In article ,
says...
A friend is thinking of buying a yacht with twin diesel engines. He doesn't
trust the people who inspect boats because he believes they are in cahoots with
the yatch brokers. He asked me if I'd take a look at the engines in the boat he
made an offer on. Are there some things I can check on without taking a lot of
time and using expensive equipment? He suggested checking the exhaust for smoke
but since diesels burn oil anyway I wouldn't expect to tell much from that. Oil
analysis is out because the owner just changed it.
engineman1


AFAIK, any modern diesel is going to have recirculating coolant and a
heat exchanger. Check the PH of the coolant. I don't know if it affects
marine diesels but the trucks are running higher temperatures to burn
cleaner and the coolant starts etching if you don't watch the PH. Bubbles
in the recovery tank when the engine is running should cause you to start
running from this deal also. (Or at least give your buddy one heck of a
talking point in negotiating a better price.)

Later,
Joe