Although this thread has been going on a long time, and many opinions have been expressed, I hope there's room for one more.
I've just finished several weeks of serious looking and investigation, including a trip to the Ft. Lauderdale boat show, as preperation to making an engine decision.
The situation is this: the starboard engine on my 1983 53 motoryacht has been smoking more at startup, and is getting close to the minimum recommended compression on four of the eight cylinders. (8V71TIs). The engine is a strong runner, uses little oil, but the smoke is a real nuisance. Even the oil pan heater is having limited effect on smoke at start up, particularly when outside am bient temperatures are close to 50F. I've been contemplating the options for a long time; repower with brand new engines, repower with newer remanufactured engines, an out of frame rebuild, or an in frame rebuild.
Brand new engines: at least 160K installed for engines, gears, shafts, cutlass bearings, and props. As much as 200K for some engines. Great speed increase, cruise at 18 to 22 knots, but fuel burn goes up to about 60 gph. Burn per mile traveled actually goes up! Electronic controls means much lower smoke emisions, but electronic control also means potential for serious problems...when a sensor goes bad...the whole engine either shuts down, operates at reduced speed, or whatever. You will need a laptop with diagnostic software, and a whole range of sensors, if you plan to keep a trip going without serious delay. If you go this route, you will still have a boat that is 20 years old...wiring, hoses, plumbing, clamps, cosmetics...so even with new engines a potential buyer must be willing to live with the rest of the "used boat"...this factor alone will limit resale value and ensure a sizable loss of the repower money. I'm concerned that there are no equivilant boats for sale on yachtworld that have been repowered....there is apparently no demonstrated demand in the market, or others would already have done this on many occasions.
Late model factory remanufactured engines; give you a chance to upgrade technology without necessarily going to wireless computer control. You may be able to make a deal for such an engine at about half the cost of new, but the labor, shafts, props, gears, etc...bring you right back up to a total project cost that is about 75-80% of new motors. BTW, it's very hard to find an actual factory reman...lots of vendors claim remans..they're rebuilt by themselves to "factory specs"...but not all components are changed, some are simply inspected, others remachined, so you have to be very careful to know exactly what you're getting. I suspect that a lot of them come closer to being "rebuilt" rather than truely "remanufactured". Bottom line, if you're going to spend 135K for such a project, is another 35K that much different or impossible? Financially, again you're faced with giving up at least 50% of the money you spend the instant the boat is splashed after the yard work.
Out of frame rebuild; if given to a reputable factory authorized repair center, and rebuilt by qualified individuals to better than servicable specs, with written warranty, should provide continued reliable service. Costly compared with in frame rebuild given the labor required to remove / reinstall engine. Note that saloon and aft deck furniture must be removed, and aft deck hard enclosure must be opened up for this. However, given the room available (or lack thereof) during an inframe overhaul, it would be difficult to get wrenches on the bottom of the engine in such a way as to get accurate torque values on some critical components. In addition, limited access will certainly impact the technition's will to work in cramped conditions or contortions for any length of time. An out of frame overhaul will add about 75 to 100 hours of labor to the bill, but you should get a better result in the end.
In frame overhaul: Least costly alternative in the short run. Potentially least positive / effective result in the long run. If you're going to spend 25K+, does another 7K+ in the out of frame rebuild make sense?
I have $ numbers and estimates for all of these options, and have come to the conclusion that for me, the most sensible option is the out of frame rebuild by an authorized service center. The engine is comming out the week after Thanksgiving, and I hope to have her back in the first week of January. The boat is what it is...a 23 year old beauty. As Chris pointed out half way through this thread, really well to do buyers are buying new...the kind of buyer who buys these boats is reasonably well off, but not able to spend 750K-1.5 mil. If I put 180 to 200K into this boat, I'll surely enjoy the performance, but I'll have to accept the fact that I'm literally burning 90 to 100K.....INSTANTLY....and that's hard for me to do when I should be putting more away in my 401K. I don't see any 500K 53s out there. I can feel pretty good (well, better anyway) about spending 30K on an out of frame overhaul, even if I lose half that...I still get a good engine, and enjoy my boat for what she is....a solid, comfortable cruiser with more room and functionality than anything on the market today.
Sadly, I have also come to the conclusion, that I will sell her next season, only because my sons have grown and moved on, and the boat is too large to single hand in all but fairly calm conditions. It will indeed be a sad day, as I've lavished care on her over the years, a labor of love.
Dave
MV Laurentide
