What is considered a long life for a marine diesel?

Question

Speaking in hours? I am planning on buying a sailboat used,

and see the hours listed on the diesel engine but really don't know what is considered a lot of use or little ? am I looking at replacement after 5000 hrs?

Answer 1

The ship I got off of a month ago passed a million miles while I was on it.   At an average speed of 12 kts thats 83,300+ hours on the engine.    We did need to replace a cracked sleeve I think they called it in Japan, but the main part of the engine was still running well.

Answer 2

It all depends on how the engine was used and maintained. There are normal items that need to be replaced yearly like the raw water pump or maybe the belts, but the engine in a sailboat is very under stressed compared to a power boat. My friend has over 15000 hours on his diesel in his sailboat. I own a power boat with diesels and would be happy to see 2000 hrs. I ran patrol boats in the USCG with over 5000 hrs without a rebuild, just routine maintenance. It could not hurt to get an engine survey to judge the condition of the engine.

Answer 3

Depends on the maintenance. 1000 hours is theoretically the equivalent of 60000 km but remember a marine engine runs at a constant speed so less work is done by the engine. just check the colour of the exhaust and if in doubt get a compression test done. but as a simple rule for smoke..

Black: Over fueling

Blue: Can live with it

White: Houston we have a problem.

I was replacing pleasure craft engines at 15 to 20 thousand hours due to their type of use

Answer 4

It may need a over-haul at 5,000 but it should work fine after that.