Detroit Diesel 16v92TA

Hi,

I would not use these engines given any choice.

They are old hat, the reason you got them is many people are re powering with 4 strokes

If I had all the money in the world I might get 's CAT's or MTU's ,,,, But this is the real world and money matters.

71 or 92 Detroit are great engines and there nothing wrong with installing them in your boat as long as you keep oil in them you can't hurt them

Oil leak ,,, yes they have a blow by tube that blows a little oil. I ran a hose to a filter can and it catches all the oil then I pour back into the engine. About a half pint per ten hours of running big deal

There a lot of 71 or 92 Detroit still in boats and most get rebuilt not changed out. When my 8-71's need rebuilt I will rebuild them not repower.

Jeez....would you buy one? Yes, very cheap to buy but having run both 71 and 92's not my best bet, bit old hat now.

What would you buy now????

PS I work with Volvo Penta

Dave

It goes with saying Volvo are great engines but so are cat, cummins, MTU it all depends on your budget. if you have the money for new then that is a hard one. If not then 92's might be first on my list but there not bad. you can't kill a old 2 stroke as long as it has oil. I like the cat's but in that HP might be hard to find rebuilt. new all day long.

Are you doing the boat in Male' or in Mombasa? 92'V8 should do you OK for that sort of range on a dive boat. In Mombasa there used to be a good supply of CAT parts as well. Just a thought.

The initial design of the 2 stroke detroit diesel was from WW2 they ended up building 4 series the 53 series, the 71 series, the 92 series, and the 149 series. They were intended to be a high power low weight easily maintained engine. They were also intended to be disposable and low cost. In the time when oil was cheap and pollution didn't matter they proved themselves to be a good robust motor. They were also unique in that unlike most engines the majority of parts were inchangable between engines of the same series. For example the the 16V92 uses the same heads, valves, pistons, supercharger, injector pump, injectors, As the 8V92 and many parts from the 4-92 and 6-92. By the way a 16V92 is not two 8V92s bolted together, the block is a single casting.

I would also like to clarify my comment about high failure rates, I was not meaning the engine but in particular remanufactured parts. I am experiancing a 15% failure rate within 100 hours on remanufactured injectors and turbos and there is no warranty on these parts. The only new parts avaliable are old stock which can be found given time and money.