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Hi Tony,
it is Tony here from Tasmania, Australia. I was talking to you guys on the forum a little while ago about a 1997 Riviera 39 Flybridge cruiser I was looking to buy.
I now have the boat here after bringing it 650 nautical miles from Sydney to Hobart. The boat went pretty well and now I am looking at what needs to be done to look after the engines.
They are 6CTA8.3-M2’s with just over 1000 miles on them. Coling system has not been off for the previous owner as far as I know – about 7 years. Other than impellers…
High on the list list are things like the salt water cooling side and getting the props tuned. I have spoken with someone local about the props, and am planning to slip the boat next month to get them done. I am hoping to get about 200 extra revs from them – at 1900 revs I am using about 12.5gph each side. I got about 2550 revs at WOT but that was not with full fuel and water…
As mine are the M2 model there are some differences for me identifying the right parts so it would be good to talk about that too so I am ordering the right parts.
I just wanted to get your advice about how you recommend I attack different areas for maintenance. First up I was thinking about doing the gearbox oil coolers, but I wasn’t sure if them being early in the cooling system that it might impact on other parts or if I should do the heat exchangers first for example (and work backwards so to speak?).
Obviously if money wasn’t an issue I could do it all at once but it would be good to have your advice on the order of priority for my case.
Shipping and import duties being another thing for me to take into account being on this side of the world…
Thanks for your time.
Tony
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Hi Tony
The good new is that custom risers done right will be less that half the price of the genuine throw away ones.. although I spoke to someone yesterday that cummins had quoted 7k aud per elbow and 3 months wait (i was quote 3.5k aud)! A company in Perth makes them for about 12-1400aud including heat blanket each.. but i’m sure being a riviera someone must have something off the shelf already designed?
I’m just going to buy the flanges (or make them) and get 304 stainless tube / bends and tack them together and let a pro weld them.. Just need to source the shower head. You have more height than I have tho.. just remember the new risers will only have a 4″ pipe as it will be dry to the shower which will be on the downwards side.. obviously the blanket needs to be added to the overall size.. but any rise is better than none
Steve
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Turbo Picture # 20190515 has been eating salt water “on and off” for years..
Tony
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Not to be a downer but the truth is No one will be able to tell you anything more than be very careful with those exhaust elbows. The design has proven time and time again to cost boat owners lots of unnecessary money.
You say you canāt afford to do anything with them but ask yourself if you can afford to replace the elbow, turbo, head, and who knows what else when the elbow does fail?..
Sometimes even cleaning of the elbows weakens them and causes them to leak as crust, corrosion, and rust was all that was holding them together internally.
Phil
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From what I see, your aftercooler just needs a “proper service”, top to bottom by someone that understands what is involved here..—- Meaning, the core properly clean & pressure tested, the housing cleaned up and block sanded on the ends, and put back together per my protocol..
Pics and info all over this web site…………
Tony
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The sad thing is I dont think its lack of maintenance – The previous owner probably left it in the hands of a trusted mechanic.. but there are very few boats I have seen with cummins engines serviced correctly and very few mechanics who actually know how to service these things. Even Tony has admitted on his tips that cummins engineers do not service the way he does which leads to the same issues.
As for standard local exhaust designs.. dont get me started – I reckon probably 70-90% of engine issues in Aus are caused by crap exhausts washing the turbos. Mechanics just replace the turbos and the 5 year cycle starts again.. have a look through my posts to see what kind of condition my 6bta’s were in and they passed the survey with flying colours! Little did we know a previous owner (unknown) appears to have adjusted the rev counter to mask a WOT issue.. 400 RPM out. The immediate previous owner just thought the throttle cables had gone out of adjustment!
Thats the beauty of this site – Tony get things repaired final – not just fixed – and he shares his knowledge with all.
By the way have you bought the aftercooler service kit from here? I bought the kit for that and the HX’s found here https://www.sbmar.com/product-category/maintenance/aftercooler-heat-exchanger-maintenance-kits/ – very worth while and the HX gaskets are superb (so much so I’m wanting to know what material so I can make some for my genset – which is in equally dire condition!)
Steve
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