A new engine for Peregrin:
Replacing the tired Volvo-Penta
with a Yanmar
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Big Trouble in |
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By
“lots of cranking”, I mean a cold engine on a warm day would take perhaps
15-20 seconds of cranking. Again, my old Yanmar
would take 1 or 2. When the engine was
warm, 2 or 3 seconds would start it up. On a cool day, it would take at
least 30 seconds of cranking to start. Note: NEVER crank an engine for
more than 5-10 seconds at a time!
This could overheat the starter. If you need to crank more than that,
do it in multiple periods of 5-10 seconds; also, if you must crank for more
than 20-30 seconds, you must close your raw water seacock
or you will flood your engine with seawater. This is because there is no
exhaust pressure to push the cooling seawater out of the exhaust system; it
could flood the cylinders through the exhaust valves. Just remember to open
it once the engine starts. |
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Once
the Volvo had started, it would run strongly and never missed a beat. But when the engine had cooled down after a
day of sailing, it was “Hell Week” compressed into a half-hour as the endless
cranking sessions began once again. I had yet another “certified Volvo
mechanic” look at it again; he left the engine pretty much as it had been,
but left me $400 poorer. I did notice
that as time went on, the cranking sessions grew longer and longer. Finally, one cold (45 F) morning in
November of 2003 the engine would not start at all. I cranked for about 20
minutes (clock time, not cranking time) without a peep, grunt or pop from the
diesel. I borrowed a can of ether from
another sailor, and after several generous shots of ether and another 20
seconds of cranking, the engine reluctantly started. My faith in the engine fell lower than an
ant’s belly, and I wanted to hurl the puke-green piece of scrap metal over
the side then and there. It became
even worse when later that day, the engine died while negotiating the
treacherous Hell Gate in |
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Rebuild or Replace; or, How To Throw Good Money After
Bad. I seriously considered rebuilding the
2003. In fact, I hired “my” Volvo mechanic to rebuild the heads, as he was
“quite sure” that’s all it needed. His estimate in September 2003 was “about
$1800” for the head job. But after this mechanic failed to show up a few
times for appointments I had with him, and also failed to perform the jobs I
laid out for him I began to have my doubts. I checked around with other Volvo
mechanics, and they estimated as high as $3,000 to rebuild the engine. And
that was just for a typical rebuild- if I needed a new water pump, heat
exchanger, transmission, hoses, alternator, etc. the cost would rise. So as if I hadn’t already spent enough
money, I hired yet another Volvo mechanic to do a formal survey of the diesel
to determine if it actually needed a rebuild or not- maybe I needed just a
valve job? So, $450 later, I learned that the valves were OK but the
“cross-hatching was all washed out” of my cylinder walls, and that
compression was low in all cylinders, with 2 of them quite low- no wonder it
wouldn’t start! This Volvo mechanic,
“Monmouth Marine” of |
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Choosing the engine; or, Things That Go Bump In The Night. I
seriously considered 3 different engines for the replacement of the old
Volvo: Universal, Betamarine, and Yanmar. I did not consider Volvo at all, for several
reasons: 1) they are expensive; 2) Volvo parts are very expensive and hard to
locate here in the US; 3) Volvo mechanics are scarce as hen’s teeth in the
US; 4) my rotten experience with Volvo diesels and 5) every single Volvo
mechanic I spoke to said that in general Volvo diesels are not very
reliable. That last one really got me-
Volvo’s own mechanics can’t say anything good about them. These same
mechanics did say though that the older Volvos, the MD series, were
extremely reliable and built like a brick outhouse. They all particularly
disliked the Volvo 2000 series: the 2001, 2002 and 2003. On the other hand, these same mechanics had
nothing but praise for the Yanmar series such as
the Yanmar 2GM and 3GM diesels. |
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Since
my original Volvo 2003 was a 28 hp diesel, I wanted to replace it with an
engine of at least the same power. One
which fit the bill was the Universal
M-35B of 35 hp. This engine is a marinized
Kubota tractor diesel, which are considered to be reliable and rugged.
The Universal M-35B diesel is similar to the Betamarine,
but has a much wider network of support, as it has been around for a long
time. This engine, which in late 2003 sells for $7100 discounted, has most of
its service points on the PORT front side of the engine, which is nearly
ideal for the Scanmar 33 and 35, as the port side
is fully accessible once the engine box is removed. Although a fine diesel, the problem |
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was finding a capable, knowledgeable Universal mechanic to install it for
me. The mechanic who had previously worked on my Volvo 2003 was also a Yanmar and Universal dealer, but he had botched several
repairs and diagnoses on the Volvo and therefore was persona non grata. Since I had
trouble locating a Universal dealer and installer, I passed on this diesel as
well. Afterwards, I was told that Universal parts were moderately difficult
to locate. I didn’t seriously consider the Westerbeke
diesel for the same reason- lack of trained mechanics in my area, and fewer
dealers who could supply parts.
