Repair
Preventive maintenance on a schedule that fits your engine hours
Preventive maintenance is the difference between finding a problem on your schedule and finding it on the water. I set up a maintenance interval based on your engine hours and how the boat is actually used, then work through it so nothing gets deferred until it becomes a repair.
Everything on this list is cheap until it is skipped
Impellers, anodes, filters, coolant and fluid samples are all small money. Every one of them, left long enough, becomes an overheat, a corroded cooler, an injection failure or a bearing. The longer maintenance is delayed the more serious and costly the eventual issue.
What is included
- Oil and filter changes with a sample retained for analysis
- Raw water impeller replacement
- Coolant service and pressure testing
- Fuel filter and water separator service
- Zinc anode inspection and replacement
- Belt, hose and clamp inspection
- Transmission fluid service
- Engine management fault history check
How it works
Set the interval
Built from your engine manual, the hour meter and how the boat actually gets used. A boat that sits needs a calendar interval as much as an hour interval.
Work the list
The same items each visit, so condition can be compared across services rather than judged from a single look.
Trend it
Fluid analysis and observations get compared to last time, which is how a developing problem gets caught while it is still small.
Marine diesel engines require maintenance on a calendar interval as well as an hour interval, because raw water impellers harden, coolant degrades and sacrificial anodes corrode on vessels that sit unused between seasons.
Related repair work
Diesel Repair
Engine, transmission and generator service on marine diesels, from routine maintenance through a complete repower.
Engine Diagnostics
Find the actual cause before parts get bought, using engine management data, live readings and a borescope.
Engine Repower
Replacing tired engines with new power, including the mounts, controls, exhaust and propeller match that make it work.
Preventive Maintenance: common questions
My boat barely gets used. Does it still need annual service?
Yes, and in some ways more. Impellers harden, fuel grows contamination, anodes corrode and seals dry out whether or not the engine has run. Low hour boats often arrive with worse problems than well used ones.
What is the single most important maintenance item?
Clean dry fuel and a fresh raw water impeller. Those two prevent the majority of the failures that leave boats stranded.
Can you keep records for me?
Work performed gets documented, and fluid analysis results are worth keeping so they can be trended. That record also adds value when you eventually sell the boat.
Tell me what the engine is doing
Describe the symptom on the phone and most of the time the problem is narrowed before I arrive. Surveys are booked around your sea trial date.