How long is it safe to let an engine sit??

[james]

A friend of mine has 5.9 B mechanicals in his boat.  13 months ago, he had a port side turbo rebuilt.  This weekend, he took the boat out, and the port side turbo would not spin up, was frozen.  I suggested to him that he has an exhaust design issue, but he was confident his exhaust is sound.  He blamed the issue on not using the boat much more frequently than once per month.

Having just replaced two turbo’s on my 8,3 C Mechanicals, his issue made me nervous.  I at times go as long as month with out taking the boat out and spinning it up.  I am relentless about freshwater flushing prior to any storage of more than a day or so.  I actually let the engines flush for a good 20 minutes each with some saltaway.  I do this to ensure that the exhaust is filled with fresh water as well as all the engine components.  

 

So the question behind the story.  Is it safe for me to let my boat sit as long as 6 weeks with out spinning the Turbo’s?

Topic

[Rob Schepis]

My opinion on the genset is yes, it is a good idea as long as you put a good load on it (run A/C, water heater, etc.) so she comes up to thermostat opening temperature.   Let her run awhile (20-30 min) at normal operating temperature, then take the load off and let her cool down a bit before shutdown.

[John Devlin]

onan / kubota generator

got that it’s ok to let an engine sit.  i used to run my qsb5.9 for an hour every couple of months until tony suggested that that might not be a good idea.  how about running my gen set? onan says 1 hour every month?  or does the same apply as for other engines?

[mark gaudy]

James, Consider yourself a lucky guy in that you only go 4 to 6 weeks on occasion without using your boat. Mine sits from October to May with a few feet of snow on it between startups, has for years. Your friend has some other issues at play.

[Tony Athens]

Simple answer is 100% yes– Even 6 months to a couple of years is a good environment is not issue.. We routinely have engines in our shop over a years before they are stated…. Your friend needs to pull of the exhaust mixer for a good peak inside..

 

Tony

[Author]

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