Yanmar YM30 questions

[11kolive]

Hello,

We are looking at an A25 that has been repower reed with a Yanmar YM30 engine with 925 hours on it. I am not familiar with this engine and wondered if there were others that have this engine and would give me some feedback on its reliability, maintainance and overall impressions.

Thanks,
Keith and Katie Olive

[DesertAlbin736]

As you can see by the signature line, my boat has a 24 HP (continuous rating) mid 1980s vintage Yanmar 3GM30F installed around 1990. 925 hours is relatively low hours for any diesel. When we bought our boat four and a half years ago it had 537 hours on the meter, but documentation that came with the boat indicated that the hour meter had been installed new or zeroed out when the engine had about 2,500 hours. The meter now reads 1,096 hours. That's nearly 560 hours we've run since March, 2014. Previous owners put those first 537 hours on the meter between 2001 and about 2012 when they then laid the boat up in their barn in Idaho & switched to RV'ing. So we put more hours on the boat in five summer seasons than the immediate PO's did in eleven years. Great little engine. So far the only major expense besides normal maintenance was to replace the raw water pump & just this last trip replaced the low pressure fuel lift pump. So suffice to say, I'm happy with our Yanmar. It does not smoke on startup or running.

However, I can't speak much for the YM series, which I believe is mid 2000's vintage. You didn't elaborate on the exact model. 3 cylinder or 4? Fresh water or raw water cooled (fresh water cooled with a heat exchanger usually designated by an "F" suffix). That said, if the boat you're looking at is the one listed on CL sitting in a yard by Lake Union, which by the way looks like a smokin' deal, that Yanmar is a 3JH4E. In the case of the 3JH4E that is 29 HP fresh water cooled.

https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/boa/ ... 71025.html

If your engine in question is indeed a 3YM30 then this exchange may be of interest. Apparently the early 2004-2005 engines had a fresh water heat exchanger & raw water pump that was undersized & caused some over heating problems, to wit:

Approximately the first 5,500 Yanmar 3YM30 diesels supplied to boatbuilders and fitted in Jeanneaus and US-type Hunters (amongst others) have an overheating problem, usually showing up only after about 100/150 hours running, and when the sea water temperature rises in summer. On my engine the overheating warning light/beeper was going off, and a check by an engineer with a temperature guage showed the engine was genuinely overheating, not just having an over-sensitive warning light sensor.

Yanmar and their distributors in the UK, EP Barrus, know of this problem, and are fixing it under warranty. However they are NOT warning users in advance of this known problem. They also appear not to be even telling their service dealers about this - the first my local dealer knew was when I told him - I found the first references to this on the web relating to US-marketed Jeanneaus.

Fortunately I found the problem on my engine (in a 2005 model Sun Odyssey 35 with 90 hours) before departing on a longish cruise, and it was fixed just before departure. I met up two days ago with another owner of a similar boat who had to delay his cruise west mid-holiday while the Weymouth Yanmar dealer got the parts and did the fix on his engine (at 125 hours).

These early (2004/2005) engines have a 38-tube heat exchanger, and some very early engines were reportedly also fitted with a smaller capacity raw water pump than is now used. The fix is to replace the original 38-tube heat exchanger core with a new 63-tube one, and change the water pump if necessary.

If you have a Yanmar 3YM30 with an engine serial number under 6,000, I suggest you phone EP Barrus and ask if your engine is affected. I am not sure of the exact number of the last of the faulty batch, but Barrus know. Don't rely on your Yanmar dealer having just serviced the engine to know about this!

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.ph ... nmar-3YM30

By the way, now that I think of it, are'nt you guys former owners of "Leighway"?

FYI, we just returned from a cruise to Desolation Sound launching out of Blaine in company with WillieC. Met up with a bunch of BC Albineers at Ladysmith, six A25's gathered at the same dock.

[tribologist]

I have that engine in Driftless. Ours is the Industrial version Isuzu 3CB1 and it has a Onan cooler on it and a dry manifold feeding a wet elbow.. The guy that repowered it runs a generator rebuild company and he have seen that engine go past 18,000 hours running as generators. I don't have that many hours on it but it seems to run very nice and stable and there was no signs of overheat.

Ulf

[11kolive]

Yes we are the former Leighway owners, nice to hear from you again.
We have sold our Grand Banks and looking to go back to an A25. The one we are looking at is not listed yet and I am gathering info looking for the right one for us again. Missed a couple of nice ones recently because our sale had not gone thru all the surveys etc.

The engine in the one we are looking at is before the larger heat exchanger was used. So I was figuring it would need that to insure cooling as needed. There are a few other things the boat needs and I have not decided if it is economically feasible right now. Would love to hear of any possible coming on the market and maybe we can join you and others out cruising in an A25 of our own again. Yanmars are a new engine brand to me so I am doing my best to educate myself before buying. The engine is the 3YM30.

