Yanmar 315 Versus Cummins 370?

[Tree]

Hello,

New to the forum and new to Albins. A mate of mine has just imported one into the UK and I've decided, once we've sold our current boat, the 28TE is the boat I want!


We are on a limited budget as we will have import charges and delivery costs that are effectively dead money that i should imagine will be around £10,000 or slightly more but my real question is, what is going to be the best power unit?

The two options available to us will be the 315 Yanmar or the Diamond Series Cummins, mainly as parts for these are readily available in the UK.

As fuel costs over this side of the pond are a lot higher than over your side of the pond, economy is essential as we can be traveling anything up to 80 miles from port for some of our fishing.

I've read some posts by "Pitou" on various forums and from what i gather the Cummins unit is a good choice, however the boat my mate has imported has the Yanmar and another boat that was imported over here i know of also had the Yanmar. Therefore, both getting good reviews from all parties.

The way i see it:

Cummins

Pro's

No timing belt

No engine management to worry about

Old School Technology

12 valves

Con's

5.9 litres being fuel thirsty? but maybe a lower revving engine not having to work so hard?

370 Ponies under the engine box.


Yanmar

Pro's

4.2 litres, cheaper to run

24 Valves, smoother quieter running?

Parts readily available as it is essentially a Toyota Land Cruiser Engine?


Con's


24 Valves, Higher maintenance? Engine Working Harder therefore not being so good on fuel ultimately?

Timing Belt

Engine management is controlling everything

Higher revving, albeit so are Volvo Penta engines and my current boat has over a 1000 hours on it without issues.




All in all, what are peoples preferences, ok i'm not quite in a position yet to purchase and i'd need to find the right boat for the money but if anyone can assist on comparisons that would be great!

Even better, if anyone has any fuel figures at certain speeds that would be brilliant!

Thanks in Advance

Lee

[Russell]

I see no one is venturing a comment so I will add my two cents. If you do a search on these engines on AOG and read the comments you will find that owners of each model seem to be very satisfied with their engine. I certainly like my Cummins and would look for one as my first choice in any new boat. However the overall condition of the boat, the level of maintenance and the electronics included would be more important. I would pick a great boat with a well kept Yanmar over a poorly kept boat with a Cummins.
The other thing that seems important to me would be to purchase a boat as close to home as possible. The 10 thousand pounds you will spend to import a boat could go to buying a better local boat.
Best of luck.

[halfmoon]

The Cummins engine is very popular in the US, being used in Dodge pickup trucks. Parts and knowledgeable mechanics are easily found. That may not be the case in the UK. My local Yanmar mechanics also services Cummins. They prefer the Yanmar but admit that it requires fine tuning to give optimum performance.
I have to agree with Russ that the import costs would lead me to try to find an equivalent model locally.

[Tree]

Thanks for the input chaps. I am actually looking at a model now with a very low hours Yanmar in it.

The reason for importing one, is we just don't have them over here! I have never seen one come onto the market here, well tell a lie i know of one and that was an imported boat and sold for money that is out of my price range.

Both the Cummins and Yanmar are common engines over here, the Cummins 6BTA engine used to be used in our RNLI boats so you know its realiable, but then on the other hand i know of one person who has blown up three of these engines now in the same boat!

The reasons for wanting the Albin is very simple. You cannot buy a boat with the build quality, sea keeping qualities and fuel economy that is 28 feet long her,e that even comes close to the Albin. At first i wasn't that bothered about them until my buddy imported one just over 3 weeks ago and when he let me take the helm last Tuesday is some really nasty sea conditions, that was me blown away!

I'll keep you updated as to whether we can stretch to getting this one we are looking at!


Lee