At 10:31 AM 12/10/00 -0800, Patrick wrote:

I don't believe that the size or the shaft speed of the engine has anything
to do with the manufacturer's attempt to meet the clean air standards.  You
can clean up a big engine as well as a small one, and in fact you can
probably do it less expensively.

Only one company that I know of has designed their inboard diesel engine
from the ground up to be a marine engine; and as far as I know, no one on
this list has one of those in a recreational trawler.  (At least I've never
seen it mentioned on the list; except as wing engines on some of the larger
trawlers.)  What you have are truck engines that have been designed to be
truck engines and then converted into marine engines.  For the smaller
engines, they were designed for other mobile equipment, like forklifts and
farm tractors, and then converted.

Any engineer designing an engine for mobile equipment has a strong desire to
keep it as small and as light as possible.  The only difference between now
and a few years ago is that the state of the art in engine design has
advanced to the point where you can now design clean and efficient engines
in a much smaller package than you used to be able to.  The engineers jump
on that and crank out smaller engine packages.

If you get into the bigger boats, you will find engines that are much larger
than a truck engine.  (Let's say 1500 hp and up.)  Now you are looking at
engines that were not designed primarily to be mobile.  They were designed
to be bolted to a concrete slab to power a fire suppression water pump or a
back up generator.  These engines typically still use the older technology
that results in more iron and a slower shaft speed; but are just as clean as
their smaller and faster spinning cousins.

I don't believe that these new technology engines that are lighter and spin
faster will have any shorter of a life than the larger engines that they are
replacing.  Just about any one of them can be made to last 10,000 hours
between overhauls; and many are running many times that amount of time.

There are lots of them.  You can buy them from CAT, Cummins, Perkins, Deere,
and many more.  The only trouble is that the folks who are marinizing these
engines hardly ever find a customer who does not want to turbo charge or
supercharge the engine; so that is the way they put their standard engine
together.  If you want a naturally aspirated one, you can order it that way
and they will be happy to put it together for you.

Personally, if I were buying a new engine to put into any boat, I cannot
imagine why I'd want to limit myself to the naturally aspirated ones.  An
engine with a turbo charger will be much less expensive and can be made to
last just as long.  It will be smaller and lighter, so I'll need to buy less
fuel to carry it around; and it will leave more space and weight capacity
for me to carry more important things than iron ballast.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
::
Paul and Cindy Kruse      ::  KJV Joh 14:27 Peace I leave with you,
165 South Kenneth Court    ::  my peace I give unto you:
Merritt Island, FL  32952  ::  not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
E-mail:  plkruse@iu.net    ::  Let not your heart be troubled,
407-453-6206              ::  neither let it be afraid.
::
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Paul - I've got Yanmar 6LP's putting out 300 hp. Are Yanmar's the engines
to which you are referring?

Tom

At 06:24 PM 12/10/2000 -0500, Paul Kruse wrote:

tom@clements.net writes:

I know one such engine quite well, it was/is made by SABB in Norway.
Virtually indestructable, can run under water and reputedly certified
by Lloyds as a lifeboat engine. Had one in a 34 ft sailboat. Also
know several boaters around here who use this engine. Wonder if that
is the one Paul is talking about. One of the better features of the
SABB Diesel is that she is designed to be completely torn down and
rebuild right IN the boat. On page 2 or 3 of Nigel Calder's Diesel
book, there is a line drawing of a rudimentary Diesel. It is the
single cylinder SABB.
And please don't tell me that a one or two cylinder Diesel is not an
engine for a trawler, because I'd have to reply to you that you have
obviously never owned or driven a Norwegian SABB Marine Diesel.
We're talking RELIGION here!!!

George of Scaramouche, wishing often he'd have his SABB back. (Now
uses a Fairymann)