[Larry Backman]

Tony – with utmost respect everything I have learned and written about the QSM has either come from you and your writings or the school of hard knocks.  I run it and maintain it the way you have written and advised me and it seems to work!  If I ever get into the wrong side of the power curve and see 20GPH, I slow down!

[Larry Backman]

I crawled down into the cold bilge today and checked.  All studs have good thick grease on them, not sure what kind. I can’t comment to the alignment process but 650 hours this summer and an easy 1/3 GPH improvement from last year.

 

any suggestions on other things I should be doing at 5K?

[Larry Backman]

I had pre launch drama last April.  The prop went out for tuning, came back and the cutlass bearing showed 1/2” of play.  That led down the downeast can of worms, drop rudder to remove shaft to saw out bound up bearing.  Rudder collar was binding on post, shaft came out eventually, bearing was f-Ed bad, completely deteriorated on the shaft tube end.  Once a nee set of bearings went in the shaft went back and wouldn’t align.

 

that led to the discovery of no lock nut on some of the mounts, replacing the mounts and realigning.  2 fun weeks and well north of 10K.

 

but yes, I have new mounts 🙂

[Larry Backman]

Hi – just came back to this forum after a year or so.  To answer the original question, prop the engine so that at cruise speed your fuel burn is below the QSM 715 fuel curve, install an EGT gauge and run the boat so EGT stays around 1000 and as Tony used to say to me, enjoy your boat!

 

me, coming back on line because I’m about to pull the boat for the winter and wanted to ask what should I be doing to a QSM at 4700 hours, which I’ve put on in 7 years of use.  My typical season is 650 hours, 3500-4000 gallons burned, cruise at 18-19 GPH, lots of troll and displacement speed chug at 2-3 GPH.  Never run above 70% load, typically at 64-66 % normally.

 

No leaks, no smoke, no exhaust manifold drama (swapped at 2200 hrs, will swap again this winter).   I’m pretty sold on the QSM as a workhorse…

[Larry Backman]

The issue is that once the gasket goes your blowing more soot all over the engine room, clogging your air filter and aftercooler and risking more $$$ damage.

 

Tony can overrule my opinion but as a user of QSMs for 10 years and having had a bunch of leaks I don’t think you will do much additional damage under 1000 RPMs, EGT below 600 degrees.  But if you try and run at 1900/21GPH your going to be ejecting constant soot into the engine room.

[Larry Backman]

Try again, blocked on the last attempt…   My vendor bought that gateway and just plugged it in to the Furuno NMEA 2000 net.  <br /><br />

picture of the module at the bottom of picture 1 and the screen integration on picture 2.  I want to buy a Mareton NMEA 2000 Engine room sensor gateway and have 2 engine room temp probes, front and rear, EGT and exhaust tube temp on the engine.

[Larry Backman]

We pulled the 4 pin connector to try and measure a change in ohms from engine off to engine on.

 

and we found a bent pin on one of the leads…….

[Larry Backman]

If I pull the probe I might as well get a new one, run a new wire, etc.  can I start the engine and observe a before and after change at the 4 pin connector to isolate probe vs, gauge.    Also – is there a means to get the gauge to peg with the ohmmeter?

[Larry Backman]

This fall I proactively had a professional replace my exhaust manifold and turbo and clean all 4 coolers.   The cost for that was roughly 10K with no surprises, clean coolers, no bolts needed it to be drilled out.

<br />I forget the exact numbers but the manifold and gaskets was roughly 2 K and the turbo 3-4K, the rest of the cost was labor.

[Larry Backman]

I had an issue 6 years back with water in fuel, if one goes, they all go. You either pull them all and then make a rebuild versus buy new decision.

Zero sense on just servicing one or two…

[Larry Backman]

Single engine boat, 100 miles offshore 12-15x per year. I’m big on proactive maintenance and will eventually write a summary of what I did this fall.

