My point about the 6-71's was that if the boat came with them, they're good engines; not that I'd consider repowering with them. (Well, actually, it's kind of crossed my mind to ditch the Chrysler 440's in my 36 and replace with 6-71's, if I could find a good pair with transmissions)
On the other hand, if I had a boat with a pair of tired 6-71's, I'd think long and hard before replacing them with any modern engine. Modern 4-stroke diesels have phenomenal power-to-displacement numbers, but I'm kind of conservative. Any diesel that puts out more than about .75 hp per cubic inch seems to me to be overstressed. And modern diesels seem to use a lot of aluminum in some mission-critical parts, like exhaust manifolds and heat exchangers. For further background, check out David Pascoe's series of articles on marine engines here: http://www.yachtsurvey.com/engines.htm The thing I like about the Detroit two-strokers is that every little fishing village from here to Alaska has some grizzled veteran that can work on them with his eyes shut - plus parts availability. I also really like the modular rebuild concept - you buy a kit to rebuild each cylinder: comes with piston, cylinder liner, bearings and seals; and the engines can be rebuilt in-situ. Add to that the fact (as noted by another poster) that each cylinder has its own injection pump (rather than the common pumps used by most other diesels). Also the fact that the fuel system on Detroits is self-bleeding (as opposed to having to be manually bled if you air-lock it), and you end up with an engine system that is second to none for ease of maintenance. There are a lot of criticisms that can be levelled at Detroits, but there's a lot in favor of them, too. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UnifliteWorld" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/unifliteworld?hl=en.
