[TheForge] costs of ownership question

[Ries Niemi]

The problem is, this is on a ship. Not a little boat, either. Swap out is probably in the range of $40,000 to $80,000, depending on speed and horsepower. But that wouldnt include fitting it in, plumbing, or any other misc attachments that needed replacement because they were incompatible. 

A medium sized new Yanmar diesel, which may or may not be big enough to do what he needs, is easily thirty grand. 

Boats are funny that way.

And lots of times, you are talking about an engine where there might only be a couple hundred of them still in existence in the world- so parts are basically custom made.

You wouldnt expect any other industrial equipment from the late 40's early 50's to still be feasible in an industrial setting, like, for instance, a dump truck or a sawmill- but people keep marine diesels alive for unbeleivable amounts of time. I recently helped a museum in NYC salvage a head from a ship being scrapped in Seattle- and the head was 12' long and weighed 3000-4000lbs. There might be a dozen of these still in existence in the whole world. Obviously, its easier to swap out a remachined head than essentially rebuild a whole ship. But neither is cheap.

ries



On Sep 11, 2012, at 10:40 AM, Bob Ehrenberger wrote:

> Terry,
> 
> When my truck was burning oil, I discovered that most shops around here 
> don't do rebuilds any more.  They swap out for a factory new or factory 
> rebuilt engines.
> 
> You should get more than 500 hours from a rebuild, so there is probably a 
> bigger problem.  If you can get a new engine it would probably be worth 
> replacing. If you can't, you might want to get a new mechanic that will look 
> for a deeper problem.
> 
> Robert Ehrenberger
> Shelbyville, Mo.
> eforge at centurytel.net
> 
> 
> From: "terry l. ridder" <terrylr at blauedonau.com>
> Subject: [TheForge] costs of ownership question
> To: theforge e-mail list <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> hello;
> 
> what do others use as part of their decision making process when
> deciding that the cost of maintenance[1] of a piece of equipment has reach
> the point of searching for a replacement piece of equipment that has a
> lower maintenance cost[1]?
> 
> preventing corrosion by painting, oiling, coating with spray on coatings
> like pickup bed liners i do not consider part of the cost of
> maintenance. that falls under "normal wear and tear"
> 
> having to rebuild an auxilary diesel engine every 500 hrs I consider
> excessive. by rebuilding i mean pulling out the cast iron sleeves and
> have to install new ones because the sleeves have worn unevenly causing
> the cast iron sleeve to become more oval in shape internally. this is
> causing a serious lose of compression. machining the cast iron sleeves
> is not an option since the amount of machining required results in a
> cast iron sleeve bore for which oversized pistons, rings, etc are not
> available.
> 
> 
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