Bukh engines

[GBurton]

The boat I just bought came with brand new Bukh engine. (Not installed)
Does anybody have experience with these engines? I know that they are used as lifeboat engines and are specifically built for marine use (not marinised automotive)

It is very heavy and appears to be well built.

[Tartan34C]

I have some but only very, and I mean very basic experience with small ones. What do you need to know?
All the best,
Robert Gainer

[GBurton]

How hard is it to get parts - and how reliable are they?

This is a DV 24 (24 HP)

[Tartan34C]

They have been very reliable in my limited experience but parts are a problem. It is a current production engine so you can order any parts you need but I don’t think you will find any stocking dealers in the US. By the way you will only get 19 to 20 usable horsepower from that engine and for a heavy boat it might be a tad light in the power department. I don’t have a need for lots of power and my engine is small by popular standards but you are going even smaller in terms of HP per pound of boat.
All the best,
Robert Gainer

[Jeff_H]

I had the small, single cylinder Buhk (10 hp) in my Laser 28. I really liked the engine, it was reliable and very easy to work on. Most of the parts were reasonably priced, and parts were generally in stock or a few days away and advice was readily available from a local dealer (Davis Craven at Waterway Diesel) and from online Dealers. It did have a few minor oil leak issues, in that it was hard to assemble the waterpump/fuel lift pump assembly without getting leaks. The only other problem that I encountered was that the steel frame that supports the engine and which comes with the saildrive package fatigued and broke dropping the engine into the bilge. I was able to temporarily support the engine, and remove the steel frame. When I got the frame out I felt that it was poorly engineered and so re-engineered it when I had it repaired.

Their saildrive was very nicely engineered as saildrives go, but it could only use a particular model Gori propellor, and I personally would not have another Gori prop on a bet. I found this prop to be pure junk, and Gori to have a antagonistic attitude if you had a problem, providing worse than lousy service for thier products in North American.

Jeff

[GBurton]

Is there a recommendation for HP/LBS of boat?

Originally Posted by Tartan34C

They have been very reliable in my limited experience but parts are a problem. It is a current production engine so you can order any parts you need but I don’t think you will find any stocking dealers in the US. By the way you will only get 19 to 20 usable horsepower from that engine and for a heavy boat it might be a tad light in the power department. I don’t have a need for lots of power and my engine is small by popular standards but you are going even smaller in terms of HP per pound of boat.
All the best,
Robert Gainer

[SVDistantStar]

Ive got a 1977 DV20 that came with my Pearson 36. It wasnt installed and still isnt. From what the last owners said, the motor was great and never gave any problems, but the gearbox gave out. If i would find another gearbox, i would put the motor back in my boat. Its got a ZF gearbox. Ive got all the parts to it somewhere.

[AjariBonten]

Originally Posted by GBurton

Is there a recommendation for HP/LBS of boat?

Everything I've read seems to indicate 2 HP per 1,000 pounds of displacement as the common formula.

Fred

[timebandit]

Originally Posted by SVDistantStar

Ive got a 1977 DV20 that came with my Pearson 36. It wasnt installed and still isnt. From what the last owners said, the motor was great and never gave any problems, but the gearbox gave out. If i would find another gearbox, i would put the motor back in my boat. Its got a ZF gearbox. Ive got all the parts to it somewhere.

You might try here for gear box parts.
http://www.pjpower.com/sales/

[tdw]

Raven came with a DV24, originally installed 1991. The only real problem I have had with the thing is that it leaked oil out of the main sump. This turned out to be a poorly installed line for draining the oil and although it took some time to track down the problem once we did so it was easily fixed.

We also had a problem with oil coming out the exhaust. It appears that this was caused by excess fuel not lubricating oil. I'm not a mechanical whizz OK , but somehow it was do with fuel pumping through the system on shutdown. It was solved by making sure we always kill donk with engine at idle. With our previous boat shutting down while engine was revving at over idling speed was not a problem. The Bukh apparently doesn't like it. (No I don't mean shutting down engine at 2500 revs. I'm talking about only a few hundred revs over idle.)

Previous boat had a Volvo Penta . Compared to the Volvo the Bukh is quieter but uses a lot more juice than the Volvo. At first this concerned me greatly until I realised that because it is comparatively quiet we use the thing a lot more than on PB.

The other thing I do like about the Bukh is that it's about as big (I think) as you can go and still hand start when necessary.

All in all no serious complaints although I'm told that a three cylinder would be quieter still. ??? To date parts have not been a problem but then Bukh have an official distributor in Oz. I'm told that parts are a problem in SE Asia or Pacific region. No problem in Europe.