We are now 3 months and 1200 nautical miles into our circumnavigation and the reality of a repower is now becoming more evident.Our Brittish Leyland fisherboy is blowing more and more blue smoke by the day iam now adding 1 litre of oil per 30 hrs of operation .It has got to the point where iam now embarresed at the amount of burnt oil coming out the back! Funney thing is the motor still starts first time and runs fine with no apparent loss of power who knows it might go foever,but I fel it would be irresponsible to continue on with a sick motor especially as I have my family onboard.
I have had the mechanic around today ,he says it will be a fairly straight forward install as the sort off engine bed I have is easily modified ,I also have a vee drive so shaft allingment is not an issue.
My concern is the price of the Yanmar 54hp 4JH4AE {my preferred motor}is $18500 AUD. The Volvo D2-55 ,55hp is slightly cheaper but not much.The mechanic who is going to do the install has just become a dealer for Vetus they are doing a deal on the Vetus 52hp for $14000 ,this is a significant saving in fact the saving would pay for the install! .My research so far seems to indicate the Vetus is a good motor ,they have certainly been around for a long time but as always it would be nice to hear from anyone on the forum who has first hand experience with them or who has heard any good or more importently bad reports.
Your replies as always are eagerly anticipated as I have to bite the bullet and act soon.
www.byamee.com
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