Diesel outboards

T

thataway

Active member
I wonder if anyone had put a diesel outboard on a C Dory (of any size)? A friend who skippers the Crowley Tugs out of Valdez, AK told me that they are using the 27 and 36 HP Yanmar diesel outboards on 16 foot Avon RIB's in their oil spill response boats.

I have always been lead to believe that the Yanmar Diesel Outboards are not sold in the United States because of the emissions issue. My friend tells me that his company has no problem buying these diesel outboards for their work.

I suspect that a 36 hp diesel outboard on a 25 C Dory would be one heck of an economical cruising boat.

Have any of our Alaskian members seen or know of a source for the Yanmar diesel outboards?

Thanks
 
Mastry engine center has em on their website . They are the Yanmar dist. for the south. http://www.mastry.com/products/yanmarengine_d27d36.html
The weight is good , the alternator is small, I wonder how many gallons per hour they burn? Ill try to find out and get an idea of pricing . Yanmar is a proud company.......
There is a local guy here that has one .I havent seen him using it . Ill try to track him down as well .
Marc
 
I searched diesel outboard technology when ordering my Tom Cat, but at that time the only available models were limited to use in , I think, Australia and Africa, due to poor emissions.

John
 
About a year ago, when I was researching equipment for my boat, I also looked into the Yanmar diesel outboards. I was told that they weren't available in the US. It is very interesting that they now are available. Twin 37HP diesel outboards on a 22 would be a great setup. The only problem being that service would be very hard to obtain. Also after looking around on the net it looks like they sell for about $11,000 each! They maybe the power of the future but for today they are just too expensive.

Bill
 
Bob-

Here's another alternative to diesel outboards.

A few years back I noticed a Glacier Bay 2690 Coastal Cat at a yard in Alameda for service that had twin Hondas and was powered by propane.

It belonged to the BCDC (conservation monitoring district), and was serving as a test bed for the fuel as well as doing it's regular patrol duty.

Certainly would be a non-polluter and would keep the engine clean, but wonder how the higher internal operating temperatures would affect the engines.*

On the one hand, the higher operating temperatures would be a plus to efficiency and engine clealiness, but on the other hand, the outboards may not be designed with the higher operating temperatures in mind.

On the practical side, most folks wouldn't probably want a big tank of propane around, and the lack of availability of propane at some marinas would be a negative.

Would be interesting to design a boat balanced for having a tank/bracket on the rear that also serves as a motor mount.

*Note for those who are unfamiliar with propane powered engines: Gasoline helps cool an engine as it vaporizes from a liquid into a vapor. A pressurized gas does so too as it changes into a less pressurized state, but not as much. Alcohol cools so much that race cars running on it have dramatically reduced cooling requirements.

Joe.
 
Joe,

Propane engines have to have liquid propane piped to the carb, not gaseous propane like a stove, and the evaporation of liquid propane sucks up a lot of heat.

Propane powered forklifts have to heat the carbs with coolant from the motor to prevent carb ice from the propane expansion.

Where would you find a fuel dock for a propane powered boat on the water? :disgust

Have you seen how big a 50 gallon propane cylinder is? :wink

One last comment, the USCG does not allow any propane on a commercial passenger boat for safety. :smileo
 
I had a D27 on my 30' Gemini Catamaran (12,000 lbs which I have since very recently sold), since 1992, prior to the aforementioned emission problems. It is a great engine . Pushed my cat at 6.5 kts and burned only 2 QUARTS of fuel an hour!! If I pushed it to 7.5 kts, it did burn considerably more. Without hesitation I would install another on a cat, but I don't know what speed is achievable on a much smaller and lighter C-Dory. A bulletproof engine nonetheless
Ted J
 
Seems like the outboard industry is not really interested in innovation. 4 strokes and direct injected 2 strokes are a leap forward over carbed 2 strokes but not exactly earth shattering developments.

Check out http://www.deltahawkengines.com/[ur...mounted on the transom of Shearwater. stevej
 
Larry-

Thanks for the fill-in on the details!

I knew about the availability issue.

Had a friend who converted a fleet of trucks to propane and was later told the excess heat was ruining the engines.

I like to speculate on this type of thing because it's new and different from the ordinary problems we deal with all the time.

Here's a discussion I just found of propane powered outboards from an Ariel Sailboat discussion group: LINK

Thanks!

Joe.
 
Hi

We tested the Yanmar diesel Outboards on the one of the first of the 22’ C-Dory Cruisers back in 87. It ran smooth and was fairly quiet for a diesel. We considered providing it as a factory option but the lack of service support for the motor made that idea unworkable. The 27 Hp would give 14 Knots wide open and the 36 gave about 18 Knots wide open. They were comparable in weight to a 70 or 90 Hp 2-Stroke of the day.

We also built a Tomcat 24 with Honda Motors modified to burn Natural Gas.

Mark Toland
Former President of C-Dory Inc
 
Evinrude has developed a multifuel outboard. I've found references to it on the web but didn't see anything on Evinrudes website.
It may be a government only item.
 
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