2.5DI Boat Engine - Problems

[dieselhead123]

Right then lads, I think we need to 'get a grip' here or this thread will end up like this one;
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=144348
with no real outcome other than costing the OP lots of money.

Let's start from the beginning, you changed the engine, what symptoms resulted in you taking this decision? You may have re-fitted the 'faulty' part(s) back onto the 'new' engine.

You also say that you refitted the original injection pump onto the replacement engine, how did you set up the static timing? Did you use the specifications published in the Mermaid manual you have?
I ask this as the pump you have fitted to your engine is a Bosch pump intended for use on a NON TURBO engine, so no static timing figures will be available from Bosch for this application. The only Bosch pump built for a Turbo Di engine is pump number 0 460 414 154, as seen in Murv's picture. It is possible that Mermaid used an N/A pump as you currently have fitted to your engine, hence no LDA boost compensator top on your pump, but to ensure correct static timing you would need to use Mermaid's setting specifications.

You mention that you have changed three of the injectors, you would have changed all four had you been able to remove them all, did you have the injectors you removed tested? Were they found to be faulty? Were the injectors you fitted tested and found to be good?

You now suggest replacing the cam belt, is replacing one 'un-broken' cam belt with another 'un-broken' cam belt likely to make any difference, other than to alter the static timing again?

Please do not think that I am in any way critical of the advice you have received from forum members, or of your attempt to heed it, but I do feel that you have now reached the point where you should be considering employing professional assistance to avoid further unnecessary expense.

TIM

[KeithB1973]

Hi Tim, thanks for the reply, I'll try and recap and get this right

My mate bought the boat about 10 years ago, it came with the engine as marinised by Mermaid Marine and badged Turbo-Merlin.

We've encountered lots of problems over the years, heat exchanger leaking in to exhaust manifold (renewed heat exhanger), etc, etc. The worse one was overheating problems we just could not trace. Got to the point where we thought the head gasket was the fault so we removed the head. That head was stolen whilst off the boat. We bought another standard Transit head and had a inlet manifold modified to suit and reassembled. The overheating problem still hadn't gone away so we decided to buy a second hand engine. We got an ex RAC van engine (76ps I think) which we were told ran well, We swapped over all the marinising bits, turbo, intercooler and swapped the injectors for the yellow spots. This engine ran well, started great and no smoke but lacked the power probably because we left the fuel pump as it came. We bought another engine this time a turbo engine (85ps I think) and repeated the above process but this time we swapped over the fuel pump from the original engine as we knew it was set up for the 130ps injectors, not sure about static timing? we just pinned everything and swapped the pumps. This engine has ran great for years, and little smokier than the previous replacement but gave full power etc till recently.

Over the winter we rigged up the previous replacement engine in our cabin just so we could keep turning it over, we used an old set of yellow spots and this engine started no probs so we assumed the injectors might be worth a try in the boat, as I say we could only remove 3 of the 4 from the boat.

We thought the next thing to try would be the timing belt as someone posted a faulty belt (tooth missing) could have knocked the timing out, we've renewed timing belts in the past without problems but we aren't trained mechanics and have no idea how to set static timing.

Other than trying the timing belt then new injectors we are stumped.

Fancy a trip up to the North East Tim?

Thanks for reading

[Murv]

If you could get Tim up to you, definitely consider it!
You've obviously got problems/expenses because of the distance, but sometimes it is a lot cheaper to think outside the box.

I've made this mistake in the past with a VW Scirocco with running problems. I didn't want to pay out the VW labour charges, so instead wasted hundreds of pounds over several Months on mobile tune-ups, local garges etc all which made tiny improvements but never really got to the bottom of it.
When I finally did bite the bullet and took it to VW, an elderly mechanic wandered out, diagnosed a tiny broken spring in the carb and changed it on the spot which sorted it instantly!

If you do manage to get the man himself up, you'll learn an awful lot and he's a top bloke. You'll need to keep the tea flowing, a bacon roll is always appreciated and if you can organise light winds and calm seas, even better!!

If not, then choose someone carefully. I had all sorts of problems, marine engineers don't like it "because it's a van engine" and mechanics didn't like it "because it's a marine engine."
That's what brought me to these forums, trying to find someone to help with it.
Might be a bit different down here though, there is a bit of snobbiness around here with boats. If it's not got "Penta" written on it, it's just not worthy.


EDIT: Or, buy my boat, strip it for all the marinisation parts which are new, get yours running like a dream then put a NA back in mine and you've got a cabin cruiser to sell

[KeithB1973]

Hi Chris, you're dead right it's not easy trying to get someone willing to look at boat engines unless you can afford a "Marine Engineer"

Although we're not mechanics we'd prefer to learn ourselves if possible, you can't call a mobile mechanic if problems happen at sea

Cheers!

[KeithB1973]

Been out on the boat this morning, had to use easy start to get it going but it ran well all morning, full power and very little smoke.

Didn't stop the engine till we got back to the moorings after doing about 20 miles over a period of about 4 hours. It would start without easy start but if we put any revs on it would just cut out.

Any ideas lads? Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

[KeithB1973]

Update: Fitted new injectors yesterday (Thanks Tim!), still had to use easy start to get it started.

It seemed to run even worse with the new injectors, would restart once warmed up but kept cutting out when put in gear.
Lots of black smoke at mid range revs.

We noticed the silicone hose between the turbo and intercooler was bulging, we thought maybe the intercooler could be blocked causing air starvation, we opened the cap we have fitted to the top the inlet manifold so air could be drawn naturally but it made no difference to the starting problems

Fishing season is all but over for us so we'll take the boat out of the water and strip everything down.