East Coast SBMarine equivelant?

[Alex Adams]

Howdy forumites! I bought a 2000 30’ Mainship Pilot, single Cummins 6BTA 5.9 210hp, last season in New York. I love the Seaboard Marine resources, forum, website, etc, and I’m wondering if anyone here has info regarding an equally experienced and trustworthy shop/mechanic in the New York area. Specifically I’m up the Hudson River about 70NM from the GW bridge, at the Roundout Creek of Kingston, NY. I don’t mind taking the boat to a good yard for preventive/routine mx.

I’m learning a lot about what’s required to maintain these diesels, but there are some things I just want to hire the professionals for. Marine diesel mechanics are in short supply in my area.

Thanks in advance,
Alex

Topic

[Rob Schepis]

Alex,

As to cleaning and painting in tight areas — Remove anything loose with small detail ss brushes – a new clean one, not ones that are already embedded with grease, oil, dirt, etc. Clean with a degreaser, I like the zep all-purpose or citrus cleaner/degreasers. Paint via a small brush and a can of Rustoleum. What’s nice about the cans is that if you want to tint the paint to match something you can, like adding almond to white, etc.

As to an exhaust redo — no specialty skills or tools required on your end. Your most important tools will be a camera and a tape measure. You will need to provide numerous requested photos which will be the basis for dimensional drawings that will be provided by Seaboard to you for you to fill in the critical dimensions. The exhaust will be built in a mmock up engine room on the shop floor based EXACTLY on the dimensions you provide so the accuracy of your tape measure will determine the fit of the exhaust.

Install day will be the gasket and 4 flange bolts at the turbo, the seawater hose between the heat exchanger and the showerhead (mixer), and the exhaust hose connection(s). And depending on the size and weight of the riser a support brace. So it literally comes down to bolts and hose clamps. The only time things get to be more than that is if the boat requires some form of mild surgery or relocating of equipment. All efforts are always to avoid those issues and they would be identified up front at the onset of the project, there would never be any suprises down the road.. Hope this helps.

Here is some info on the process:

https://www.sbmar.com/services/custom-marine-exhaust-design/

[Corey Schmidt]

Alex, for future reference that engine needs to see around 2725 – 2750 RPM at wide open throttle… if not, something is WRONG.

I’ll let Tony chime in re: the exhaust design, etc.

[Alex Adams]

Corey: in addition to my above reply, I will pull off the exhaust side of the turbo as soon as the temps climb a bit, and send some pics. As far as WOT, I was getting right at 2,650 before and after the new turbo was installed.

Corey Schmidt wrote:

Alex,

Tony is right — what we typically see is that when utilizing the standard “factory” mixing elbow…. more often than not, water is let back into the turbo exhaust housing which as you could imagine has multiple adverse effects on just about everything… first step is to assess whether or not this is happening in your case, odds are IT IS.

If it is the case, then until the root cause is mitigated, you will be essentially kicking the can down the road…

Now if you’re also getting water dripping externally onto the turbo housing, etc. then you will see external rusting and corrosion to boot…

When you can, let’s get a peek inside of the turbo exhaust side outlet and see what’s going on in there…

Also, what RPM can the engine make MAXIMUM at wide open throttle (WOT)????

[Alex Adams]

Thanks for all the info. I did a lot of reading and researching, and I called the truck shop that did my turbo replacement. They still have my old turbo on the bench. When I get back in town I’m going to go have a look, but in the mean time, I asked them to describe the turbine for me. No corrosion, just black soot. So I’m still looking for the root cause of the failure.

So for now I’ll replace the gasket, clean and paint the naked engine and tranny parts, and think about overhauling the exhaust.

In the mean time, if I go with a Seaboard redesigned exhaust, what are the steps and how much of it can a regular guy tackle (no welding or specialized tools)?

Also, can anyone recommend best practice resources for cleaning and painting in tight areas?

Thanks again!

[Rob Schepis]

No doubt that turbo install was a “truck shop” install job – raw cast iron on a boat? What I would do as soon as you can is pull those 4 turbo exhaust flange bolts using a high quality 6 point wrench tapped with a hammer. They should come right out now since this is a new install. Reinstall the bolts with permatex alum anti sieze lube on the threads. Personally I would also change out the gasket from the steel gasket to the graphite one. The graphite gaskets are sold here. And secondly get the exhaust side of that turbo cleaned up and painted. Brushing with Rustoleum will be fine. That turbo is going to be rusted over in no time if left unpainted. When I installed my turbos I used Rustoleum and sprayed them before install and then after install I brushed on another coat for a color tint. You do not need to bother with the air scroll, that side is aluminum. Here’s a couple shots.

