggestions, comments, cautions, known issues to be aware of? Reading other threads on Yanmars I seem to recall Yanmars in general they can be sensitive to and prone to blockages in the exhaust elbow. Anything else?

[milagroman]

If you happen to use Facebook, or know someone who does, there is a yanmar marine engine owners group that is very knowledgeable. Ask your question there. It is the only reason I use Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/4657...309/?ref=share

[chrisr]

we have a pair of yanmar 4JH2TE's with abt 7300hrs on each. both still going like swiss watches

exhaust elbows can be a problem but ours were changed to stainless steel years ago and are fine

be careful of exhaust routing to ensure no water can get back up into esp the turbos. this happened to a mate - very expensive. of course he hadn't run the engines for months so this partly to blame as well

like all diesels these engines need to be run frequently and run hard. make sure you get to hear the turbo whine fairly often

when motoring we usually run on one engine only at abt 2000-2500rpm, but will then boost up to 3000rpm for 15 mins or so every few hours

we've switched to electric lift pumps on both engines as it makes them so much easier to bled after doing fuel filters

only problem with yanmar is the price of spares & consumables, but same with all the others i think. there is a good range of aftermarket parts available if you search hard enough.

cheers,

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by milagroman

If you happen to use Facebook, or know someone who does, there is a yanmar marine engine owners group that is very knowledgeable. Ask your question there. It is the only reason I use Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/4657...309/?ref=share

Thanks for the info. I am on FB. Joined when my daughter was in college and traveling a lot. Easiest way at the time to keep track of her.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by chrisr

we have a pair of yanmar 4JH2TE's with abt 7300hrs on each. both still going like swiss watches

Thanks. This is a monohull so only one engine to worry about. Just one more reason why one hull is better than two.

Only kidding. A cat is being considered as well.

Originally Posted by chrisr

exhaust elbows can be a problem but ours were changed to stainless steel years ago and are fine,

Were those Yamar or after market parts? Any recommendation on where one might get a good SS elbow?

Originally Posted by chrisr

be careful of exhaust routing to ensure no water can get back up into esp the turbos. this happened to a mate - very expensive. of course he hadn't run the engines for months so this partly to blame as well

Happened to a friend on a sistership to my Pearson. Cost him a new engine. I checked my installation very carefully after that happened and rebuilt the elbow.

Originally Posted by chrisr

we've switched to electric lift pumps on both engines as it makes them so much easier to bled after doing fuel filters,

So not self bleeding? I was assuming these were common rail engines but maybe too old for that?

[milagroman]

https://hdimarine.net/

[hugosalt]

Yanmar SS replacement elbows...bought mine 5 years ago from Ben Cotton @ exhaustelbow.com
May not have for all Yanmar models.
As an aside, I changed out my original mixing elbow in 2017 (bought boat new in 1985 with 3GM) with SS elbow cause I figured after 30 years same elbow I had to be missing something! Elbow was fine, all I did over the years was run motor hard and did a Rydlyme flush every 4-5 years.

[Seymore]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Reading other threads on Yanmars I seem to recall Yanmars in general they can be sensitive to and prone to blockages in the exhaust elbow. Anything else?

Here there is a Yanmar 3GM30F-YEU. I run it about every week, when I'm not out cruising. It runs fine. The stock cast steel exhaust elbow slowly plugs up with a hard black deposit that defies chipping out, plugging up completely in about a year, so the engine doesn't start and run. Then, I've been replacing it with a new stock exhaust elbow--a minor maintenance operation.

I've caught on to this: After a year sitting around, the plugged up elbow's hard deposit gets crumbly so that, with a litlle help from a screwdriver, it falls out, leaving a nice clean like-new exhaust elbow. So when it plugs up, I'm simply going to replace the current plugged-up candidate with the cleaned-up refurbished one and then leave the plugged-up one sitting around for a year.

I don't know if a stainless steel exhaust elbow will cure this "problem". I think that I'll not invest in one, continuing my current mindless routine.

This doesn't bear telling in such detail on CF. Yanmar diesels are good engines, among the best. They run quite routinely, at full power. But the OP raised the point, so I responded.

[chrisr]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Thanks. This is a monohull so only one engine to worry about. Just one more reason why one hull is better than two.

Only kidding. A cat is being considered as well.

oh yes...sometimes it's very handy to have a spare engine



Were those Yamar or after market parts? Any recommendation on where one might get a good SS elbow?

aftermarket mixing elbows are readily available. one source is

https://www.marineenergy.com.au/coll...acement-hdi-jh

Happened to a friend on a sistership to my Pearson. Cost him a new engine. I checked my installation very carefully after that happened and rebuilt the elbow.



So not self bleeding? I was assuming these were common rail engines but maybe too old for that?

yep, i think too old. as standard mine have those stupid little handles that you jiggle up an down for an hour. much easier now with the electric pumps

cheers,