Been looking at larger boats recently, all of which have diesels. I'll be completely honest, I'm not a diesel guy at all, yet. I've read a ton of post, reviews, articles etc. but still have questions.
The #1 question I cant seem to find an answer on is dead idling diesels for long periods of time, while in gear.
Our boating is 60/40 fishing and cruising. While fishing for salmon (Great Lakes), we have to run dead slow around 2-2.5 mph. Unless its really snotty out, I accomplish this by killing one engine and basically idling the other motor to slow the boat down. I'll throw out a trolling bag 90% of the time, which allows me to gain a few RPM's but the running engine is still around 700 rpm(ish). Current motors are 350 Crusader Big Blocks, they seem to love idling all day. 95% of the salmon charters doing the same thing, run big block crusaders. Very few run diesels, so I don't have an audience to ask locally.
Will this kill the older diesels? I've read about washing cylinders but still not 100% I get what it entails. If this is a major issue with one motor vs. another, I'd like to scratch it off the list.
The boats I'm looking at have the below engines:
J&T6-71T 325hp (Seems too low of HP, but that's what I'm being told) - in 42C
Cat 3208 375 HP - in 38C Series II
Cummins 450C - in 43C
8v92 650HP - in 46C
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02-22-2024 02:28 PM #1Senior Member
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- Aug 2020
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Issues with long idling Detroit's?
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Re: Issues with long idling Detroit's?
You can do it. Idle while fishing but run them up on your way back in to clean them out.
Sky Cheney
1985 53EDMY, Hull #CN759, "Rebecca"
ELYC on White Lake--Montague, MI
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02-22-2024 04:51 PM #3
Re: Issues with long idling Detroit's?
This is only an issue if you never plane the boat and then wonder why the engines are smoking. Wet-stacking is just a quirk of the cylinder wall intake grid design, it doesn't hurt anything and is only a problem if you only ever putt around. Just run them up for 15 minutes and it goes away.
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Re: Issues with long idling Detroit's?
If the engines are turbos excessive idling/slow running will carbon up the turbos until they eventually jam, then it turbo rebuild time.
Guess how I know?"The older I get, the faster I was......."
1979 60C "Ohana" hull# 331
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03-04-2024 01:51 PM #6Senior Member
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- Aug 2020
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