Incidentally, this mechanic also measured my engine space and declared
that the Universal “would not fit”, but the Yanmar
3GM30 would. When I pressed him for details about the Universal’s poor fit,
he said that it would be very tight up against the bulkhead for the
head. I haven’t confirmed this myself,
but you could check against the manufacturer’s specs at www.westerbeke.com. I really liked the Universal M-35B, and
thought the extra 7 hp would come in handy. |
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The
second line of diesels I considered was the Betamarine. The BD1305 has 35 hp, the BD722 has 20 hp, and the BD1005 28. The 2-cylinder
BD722 is shown here; see Beta
Marine’s website, www.betamarinenc.com,
for description and specs of each. Like the Universal, the Betamarine engines are marinized
Kubota tractor diesels. The Betamarine is a fairly
new name in marine engines in the |
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(supposedly) open source of parts from tractor diesel rather than marine
diesel sources. Most of these engines
even have a manually-operated brass oil-change pump built on the front for
easy oil changes, a very nice feature indeed (see the photo above). The hot oil is pumped out to a spigot on
the front of the engine by working the pump’s T-handle. The BD1305 sold for
$7369 discounted in September of 2003; but the Betamarine
distributor was dead-set against selling me the 35 hp model, and wanted me to
buy instead the little 20 hp. I just couldn’t see why I should repower with less
horsepower, but he was convinced that a boat of 10,850 pounds needs at most
20 hp! The downside of the Betamarine diesels is
that very, very few mechanics in the |
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In
contrast, the Yanmar line has a very substantial,
world-wide network of suppliers and mechanics. Yanmars are
widely used thoughout the east coast of the |
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The 3GM30 is a very reliable workhorse of
a diesel which was designed from a clean sheet of paper as a marine diesel; it’s
not a marinized tractor engine. It produces 27 hp. There are several minor
problems however with the 3GM30 as a repower choice
for the Scanmar 33 and 35: the service points are
on the STARBOARD side of the engine, exactly the wrong place; the engine would
be close against the bulkhead for the head, and a hatch would need to be cut
in this area to allow oil and filter changes and engine bleeding. Another pain is that the raw water pump is
mounted backwards (i.e., the pump |
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cover faces the rear of the engine) on the 3GM30, and is also
on the starboard side; impeller changes would be a nightmare. The third strike against it was that the
engine had just had its production stopped late in 2003; it was now an
obsolete model although Yanmar is committed to
supply parts and support for another 15 years. |
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The
replacement for the 3GM30 is the new Yanmar 3YM30 of
29 hp. The water pump, dip stick, oil
filler, and fuel filter are at the front of the engine for ease of service.
Unfortunately, the oil filter is on the starboard side, but as the filter is
horizontal and there is enough room in the Scanmar
installation, it should be not too difficult to remove & replace. It will
be messy though! This engine is more powerful yet slightly smaller and
substantially lighter than the Volvo 2003. Boat show price of this engine in
December of 2003 was around $6300, a real bargain for the latest technology.
This engine is based on the 3TNV76 Yanmar
industrial |
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engine which is a newly-designed industrial unit. The 3YM30
weighs 286 pounds, with dimensions of 26.5” L X 17.9” W and 21.2” H. It uses glow plugs for good cold starting
ability (yeah!!!) and an electric stop solenoid. It's a cleaner engine, and
meets all future (2006) Tier 2 pollution standards for both the EU and US.
The control panel, which will handily fit in the same space as the old Volvo
panel, comes fitted with a tachometer and an hour meter. The standard
alternator is 60 amps, and there is an optional 80-amp alternator available. One of the really nice features of these
engines is |
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that they are much quieter and smoother than the current
generation of diesels, as Yanmar made many changes
to the design to reduce noise and vibration substantially. There is one downside to this engine for us
Scanmar owners whose boats have a propeller shaft:
as of today, only a straight transmission is available. The old Volvo had a
slight (about a 7°) down angle, which meant that the engine sat relatively
level on the beds. The Yanmar 3GM30 does have a 7° down angle trans, but
the new 3YM30 does not. This means that the front of the engine will have to
be raised in relation to the trans. |
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But
there is good news for you Volvo-Penta “Saildrive” owners: the Yanmar
3YM30 can also be purchased with a Saildrive
instead of a straight transmission; it is known as the 3YM30C. Several
Scandinavian boat builders are using the 3YM30C with Saildrives,
including Rolf Magusson’s “Contrast” line. See www.yanmar.com for full specs; in the |
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I had
heard that Yanmar was offering the new 3YM30 for
the same price as the now obsolete 3GM30. In addition, a few of the Yanmar dealers agreed to sell the engines at a special
discounted price of $6800 if purchased at the NY Boat Show; the regular price
was $7,000. So in January of 2004, we
went to the show in |
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