[mandrewman]

New sailboat owner. 78 Hunter 27, and she is great. Ton of fun, ton of worry. And I learn about new stuff to worry about every day.

One thing i have been worried about since buying her is the engine maintenance. Installed and running is a Yanmar SB8. Seems to be a good reliable engine, if a bit loud and not exactly powerful.

The lubricating oil looks pretty black. Should I change it? How do I change it? The fuel filter? Whats up with that thing? Can anyone recommend a mechanic in the Portland, OR area that could take a look at my boat, perform whatever maintenance that needs to be done and then give me the rundown of what to do and watch ongoing?

 

[mandrewman]

Also I would take book recommendations. I just have zero experience with diesel, let alone marine diesels

 

[Faster]

Diesels are pretty simple.. got fuel? check... got air? check... got compression? check... chug chug...

By all means change the oil.. you have no idea, probably, when it was last done, but the oil in our engine looks black within minutes of a change anyhow. We typically change oil every 50-100 hours, the filters at the same time. Changing it is neatest if you use a vacuum extractor pump.. drain plugs are tough to get to and you can make a mess. Idealy at some point run a hose from the drainplug to the top of the engine for removal, but many simply insert a tube down the dipstick hole into the sump.

Keep the fuel clean. I routinely use a screened funnel when refueling, it slows things down but prevents catching a tank full of sludge if the fuel dock's running a bit low that day. The fuel filter is crucial to a diesel - and you need a good way to change it and rebleed the system once you're done. Check out the engine based forums here and elsewhere, Google is your friend!

The main difference with marine engines is the cooling side, esp if FWC which yours likely is not..

 

[mandrewman]

One thing I am puzzled about is the apparent lack of an oil filter. So there is some sort of oil... screen... i should clean?

 

[Ahoyhoy]

There is an internal oil screen which you clean out by turning the lever back and forth below and to the left of the fuel filter. Generally you do this prior to changing out your warmed oil which then removes the sludge and whatnot. Doing it without changing the oil is simply reintroducing the contaminate to the oil pan for recirculation (not recommended).

 

[lillia28]

Drew,
The YSE, YSB and YSM are refinements of the same engine. They do not have an oil filter in the traditional sense, but a screen that should be cleaned. The manuals for the YSM are on line for free, don't know about the YSE or YSB, I never checked. Try searching.
Usual method of changing oil is to pump it out of the dip stick spout. Make sure the oil is warm. First time I tried to pump cool oil.. well just make sure it is warm! You can spend hundreds on an electric pump or about $40.00 for a manual one.

Have at it!
Lou

 

[Copaco]

New sailboat owner. 78 Hunter 27, and she is great. Ton of fun, ton of worry. And I learn about new stuff to worry about every day.

One thing i have been worried about since buying her is the engine maintenance. Installed and running is a Yanmar SB8. Seems to be a good reliable engine, if a bit loud and not exactly powerful.

The lubricating oil looks pretty black. Should I change it? How do I change it? The fuel filter? Whats up with that thing? Can anyone recommend a mechanic in the Portland, OR area that could take a look at my boat, perform whatever maintenance that needs to be done and then give me the rundown of what to do and watch ongoing?

I have an SB8.There is an electric stop pull knob on the panel that doesnot work.How do you stop yours?Happy Holidays

 

[lillia28]

I ditched mine several years ago .there was a pull cable to some where. Let me see if you f I can find the file for the manual
Lou

 

[Copaco]

I have the manual but only shows engine parts.Maybe went to decompression lever ,but the manual says not to do that.I guess most skippers gon to the engine.I rigged a U-turn on throttle.

 

[lillia28]

I’m checking. I think there is a stop lever on the governor. There was no cable on the decompress lever, that was finger operated on my boat. There is a Z shaped lever on the governor, near the throttle lever which the stop cable pulls. I can send a diagram if you like
lou

 

[Copaco]

Great. I would like to see this.