I bought my first boat last summer. I have a Yanmar YSM8 on my 1978 S2 8.0c. The engine starting panel does not have an hour meter or RPM gauge. This seems odd to me but my panel matches the panel in my Yanmar manual.
I see comments from others like "my engine rattles at XXX rpms" or "I loose power at XXX rpms" or "My engine runs smooth at XXX rpms". I also see people often mention how many hours is on the engine when selling their boat or diagnosing a problem.
Needless to say I have no idea how many hours are on my engine or what RPM I should run it at. I've been going on 'feel' listening to the engine. For all I know I might think my little Yanmar sounds fine but it could be suffering from my abuse. It doesn't sputter, smoke, and starts up like a champ when it's warm outside. It didn't like starting up in October as it got cooler. But once it did start up it ran fine and even started up quickly after several hours of sailing.
From my discussions with the previous owner the boat was re-powered before he bought it but wasn't sure when... so at least 12 years ago. This boat has always been sailed on a small inland lake and I could probably guesstimate the hours on the Yanmar by calculating an average use each weekend motoring out and motoring back in (2 hours). Multiply that by 20 weekends (per year) and finally multiply by at least 12 years and I get... 480 hours... yea probably more than that. Figure in the standard deviation... okay not really. Ha!
I could add an RPM gauge but an hour meter now seems pointless since it wouldn't be accurate anyway. I guess I could say "I've put XXX hours on the Yanmar since I've owned the boat". I suppose that would be useful info.
Sorry for rambling. My mind wonders during the cold January temperatures of Kansas dreaming of launching in April.
Any comments or suggestions?
Thanks.
Doug
I see comments from others like "my engine rattles at XXX rpms" or "I loose power at XXX rpms" or "My engine runs smooth at XXX rpms". I also see people often mention how many hours is on the engine when selling their boat or diagnosing a problem.
Needless to say I have no idea how many hours are on my engine or what RPM I should run it at. I've been going on 'feel' listening to the engine. For all I know I might think my little Yanmar sounds fine but it could be suffering from my abuse. It doesn't sputter, smoke, and starts up like a champ when it's warm outside. It didn't like starting up in October as it got cooler. But once it did start up it ran fine and even started up quickly after several hours of sailing.
From my discussions with the previous owner the boat was re-powered before he bought it but wasn't sure when... so at least 12 years ago. This boat has always been sailed on a small inland lake and I could probably guesstimate the hours on the Yanmar by calculating an average use each weekend motoring out and motoring back in (2 hours). Multiply that by 20 weekends (per year) and finally multiply by at least 12 years and I get... 480 hours... yea probably more than that. Figure in the standard deviation... okay not really. Ha!
I could add an RPM gauge but an hour meter now seems pointless since it wouldn't be accurate anyway. I guess I could say "I've put XXX hours on the Yanmar since I've owned the boat". I suppose that would be useful info.
Sorry for rambling. My mind wonders during the cold January temperatures of Kansas dreaming of launching in April.
Any comments or suggestions?
Thanks.
Doug
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