marine engine parts..OUCH !!!

[boblydon]

been getting prices for bits for the boat engine

1/ full gasket set £ 880.00

2/ conrod £ 181.00 each

3/ piston rings £ 97.00 per set

4/ piston approx £ 191.00

All plus Vat

I think Nanni are taking the piston out of me with them prices, but they wont tell me which Kubota its based on, if they would i bet the same items would be a fraction of that price, the uk importers tell me that they have never supplied a full gasket set, pistons and valves to anyone in the UK....yeah right !!

Kubota uk are looking into it and will tell me in the morning exactly which model it is, will post there prices tomorrow ( hopefully a lot cheaper ),

[Tadpoleman]

OMG

[mark]

its that nasty word 'marine' that does it

have you thought about buying a brand new static Kubota engine and then putt the marinising kit/heat exchanger and the like on it from the busted one??

© Woods of Crediton - Marine Engines & Gearboxes.

might be worth a call, they shift a lot of ex navy surplus, often brand new. better to call em though as they never update their site

880 quid for a gasket set is taking the water a bit though

[Norman]

ouch , you can say that again

[northeast1]

I take it your boat is at home and not in the boat yard Bob?

Been down today and had a good look around the ponts and the boat yard. Mainly went down to check the Amble boat company for sale board and have a look at the two quicksilver 500s they have in.

[KeithB]

I thought a tenner for a head gasket for Shady was a bit steep!

[boblydon]

Mark thats the route i may yet go down, once i find out exactly which model it is

Ritchie, the boat is on my drive at home, would have been a nice suprise for the nieghbours when they got up

We allways knew parts for marine would be expensive, but them prices are bloody silly

[boblydon]

well the plot thickens, northern rebores tell me that the pistons had been put in the wrong way round and the head has been previously skimmed, the upshot of it is that the head is Knackered ( failed a pressure test ), when the engine must have had a previous repair the valves and pistons have been hitting each other ( just ) hence the marks, however once the throttle had been opened up this is what has caused the major damage and a valve has snapped....this news spoilt my day big time.
On a more positive note i have spoken to kubota uk again and they have put me in touch with a kubota specialist ( he used to work for them for 15 years before starting his own company )...he seems very positive that the cylinder can be relined. a new head fitted and all the parts and the engine will be as good as new, got to take the engine and all the bits down to him on thursday teatime, here is a ball park figure for the new parts to compare them against the nanni parts which they would have bought from kubota

1/ full gasket set...£ 180.00
2/ piston..............£ 80.00
3/ piston rings.......£ 35.00
4/ valves..............£ 10.00
5/ conrod............£ 75.00
6/ cylinder head................£ 600.00 approx ( bugger !!!! )

Fingers crossed it will be done when i am on holiday

[mark]

I guess to put a positive spin on it, add a full set of bearing shells, gudgeon pins, rings, remachining/blueprinting, you should end up with a new engine at under 2 grand, that may well be better built to higher tolerances than a factory unit

[Norman]

bit of a change around there bob .. ??? wonder why the original had been re-built (very badly by the sound of it) looks like it may have had cooling probs and twisted the head so maybe went at the same time for a full overhaul (or maybe just a checkup of bottom half) but did it badly ....................

[Charlton]

Bob you forgot one factor, the labour charges, my guess at £45/£55 an hour, relining a cylinder will take some time, I think you could be over the £1,000 or even £2,000, you can laugh when I am way out. i hope for you I am way over the top.
stingy go and get a new engine

[boblydon]

unfortunatly its one of those things that i will never get to the bottom of it to get the full story...however when i picked the boat up, the guy at essex marine said make sure the pistons go in the correct way round when i was telling him i was going to have the engine machined and rebuilt....never thought nowt of it at the time ( thought he was being funny ), me now thinks he knew more about this than he was letting on !!!!
With the price of the parts and labour, dont think there will be much change out of £ 3k, for a total rebuild that would be great, unfortunatly the 5 cylinder engine is no longer made and theres only 1 available at the importer ( nanni ) and they want £ 6.5k + vat.....kubota dont have one, so for a properly reconditioned engine £ 3k seems okay and more importantly would make the boat very good value and worth all the hassle.............I HOPE

[mark]

you not fancy doing the final rebuild yourself??

[boblydon]

if it was a car, i would deffinatley do it myself, but in this case i think it would be money well spent to have a proffesoinal do the job, that way when i get it back it's just a case of putting it in the boat, coupling up the gearbox, fuel battery etc and away we go

[mark]

either way, even at 3 grand for a professional rebuild, I'd say it was a cheap engine and in many ways, a well built engine may prove to be better in the long run than a new factory motor




and how much do you want it yesterday now the boats on the drive!!