I wish someone would do a nice, detailed YouTube vid on complete marine diesel rebuilds. I would almost be willing to try it myself just with my knowledge of V8 tear-downs and rebuilds. I can point to a couple dozen good YT vids on this process. When it comes to engine rebuilds you'd be surprised by a few things;
- Most people should be able to remove a sailboat diesel using their boom as crane and some simple tools like a come-along.
- Tearing down an engine to its bare block requires very few specialized tools. Correct reassembly involves a few more than that, but most you can borrow from auto-parts stores these days, buy cheap used, or borrow from a motor head buddy.
- The boring and honing of cylinder walls and other machine time isn't as expensive as you might think. Add to that a marine diesel is significantly smaller than a V8 with half or less the cylinders and displacement.
- With what we know about marine diesel parts sourcing (i.e. Tractor parts), its probably cheaper than you think.
- For the specific parts that are 'Marinized' like the water cooler and alternator, there is enough info out there to rebuild or buy new at reasonable prices, not the 'marine' mark-up...