Looking for our first Albin

[djpeewee]

Hello all. I am a long time lurker on these boards and greatly appreciate the vast knowledge and experience you all have.

We are looking for a 28TE to buy and have found one that looks decent. We went for a joy ride on it yesterday with the broker and I was really impressed with the boat - especially the ride. I do have one observation though that I wanted to run by the members who have knowledge/experience with the VP KADM300 version. This Albin is a 2004 flush deck with 550 hours on it.

Anyway, on to the observation: we noticed some, but minimal, white/gray smoke on startup. It was never anything more than a light fog that seemed to dissipate much like steam does. Once underway, the light steam/fog did't get worse and didn't get much better. (It wasn't much to begin with). The motor ran like a top and was easily able to achieve 4000 RPMs. At 4000 though there was a bigger trail of steam/fog. I took video of it all and have attached a snapshot. It is pretty representative of what we observed.

vlcsnap-2014-09-22-10h34m20s103.jpg

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Sorry for the long setup, but my question is whether this is normal?

Thanks in advance.

[N4QC]

You may want to do additional research over on boatdiesel.com.

Questions: where are you located; what was the raw water temperature at the time of the trial; and how long had the vessel been laid up?

Best guess at this time - the smoke/steam trail is not normal. There are a lot of variables to consider. Main ones deal with clean fuel and adequate clean air...

Happy researching,

[Mark Deeser]

Just my two cents, the motor represents at least a third of the value of the boat. Make sure a competiant diesel mechanic is a part of your pre- purchase team. Welcome to the board. Thanks, Mark

[djpeewee]

Thanks for the replies. I have a surveyor coming out tomorrow to do a complete survey. I'll have him pull an oil sample for whatever it's worth. The water temp was around 52F for the test drive. And the boat has been used very little for the last 3 years. As NQ4C alluded to: maybe the fuel is questionable from sitting? We'll see what the surveyor thinks tomorrow.

[N4QC]

If you have a laser thermometer with you take the temperature of the injectors at basically the same point on each, as close to the head, while the engine is under load. A significant difference in a reading might indicate a poor operating injector.

Have fun,

[RobS]

52 deg F seawater mixing with hot exhaust gases will certainly produce steam. You say the boat has had very little use in 3 years. Little use normally goes hand in hand with little preventative maintenance. What is the seawater side history - impeller, coolers, etc. A new impeller and a good seawater side going through would likely increase seawater flow and decrease the steam you are seeing.

On a side note - you're first post and you're reporting that you video'd your seatrial and captured a snap shot and posted it here - VERY NICE!
You could also put the videos on YT or DropBox and post the sharing links here.

[djpeewee]

Thanks for the suggestion RobS . I was able to get one video uploaded to YT before I have to meet the surveyor. This is the most representative one and most of the rest are in qHD which won't do most of you any good. Sorry it's not very dramatic.

http://youtu.be/v9UgKO47hXA

[Tree]

That looks like steam. The Volvo engine was one of the best selling engines over here in the UK marine market due to its reliability. Sadly due to EU law it no longer meets emission rules And is no longer sold here.

The most critical part on these engines is the valves. It's a 24 valve engine producing 285 bhp that started it's life as a naturally aspirated 120bhp engine with 12 valves. Due to this the stems of the valves are much smaller in diameter and the valve clearance tolerances are a lot tighter - they need to be checked and adjusted around every 100 hours. One other thing to check for on these engines and certainly one that's been sitting for a while is the face of the oil cooler. It's a machines face to face deal with no gasket between and as a result corrodes over time. When this lets go, it can dump the contents of the sump all in the bilge! I've known of one to go and the other engine in that boat needed the other one replacing once known about. That was at 600 hours. Number 6 cylinder in these can also be an issue in some case, although this was more common on the 200bhp non supercharged variant AD41d. The volume of oil in the engine would run back and if over filled would hydraulic up under the piston and eventually bypass the piston rings - a new liner and piston rings would see it remedied. Otherwise a brilliant engine, juicier on fuel than the Yanmar even with less horse power but still none the less a brilliant engine. You may notice a black haze behind the boat with this engine but that is perfectly normal. What you're seeing there with those water temperatures is also normal.

[Tree]

Excuse the spelling errors - typical iPhone autocorrect at work!

[N4QC]

Tree:

Thanks for the insight on the Volvo engine in question...

Have fun,