Last weekend I popped out of the harbour to watch the Bournemouth fireworks. On arrival at Bournemouth pier I noticed a rather nasty squeal from the engine.
Popped off the hood and had a look around. The only thing I could find was that the compressor felt a little rough when I turned it over (with the belt slackened) - but still plenty of compression.
Now this is a 2004 Mariner Optimax with 220 hours on it. The 3yr warranty expired 3 months ago.
Plodded home at a sensible pace, she seemed to be running beautifully - apart form the squeal at low RPM / tickover.
Booked it in to my friendly Mariner agent and got a shock on Wednesday!
The back of the piston has a large chunk missing, the bearing on the bottom of the connecting rod has completely self destructed, the bore is gouged and the whole thing is full of very finely ground aluminium powder and bearing bits. The top of the piston though is still in one piece and there was clearly air pressure otherwise I don't suppose it would have run at all.
I have had the thing serviced on time, every time, I always flush with fresh water and I coat the whole block in a thin layer of WD40 from time to time.
I suppose this begs a number of questions:
1. Why would this happen to a 3yr old engine?
2. As the compressor alone is £850 odd from Barrus, does anyone know of an alternate source for such a unit?
3. My engineer is suggesting I replace all the injectors 'cos of all the crud that has got into the fuel system. These are £200 EACH, and there are SIX! Is this really necessary?
4. Is there anything else I should be checking?
Any guidance on this would be greatly appreciated!
Nick
War Shot