In any event – last fall before I came out for the winter I had both injectors and fuel pump replaced proactively. There was nothing wrong, I just asked around and decided it was time.

The injectors were clean, I only fuel from my marina and I m super anal on my fuel filters.

If I were not going 100 miles out on a single engine d have waited for an issue but…,after 25 years of both diesels and listening to Tony – I’d far rather do proactive service before winter than Have an issue in mid summer!

[Larry Backman]

I’ve had a QSM/ZF combination for 9 years. On startup in 40 degree air/50 degree water my gear rotates the shaft in reverse at 20-30 RPM. I can’t stop it with my foot, if the boat is untied it idles back at a knot or so.

Once the transmission oil reaches about 80 degrees the gear creep stops. I’ve been told “that’s how it is in the cold” by a couple mechanics I trust.

[Larry Backman]

I put 6-700 hrs per year on my engine and religiously have AC and HE serviced every 2 years.

This is how my AC looked after 1400 hrs/2 years. I do not flush the engine with fresh water, the boat is in salt water from late March till early December.

Tony can probably dig up pictures of what my old AC looked like in 2012 with no service in 5 years/500 hours..

You really want to be over servicing as opposed to under servicing them!

[Larry Backman]

Steve:

Great question, one I can’t answer till my first long run in June.

There is a fuel temp sensor and reading on my Vessel View, I don’t know where the sensor is in the fuel system, nor do I ever monitor it to see what it’s reading says.

I will find out where it is/what it’s reading and Will monitor it this summer to help me in making the right decision.

The fuel cooler on a QSM is monstrous and makes for a painful impeller change!

[Larry Backman]

Go through the wiring harness as well as the ignition wiring and make sure you have backup fuses.

I have smoked the 5A ignition one a couple times doing stupid things …..

[Larry Backman]

Check the air filter and make cure it’s clean, also look at the dripless shaft seal feed and make sure it’s cool with cold water when the engine is idling.

The QSM is a beast of an engine, 2 of them are not going to let you down, I’d be more concerned about boat 101 issues, through Hull or hose failure, bilge pumps not working, no high water alarm, etc.

[Larry Backman]

I’d expect to do a complete inspection and servicing of the raw water system, turbos, raw water pumps, thermostat. I’d want to have valves adjusted and have an electronic diagnostic test done on the injectors/cylinders.

I’d want to replace hoses and clamps liberally. I’d expect at least one alternator and starter to need to be rebuilt or replaced. I’d also want a good inspection of the exhaust elbows.

Here’s the handwave – your going to need a qualified mechanic on the boat for the better part of a week tearing down both engines, servicing components and putting it all back together. Lots of gasket kits, rebuild kits, etc add up. If all goes well I’d handwave 4K of labor and another 4-6K of “minor” parts.

The big if in this is if you have to replace an Aftercooler, heat exhanger, turbo or other major part your suddenly looking at 3-5K cost for each component and your cost goes from 10K to 20K like that…

Speaking from 25 years of diesel ownership and a loose knowledge of the 480.

[Larry Backman]

I have one blade on my turbo with a chip like that, it’s been that way for at least 2 years with no ill effects.

[Larry Backman]

Don’t worry about the exhaust manifold as much as whether after 4 years the AC and HX have been serviced. If not your in luck, just negotiate the cost of servicing them off the purchase price and have them done this winter and while they are off, have a mechanic remove the heat shield to examine the exhaust manifold.

Then you will know…

FWIW – my experiences with having the AC + HX removed and serviced have ranged from 3K ( new engine/ no issues ) to 10K+ (9 year old never serviced engine with major corrosion).

[Larry Backman]

When I bought my boat in 2012 I had the AC and HX serviced that winter. This is what the AC looked like with no service in 5 years…

Tomy can tell you what it took to recover them…wasn’t pretty.

I’d rather pay 1K every 2 years for basic service than 8-10K to make a diving save in 5 years.

[Author]

Replies