12V71TI service/experience

[Traveler 45C]

I hate when I'm sure of something only to findout that I'm wrong.

I checked the DD book and found that the 16V71 are 2 8V blocks bolted together. The 12V is a single block, you are correct.

[Avenger]

One of the Hatteras brochures makes mention of 24V-71TA's. I'd love to see one, but I'd hate to have to do a tune-up What do you think, two 12's bolted together or three 8's?

[Genesis]

Two 12s. The 12V71s are single-block - I doubt you could bolt together three 8s as the governor would prove to be trouble. The way its done on 12 and 16V92s is that the governor is in the middle of the two blocks - there are two blowers.

[Avenger]

It was kind of a rhetorical question. More joints = more potential movement, something you obviously would want to avoid. You'd still have some intersting governor engineering, you'd have four blowers now and would need to overcome twice the rack effort. My money would be on a hydraulic governor, probably a Woodward PSG which is common on generators. Once again, just bolting on more off the shelf parts. Gotta love those Detroits.

[Traveler 45C]

What do you think, two 12's bolted together or three 8's?

It would have to be four 6's, however assembly would be required IN the boat...

[Avenger]

It would be much easier to get through the hatches that way. A complete 24V would be over 13 ft long!

[luckydave215]

That thing would have more part than New York City. What a nightmare, like a four bank aircraft radial.

[Avenger]

A "Corncob" in every sense of the word.

[captddis]

The 24V71s were DDEC engines. No racks or governors to deal with.

[Boss Lady]

I went looking for a 45-50 foot Hat only to discover that they don't make them like they used to, plus the asking price was rediculous. The biggest turnoff was the new engines. I wouldn't trust my life to them and that is exactly what you are doing. What was that question a while back about what if Microsoft made cars? Well evidently they make boats now or so it seems. I decided to take a wait and see approach and let the boat manufacturers and engine manufacturers work the bugs out them before I plunged in. I met an owner of a Caterpiller dealership through my aircharter business, seems he has a big Garlington with CATs in it. Well it broke down in Turks/Caicos and the mechanics on the island couldn't do a darn thing with them. We flew a mechanic and parts down for him. The repair parts were defective, 7 parts at the dealership in Miami were defective, and the 13 parts in Atlanta were defective as well, the boat was broken for over a month and numerous trips back and forth before it was fixed. If a Major Caterpillar dealer can't get his personal boat fixed, what do you think it would be like for us normal folks? Plus this guy has the jack to just step of the boat and let other people figure out how to deal with it. I am sure that he incurred $40-50K to get the thing fixed and that doesn't include parts. This might explain why the new 68C is $4.5M