Advice on diesel engines and Lagoon 440s

[doug1942]

Actually I need advice in two areas

First, knowing (or believing) that marine diesel engines are designed and built very conservatively, how many hours on a used diesel engine before you can say that it is just about run out and very close to needing an overhaul?

Second, I have pretty well in love with the Lagoon 440 owners version (having never seen one). Since there are a lot of those floating around, can someone give me advice on what to look out for when I start negotiating?

Thanks

[denverd0n]

How many hours? Maybe 10,000. Maybe less than half that. It really depends on how it has been used and how it has been maintained.

The fact is that a lot of marine diesels get sadly neglected, receiving attention only when something goes wrong, and engines treated that way might be in need of major work within just a couple of thousand hours. As a part of the pre-purchase survey, be sure that the engine(s) get thoroughly checked out by a qualified mechanic.

[byrsch]

I would not go by the hours, you don't really know if the meter is accurate. May have been broken or replaced at one time. Also very low hours could indicate a dock queen and problems from not being used. Get an engine survey from a qualified surveyor, preferably one certified by the engine manufacturer.

[BarryL]

Hello,

My own personal belief is that age in years is at least as important (and maybe more so) than hours. As previously mentioned, a well maintained diesel can easily go 10,000 hours. But the marine environment is tough on steel and iron. You can find 20 year old engines with 1000 hours on them, but the block is a rusted hulk and the engine is basically shot.

Barry

[TQA]

Originally Posted by BarryL

Hello,

My own personal belief is that age in years is at least as important (and maybe more so) than hours. As previously mentioned, a well maintained diesel can easily go 10,000 hours. But the marine environment is tough on steel and iron. You can find 20 year old engines with 1000 hours on them, but the block is a rusted hulk and the engine is basically shot.

Barry

You have to differentiate between those engines that are directly cooled i.e. with salt water circulating around the engine and those that are indirectly cooled where the salt water only circulates around a heat exchanger.

There is no reason that an indirectly cooled engine should rust out esp. if the correct colant with rust inhibitors is used. Yes the heat exchanger may fail through corrosion but not the engine.

BTW my 35 year old indirectly cooled Perkins 154 still perks along fine.