[Michael Joplin]

Thanks, will let you know the results on the Envirovent (very nicely put together kit). I have the aftercooler and HX kits from you as well which are next on the list and will send some detailed pics as I get that done. Appreciate the feedback from you.

[Michael Joplin]

Thanks Tony, will try that. Could the high level of bypass be a pre-cursor to some major issues (bad piston, broken rings, etc)? Fairly new to diesels and was under the impression that 6BTAs were pretty strong engines if properly maintained. Would you recommend any specific items to check on a pre-emptive basis to help avoid bigger issues down the road?

[Michael Joplin]

If you haven’t already fixed it, I had the same issue and just fixed it on both engines while changing the oil in my boat. There is an o-ring at the base. Both mine were collapsed and no longer sealing. I used o-rings out of a metric kit I have, the dimensions in mm are: OD-16.6, ID-11.8, Section-2.4.

Need the oil drained from the pan first, easy to replace. Finally got rid of that nagging oil seepage.

[Michael Joplin]

The 6CTA, like the 6BTAs in my boat are mechanical diesels. There is no onboard computer on the engine to mine for data to transmit to your displays.

There are a number of analog to NMEA convertors out there you can use to digitize data to send to your MFDs. I am in the process of looking at them now in order to make that data available on my boat.

The Actisense EMU-1 – can be set up to use one unit for limited data from 2 engines. Requires an N2K to USB convertor to program. Really needs to have 2 units to properly set up a twin engine boat

Noland Engineering has the RS-11 (single engine) and MD-33 (dual engine) convertors. They both have a USB interface and software provided for configuration

Albatross has the Alba-Combi units with an ethernet interface for programming

All the units above do similar tasks, but require varying degrees of programming due to their configurability (they can monitor quite a bit, may require a bit of programming to get things “right”).

Most recent model MFDs, including Garmin, will display engine data from a properly configured and terminated N2K network.

I am a big fan of mechanical diesels for simplicity and reliability. The one downside is that we don’t get the deep levels of data that the newer generation common rail diesels provide.

[Michael Joplin]

Make sure they read the protocol for the aftercooler service here and do it right. We are closing on an ’04 411 with 6BTA/370’s in a week and a half. Had some overheating issues on one engine and ended up with new impellers, new aftercooler cores on both engines and exhaust elbow cleaned on one.

They most likely had not done the aftercooler service correctly in the past and paid for it via having to replace both cores.

Our boat is coming with 24/25 props. No idea if that was the original prop size/pitch as they’d been overhauled in 2012. Seems to be hitting the numbers well as far as WOT and speed.

Best of luck with the new purchase!

[Author]

Replies