hi out there i have a 1986 H M that i'm going to put diesels in .
has anyone out there done this to they're boat? i'm thinking about
staying with the out drives but v drives might not be bad. i
saw someone had a H M with them any and all comments welcome. i am
going to take off the fly bridge it will be compete so if
anyone is looking for one make me a offer. i'm in labelle fl. i'm
also think i might be taking off the riser on the stern , it's a
costal well hope to hear from someone.
tomdupre
Junior Member
Posts: 4
Joined: 08/28/2007
You will better off sticking with gas (twins) for all around houseboating use. I rebuilt my 38 HM from a bare hull out. I installed Volvo 3.0L engines w/SX drives. I had to redo the transom anyway along with the stringersdue to rot. Diesel engines need to run at speed (RPM) and temp most of the time which is quite hard to do by the nature of "houseboat cruising". I had a 54' three buoys houseboat that I sold in '96 and the new owner had twin turbo volvo's installed, ruined a good boat .
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Been there and done that Still here ...and doing that
tomdupre
Junior Member
Posts: 4
Joined: 08/28/2007
cause it was three times as loud and smells like the local refinery, With the two turbo volvos and diesel gen set there is no room left in the engine compartment to speak of. There was no increase in speed or fuel consumption saving over the gas. Also he had to raise the rear deck to clear the turbos. The cost was extreme just to say "I'm diesel powered". We lived on that boat for 8 years and traveled a lot on the ICW from brownsville to fla and every river we could find in between. But every one to his own. Just my opinion
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Been there and done that Still here ...and doing that
One of the factors not mentioned so far is what style of outdrives you have? The ones that are built with clutch dogs instead of disks can get damaged when you shift them, behind a diesel engine. Incidentally, relative to bad smells, I have a friend who uses B-90 fuel in his diesel and the exhaust smells OK, engine runs cleaner, too, with high percentage Biofuel like B-90. Same guy has 50% better fuel consumption over comparable gas engine ( I am saying comparable in torque numbers- HP not a good indicator of power.) Let us know what you decide to do.
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lookin' for adventure and the next wild engine!
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08/10/2007 02:25:00 PM
