rustybucket
Legendary Member
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2013
- Messages
- 1,233
- Status
- OWNER - I own a Hatteras Yacht
- Hatteras Model
- 52' CONVERTIBLE (1983 - 1990)
Well... the time has come.... sooner than I wanted but the trigger has been pulled. As some of you know we've done a ton of work and upgrades to my 1986 52c with the addition of a mezzanine, transom tuna tubes and corner baitwells, bridge extension and a long list of other improvements. Through all of that we did couple of inframe rebuilds of my 8v92 detroits. This summer in Key West we experienced a catastrophic failure in port engine, 3 main bearings were spun. At this point we are still unsure of the actual cause of the failure, hoping to determine that when we pull the engines.
After the failure we limped back to Pensacola on one engine and I began the hunt for a set of engines to repower with. My initial plans were to find a set of fairly low hour Cat 3406e's at 800hp. My 8v92TI's are approx 700hp and to be honest the boat was almost a dog with that hp. To really get the boat on top and feeling light and frisky rpm's would need to be 2100rpm, which is higher than I liked to run them so we were kinda limited to 18knts at 2000rpm. So I def wanted to increase hp with this repower. So I started the hunt... and tbh it was kinda depressing... The engines I was finding were pretty well clapped out, rusty and the sellers all wanted in excess of $125k and most didn't include marine gears. Over a few months I grew frustrated and begin getting quotes for new/reman engines from Cat, FPT along with others. The quotes just for engines was averaging $200k-$300k. On top of that I would need gears, exhaust, controls, engine mounts....etc. I was quickly realizing that the cost of this repower would approach or exceed the value of the boat.
Luckily, I finally located a set that appeared to be in really good shape and the price was more than reasonable. A custom 58' Carolina sportfish boat was repowering in preparation of taking the boat internationally for the next few years. I spoke with the capt, the mechanic, reviewed the recent oil samples as well as a seatrial with a 3rd party mechanic. All seemed well with them and it appeared they had quite a bit of life left, had never been rebuilt, included gears, trolling valves, exhaust, controls, mounts...etc. So the deal was made and I made the trip to Morehead City to pick them up.
The new engines are 2012 Detroit Series 60, inline 6 @ 825hp/ea and have approx 7,000hrs on them. They have been meticulously maintained and all past records were available. Got them back to my shop in GA early Jan and decided to put a fresh coat of paint on them. There was very little rust/corrosion but there were a few spots where paint was chipping and the factory paint had yellowed.
Just finished painting them last week and will be putting them back together this week, and will be wiring them up in the shop and running them on the pallets just to make sure no leaks and everything is good with them. After running them in place I'll be pulling the oil pans to change the pan gaskets/grommets. There does appear to be a couple of seeps/drips on the oil pans currently. The previous mechanic recommended changing the pan gaskets while they were out as that is a common place for leaks to develop over time on these engines.
Well, this initial post was a little longer winded than I had planned, below are a couple pics of the paint in process and after completed, super happy with how it turned out. I plan on documenting the repower project in this thread so stay tuned!! Below is a list of projects planned to happen during the repower.
- Bilges and engine room floors cleaned/prepped and painted white (currently battleship grey)
- Air Conditioners removed and chiller unit installed
- Helm converted from dash layout with 4 shift/throttle levers, to helm pod layout with palm beach shifters. Gauges removed and electronic engine displays installed. Garmin 12" display added to dash. Steering wheel replaced with smaller palm beach style wheel.
- Engine Room ceiling hatches re-engineered so engine access will be easier
- Power steering - The new engines came with a power steering pump so we are going to try to integrate that.
- New props
Anyways, that is all for now, wish us luck!! Can't wait to hear these puppies spool up!
After the failure we limped back to Pensacola on one engine and I began the hunt for a set of engines to repower with. My initial plans were to find a set of fairly low hour Cat 3406e's at 800hp. My 8v92TI's are approx 700hp and to be honest the boat was almost a dog with that hp. To really get the boat on top and feeling light and frisky rpm's would need to be 2100rpm, which is higher than I liked to run them so we were kinda limited to 18knts at 2000rpm. So I def wanted to increase hp with this repower. So I started the hunt... and tbh it was kinda depressing... The engines I was finding were pretty well clapped out, rusty and the sellers all wanted in excess of $125k and most didn't include marine gears. Over a few months I grew frustrated and begin getting quotes for new/reman engines from Cat, FPT along with others. The quotes just for engines was averaging $200k-$300k. On top of that I would need gears, exhaust, controls, engine mounts....etc. I was quickly realizing that the cost of this repower would approach or exceed the value of the boat.
Luckily, I finally located a set that appeared to be in really good shape and the price was more than reasonable. A custom 58' Carolina sportfish boat was repowering in preparation of taking the boat internationally for the next few years. I spoke with the capt, the mechanic, reviewed the recent oil samples as well as a seatrial with a 3rd party mechanic. All seemed well with them and it appeared they had quite a bit of life left, had never been rebuilt, included gears, trolling valves, exhaust, controls, mounts...etc. So the deal was made and I made the trip to Morehead City to pick them up.
The new engines are 2012 Detroit Series 60, inline 6 @ 825hp/ea and have approx 7,000hrs on them. They have been meticulously maintained and all past records were available. Got them back to my shop in GA early Jan and decided to put a fresh coat of paint on them. There was very little rust/corrosion but there were a few spots where paint was chipping and the factory paint had yellowed.
Just finished painting them last week and will be putting them back together this week, and will be wiring them up in the shop and running them on the pallets just to make sure no leaks and everything is good with them. After running them in place I'll be pulling the oil pans to change the pan gaskets/grommets. There does appear to be a couple of seeps/drips on the oil pans currently. The previous mechanic recommended changing the pan gaskets while they were out as that is a common place for leaks to develop over time on these engines.
Well, this initial post was a little longer winded than I had planned, below are a couple pics of the paint in process and after completed, super happy with how it turned out. I plan on documenting the repower project in this thread so stay tuned!! Below is a list of projects planned to happen during the repower.
- Bilges and engine room floors cleaned/prepped and painted white (currently battleship grey)
- Air Conditioners removed and chiller unit installed
- Helm converted from dash layout with 4 shift/throttle levers, to helm pod layout with palm beach shifters. Gauges removed and electronic engine displays installed. Garmin 12" display added to dash. Steering wheel replaced with smaller palm beach style wheel.
- Engine Room ceiling hatches re-engineered so engine access will be easier
- Power steering - The new engines came with a power steering pump so we are going to try to integrate that.
- New props
Anyways, that is all for now, wish us luck!! Can't wait to hear these puppies spool up!
