new engine & surface drives

[pop]

hi everyone

ok i am looking at getting a D6 280 HP volvo or the yanmar 310hp, has anyone got any info on best prices and the engines? what stands up to commercial use better, volvo or yanmar? do they all have world wide guarantees?

there are not many ribs with surface drives, why is this? do you know how much they are? what are the pros and cons of having one instead of a sterndrive? what is the maintance like on them? do you get hit for extra when mooring?

thanks ribsters

[jwalker]

I thought the D6's are 310 and 370hp.

[TIM]

My experance is that Volvo make all there parts slights Odd... so you have to buy orignal parts ....... so when I got a qoute for some parts, when rebuilding a small volvo marine engine... the cost of the parts was more expencive than a new engine !!!! they should have just asked for my phone number and told me to put a pound sign in front !!!!!!!

where the Yanmar 4.2 engine is actually a engine developed yamaha , which is built yamaha or under licence by lots of companys , like toyota , yanmar, kaboto, etc etc ....

So parts are widely available if anything major goes wrong ....

Plus the Yanmar unit is lighter buy 250kg I think..... well in outdrive fourm anyway..........

But there is alot to be said for coompresser and a turbo charged volvo... ie no turbo lag ....

[pop]

sorry jwalker you are wrong look . http://www.frenchmarine.com/Product.aspx?PID=478&CID=82

Tim i have heard mixed thoughts about the volvo my friend has had problems with the internal cooling pump etc. what is your experience with them?

the yanmar are a nice unit but they seem to corrode fast in the ribs, and i dont really like the bravo legs the turbo seems to be a little funny nothing for ages and then 0-30kts in no time, it cant do the leg any good.

yamaha are a pain in the ass they are so expensive to repair and it is a pain to work on for instance the collent pump on the engine is placed behind the fan belts and all the timing gear i find them a nightmare. do you have any good websites that i can look on ? thanks for the help, do you know anything about surface drives ?

[TIM]

I have never owner any of these engines .... but I have been reserching inboard diesel for years ...as I will eventualy have a rib with 1 or 2 of them .........

A lot of guys complain about the turbo lag in the Yanmars ... especaly the 315.... 24 valve unit because the engine is working on its limit of HP output ....... but the yamaha 240hp dont seen to suffer that problem, cause of the smaller turbo to spool up etc.

The bravo 3 legs are a time bomb on the 315hp yammar and pretty much go bang within 250hrs ... but bravo 3's will seem to happly take V8 800hp petrol with no real disasters ....... ????????

Tom In redbay was telling me last week that that the put 900hrs on his yamaha leg before one of them went pop!!! and since he has fitted transom showers ... he has not killed a leg since ..... he is second only to the MOD for fitting yamaha engines and legs ....... he is currently testing legs and engines for yamaha, and the breif he was given was to break them !!!! he is not allowed to change oil or filters for 500hrs !!!! and he drives his boat a one throttle setting only ..... 100% power 100% of the time !!!!!!

My experance of Volvo is that they are well built well designed and very reliable....But expensive to repair ........ and the 6 cylinder engine has all its fuel injector pipes going over the rocker cover so when you have to check valve clearences you have to basicly remove the fuel system !!!! so a simple 2 hour job turns into all day stint !!!

The Yamaha and the Yanmar are the same engine ...... except for turbo sizes and injector sizes in different horespowers ...... I think Mercruser use the same engine too... but only 250 hp in diesel ..... but I am not 100% on that.

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by pop

sorry jwalker you are wrong ....

Am I?

Go to Volvo's web site and you can download all the info you need as pdf's.

They do 280hp too but you're not limited to that.

The early D6's didn't have compressors. Volvo claimed the extra engine capacity (over the KAD series) provided enough low speed power but the later ones have both compressors and turbochargers. There is no mention of the compressor on the 280 literature and, if that's the case, it will make the low speed pickup sluggish.

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by TIM

... and the 6 cylinder engine has all its fuel injector pipes going over the rocker cover so when you have to check valve clearences you have to basicly remove the fuel system !!!! so a simple 2 hour job turns into all day stint !!!

Well, just the pipes and injectors but yes, isn't that a pain? Is that the case on the D6 too?

[codprawn]

Surface drives are pretty rare. EPS make the Tigershark which looks very interesting.

http://www.epsmarine.com/html/frames/fr_1.html

Was at Ribex one year and looked the business. Loved the look of the surface drive - very nice engineering and just looked "right".

Obviously very efficient at high speeds - used quite a lot now in sunseekers etc.Probably not so good at low speeds or for acceleration.

[Rodan]

Surface drives can be awful in the harbour, fine if you are not going to spend any time going along side or turning at low speed BUT...

[pop]

Hi ribsters

tim thanks for you words i understand that the yamaha is a good engine and has a nice steady turbo however they are a pain when they go wrong, i have a yamaha ME420 STI 240hp and it a good unit it has 1,180hr and i change the oil ,fillters every 50hrs. i am taking this one out because i find it a little slow when running at 3,000rpm. so ofcourse i find myself running it hard all the time, i am putting it in my brothers rib. i wanted to put a bigger lump in the back and run at lower revs, i am not concerned about Manoeuvrability of the surface drive i am looking at the maintance and durabilty over long distances the rib is going to new zealand in 3 months and i will be doing some serious ribing i use my rib alot and need a reliable unit that can stand a good thrashing. the new yamaha might be an option do you know much about them

jwalker i dont care i just said i was looking at a D6 280 hp you said there was no such thing and there is so what else do you want to prove that what i said does exist