Do make it a priority as to considering a redesign to make your exhaust safe, things are tight, but relocating that battery and battery switch should give you needed room to have a decent dry riser installed.

Clean, check and lube the tranny shift lever and those engine mounts too. A little stiff brush detailing and CorosionX goes a long way in keeping things serviceable and working properly.

[Corey Schmidt]

Alex,

Tony is right — what we typically see is that when utilizing the standard “factory” mixing elbow…. more often than not, water is let back into the turbo exhaust housing which as you could imagine has multiple adverse effects on just about everything… first step is to assess whether or not this is happening in your case, odds are IT IS.

If it is the case, then until the root cause is mitigated, you will be essentially kicking the can down the road…

Now if you’re also getting water dripping externally onto the turbo housing, etc. then you will see external rusting and corrosion to boot…

When you can, let’s get a peek inside of the turbo exhaust side outlet and see what’s going on in there…

Also, what RPM can the engine make MAXIMUM at wide open throttle (WOT)????

[Alex Adams]

I’ll look for more pics when I get home.

[Tony Athens]

Post good pictures of the rest of the exhaust after the turbo..

99+% of the time when what you described happens, it’s because of salt water getting into the turbo..

Do yourself a favor and do it sooner than later before things really get expensive to repair.

Ever read this?

What a Marine Diesel Turbo should look like when Inspected

Tony

[Alex Adams]

Corey Schmidt wrote:

Alex, welcome to the site!

I’m sure there are many on this forum that would know of some reputable mechanics and other resources in your area and I’ll let them chime in on that.

But the first thing I see that IMO is important is it looks like someone has replaced that turbo in the recent past… any ideas as to WHY?

Thanks for the reply. As for the new turbo:

Very soon after buying the boat (with a clean survey), we started to notice a slightly elevated presence of exhaust smell coming from the engine room at all engine speeds. Then I noticed a coating of soot on most engine room surfaces. I traced it to the turbo/exhaust elbow flange.

Had a cummins shop remove the turbo and elbow together. They had to drill out one of the bolts and another was missing or snapped I can’t remember. The flange on the exhaust elbow was warped but they were able to machine it to working order. The turbo side of the connection was a mess and they said they couldn’t get a good seal. So in went a new turbo!

Never figured out why it happened in the first place. The day I took possession of the boat, I ran it at 2200rpm (2650 is max) for about 6 hours to get her home. Maybe that’s when the bolt departed and the hot turbo exhaust eventually ate away at itself and warped the flange?

While I’m glad I found Eagle Diesel, they are a truck shop. There’s a guy there who does the boat work when they get it, but I’d really like to find a marine diesel type.

Have you seen this happen before? Pic attached.

[Bill Desmarais]

Alex,

My 1st two marine diesel ownership were highly used/abused 6BTA 370s in a 1996 31 Blackfin.
Long long story but one 6BTA burned up real good through a fluke break of the idler assembly and the engine had NO alarms. Yup…shear dumbness on my part.

I’ve learned a great deal about the Cummins 6BTA 370s since.

Other than a valve adjustment every 1000 hrs or so there is not much else to do with the engine that you can’t do yourself “if” you want to. Yes I’ll agree that the raw water pump is a bugger to get @ on the engine but not much else.

I reside in NH along with my boats.

Since 2008 I have followed Tony’s suggestions (“teaching”) and have re-powered two of my boats with three 6BTA 370s from Seaboard and had the engines shipped out to me.

New turbo on your 210 ? Did the original leak oil, burn up or “lock up” due to raw water intrusion on the exhaust side ?

6BT/6BTA s are GREAT engines. There’s a lobster guy I know out this way in Maine who has 14,000 hrs. on his 6BT 210.

Keep us posted ,

Bill D

[Corey Schmidt]

Alex, welcome to the site!

I’m sure there are many on this forum that would know of some reputable mechanics and other resources in your area and I’ll let them chime in on that.

But the first thing I see that IMO is important is it looks like someone has replaced that turbo in the recent past… any ideas as to WHY?

[Author]

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