Help, Please. We purchased a 49 2008 Hunter last month and are currently having problems with the Yanmar 110 Turbo diesel 4jh4-hte.
When we had the sea trial conducted at Nanny Cay in the BVI the engine overheated after only 3 minutes at 3000 rpm-it went to 210 F. The Nanny Cay marine repairs were supposed to have fixed it and said it was the heat exchanger. On the next sea trial the same thing occurred and they blamed having forgot to refill the coolant. After several more sea trials the problem had apparently been fixed.
The following has happened since and we are now currently in the Dominican Republic and there is only 1 Yanmar dealer B&R Marine who happens to have quoted us in writing $530.00 USD to travel to Ocean world marina and inspect the engine, however, the "techs" will have no equipment to repair what it is believed to be (a blown head gasket) and they will then charge the same amount to come back and replace the head gasket after ordering from the US. I have emailed Yanmar asking for help as I am astounded they can allow one of their recommended repairers to charge such fees and not even carry spare parts.
I have listed the following brief history of what has happened at the hope that someone maybe able to help with advice. We have had a total of 5 different "local marina" mechanics look at it a give 5 different opinions. The only constant is that the coolant system is losing fresh water from somewhere and the engine is losing RPMS after only reaching a maximum of around 1100 rpms and blowing white smoke briefly when you advance the throttle fully (but still only delivers 110rpms before stalling). HELP please. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Over the last few weeks we have sailed, motor sailed and motored our way over to the DR. After crossing the Mona Passage without any issues we checked all fluid levels and then headed North. I added around a quart of coolant (the 50/50 one recommended by Yanmar for the engine).
It was from here that we have since had endless problems.
I will describe what has happened, however, much of it may be irrelevant, however, I thought it best to include everything.
We were crossing the Hourglass shoal heading North (it is around 150' deep) and had been motor sailing for around 2 hours at 2200 rpm in light winds. Without warning the motor pitch changed and the engine dropped around 400 rpm and the temp rose immediately to 205 when the "Hot Engine" alarm came on. This all occurred within less than 5 seconds. We had just at the same time been hit by a very small wave on our starboard side-coincidence?, we have previously spent all our travels with trailing seas. I shut down the engine and we sailed for around 2 hours in to a safe anchorage. I checked the following.
1. Sea cock/ through hull valve. CLEAR and flowing well.
2. Sea strainer. Clean and flowing well.
3. Impeller. Fully intact, NOT dry and only replaced last month. I did however replace again as it had taken such an effort to get to it.
4. Fan belt-OK.
5. Coolant level-reservoir-EMPTY. Previously FULL in the morning.
I added more fluid (approx 2-3 quarts in total!).
I then restarted the engine. It ran without any heating issues.
The next morning we motor sailed again for 9 hours in total. I powered up at around 2600 rpm to get out of the anchorage due to heavy seas and then remained on 1600-1800 rpm for the remainder of the day with trailing seas. The temp varied from 130-136. When we had reached the area of our destination I powered up again as we approached the harbour and had dropped sails. The engine would NOT power more than 2200 rpm with the throttle fully advanced. the engine became erratic and the rpm would swing wildly from 2200 rpm down to around 1300 rpm. We had 75% fuel load (checked visually as well). I reduced throttle to around 1300 rpm and arrived safely at the marina.
The Marina mechanic at Samana (Peurto Bahia) worked on the engine for around 2 hours replacing both fuel filters (the Racor filter/seperator had some water in it) and the main filter in the engine he said was a "little heavy". He also replaced the fan belt and cleaned the air filter and again replaced our 3rd impeller (again it had no problems with it and I now carry 3 spare impellers). Again today the reservoir was empty at the end of the trip and the engine took around 3 quarts again to fill. The mechanic felt the water was "escaping" from the engine somehow. (He communicated through a translator to us). He checked for water in the oil and oil in the water and said that it was not a blown head gasket as there is no evidence of water in the oil or vice versa. He arranged for another diesel mechanic to come out from Samana and have a look at the engine as it was still running erratic. The other mechanic found no noticeable problems and started the engine and ran it for about half a minute up to around 2800 rom without any issues. They both assured us that we could run it until we reached Bahamas when we could get a Yanmar mechanic to look over the engine.
We left the next morning and motor sailed for around 2 hours comfortably sitting on 1800 rpm at 125 degrees F. I was going into the waves on a very flat sea. When I turned North and again had seas on my starboard side I found that as they started to build (only around 3-4 ') as they would make contact with the hull the rpm rate would change by around 150-200 rpm. After around an hour or so they then start to drop off at about 200 rpms per hour. I back off and try and increase the rpms again, however, they do not go above the previous rpms prior to me backing off the engine. From around 1000 rpms and below the engine stops within around half an hour. The temp sat on around 114 F. I stop the engine for around half an hour and then do the whole thing again. We used around half a pint or less of fluid for the day (12 hours motor sailing). We arrived at Rio San Juan on the North Coast of the DR and had a mechanic arrive the next morning who started the engine up and again it revved up to around 2400 rpm and he said it was all good to keep going (there is NOT a lot of choices for mechanics in that area). We idled and off and for the first 2 hours the engine sat nicely at 1800 rpm. Then as the waves increased (again on our starboard side) the engine would again start to lose rpms with each wave action-again seas 4-5 ' maximum-more of a slight rolling swell). Again over the next few hours the engine idled off and would stop. After around 4 hours it stopped and would not restart. As the winds had died off and the waves were increasing we had to resort to arranging for a very expensive Dominican Republic sea tow to bring us into Ocean World Marina, Peurto Palto, DR. This is where we now are and again they are going to get another local mechanic and again we will spend hundred more dollars and we are still getting nowhere. At present, the engine will not start at all. It does turn over, however, will not fire. The battery is 12.7 V, fuel 40% visual and on gauge as well.
We are able to sail the boat, however as we have our 12 month old baby with us my wife likes to have the assurance of having an engine for times like yesterday when there are very light and varied winds, but increasing seas.
Any help/advice you may have would be greatly greatly appreciated.