[Beta Don]

The 3GM30 was probably the best small sailboat engine ever made - Millions of them came factory in dozens of different offerings from most manufacturers - Catalina, Hunter, Cape Dory, Island Packet, Endeavour, Shannon, and literally dozens of others. Compared to the Volvo's of a generation before, the little Yanmars were lightweight, smooth, fuel efficient, reliable, easy to start and best of all, you could find Yanmar parts in most any port of call. They made the 3GM30 series for more than 30 years - The best of the best, IMO. I had one in more than one boat

To be honest, I had never heard of the 3YM30, but after looking it up and reading about it, that's Yanmars 'next generation' engine which was designed to replace the 3GM30. They discontinued that when the 3YM30 hit the market. If I was looking at any older boat which had been repowered, a 3YM30 in the engine room would be the gold standard, so far as I'm concerned. I would pay a premium for a boat powered with one . . . . there's no better choice

Don

[DesertAlbin736]

Don,

Your observations about the 3GM30 are appreciated. You might add Beneteau 32 to the list of sailboats with 3GM30 as OEM. Anyway, makes me feel a bit better & assuage my guilt about the price we paid for our boat which was on the high end & in many respects felt like we paid too much. Now if I could just figure the best way to deal with the problems I'm having with our trailer, but that's another story.

Keith,

I'd be interested to hear the story on your experience with the Grand Banks & why you sold it decided to go back to an A25. My reason for asking is that we had considered the idea of trying to find a Taiwan trawler, CHB, Marine Trader, Sea Chief, Universal or of course an Albin 36 or the like to keep somewhere between Anacortes & Blaine as a semi-liveaboard summer home to escape 115 degree Phoenix heat (even now we're in the low 100s down here). On the way back from our recent Desolation Sound cruise (see posts in Albin Cruising/Cruising subfolder) after we'd hauled out we drove around & looked at a number of trawlers in the Seattle-Bellingham area, including several listings that can be seen on CL & Yachtworld. A GB would be nice, but that's way out of our price range. But in the end decided that purchase price, moorage, maintenance, & unanticipated repairs were a financial bridge too far for pensioners like us. Not to mention that we'd be 1,500 to 1,600 miles away on the off season depending where we docked such a boat (we really liked Blaine). And that we'd be committed to coming up every year, or if we wanted to do something else one year would still be on the hook for slip fees in the range of $360 to $400 per month. So I'm wondering if similar considerations motivated you guys to downsize back to an A25 and how much you actually got to use the GB? We love it up there in the San Juans & Gulf Islands, but I don't know how many more times we want or will be able to do the 3,200 mile road trip up and back hauling the boat. We have our lake to go boating on in the cooler months, but after the San Juans, the Gulf Islands, Desolation Sound, & Chatterbox Falls we're totally spoiled & by comparison our local lake is just a warm bucket of spit that's 4 miles long by 1 to 2 miles wide. Even San Diego doesn't hold a candle to Salish Sea nor does going to Catalina Island from Long Beach as we did last year. Maybe Lake Powell, which is pretty but not a stick shade & just as hot as Phoenix is summer. In any case, San Diego & SoCal is more suited to a sailboat than trawler.

By the way, a Yanmar hooked to Aqua Drive CV joint & thrust bearing is so much quieter & nearly vibration free than a Volvo with direct coupling you'll be amazed.

[11kolive]

Steve,

We loved our GB and travelled only as far North as the Broughtons but, WOW. She was a great boat for the waters and served us very very well. Comfortable, safe, secure, great accommodations and Mothership for us as we explored. Our longest time out was 42 days aboard and we towed a 15’ windshield model aluminum fishing boat as our dinghy/crab/prawn/fishing boat. It was just luxurious. Not sure how much other boats cost these days but our biggest expense was moorage. We never had huge breakdowns or engine issues so expenses were related to routine maintenance issues mostly. The largest repair we had was a starter. Ours was a 1974 36’ Classic. Overall I think it was a reasonable boat to own. But yes, for us in the long picture we had less family going out so the need for space was not there. Our first A25 probably gave us the highest fun meter rating compared to the Willard 30 and the GB 36 we owned. We did more exploring with less cash flow out than any moored boat. Being able to clean, maintain, and work on such a vessel that is in your yard is a huge blessing! So as we continue to get older the ease of travel in the Albin just feels right to us. I still think we might need to figure out how to store yours up here when you want to do that. When we get our next A25, it will be stored beside our truck camper in the metal roofed boat shed we have. I think you have seen photos of it, nothing fancy, mostly snow, sun and rain protection. 2 1/2 hours to Seattle area for launching or 5ish hours to Bellingham and the San Juan’s.

Keith

[11kolive]

Don,,

Thank you for the endorsement of this engine we are looking at. Now I need to make some decisions......

Keith

[DesertAlbin736]

Keith,

"Only" as far north as the Broughtons? A lot of our thoughts on making that "10-foot-itis" jump was thinking that some members of our extended family might want to come up & cruise with us for a week or so at some point & have their own private cabin with head & shower in the V berth. Besides adult children (you know you're getting old when your kids are eligible to join AARP) there are several adult grandchildren with their own significant others. But even if they didn't we could have friends along, or have that extra space for ourselves as a seasonal live aboard, not that we'd always be out in the islands or making long trips, but just enjoying life aboard in a marina with our car handy, essentially a summer home enjoying 70s to low 80s weather when it's 110 to 115 at home.

46 days afloat on La Dolce Vita is our record which is OK, but after awhile does start to feel cramped, and the lack of a shower (other than a solar shower) when anchored or moored away from a marina. And we've done our share of extended road trips, three times up to Washington, the San Juans, Gulf Islands, Princess Louisa, Desolation Sound, plus Catalina Island in SoCal, and Erie Canal, Block Island Sound & Chesapeake Bay back East. Although a big non-trailerable boat would put an end to those types of road trips, it would be nice to have a roomy salon with 6' 3" head room to lounge in rather than 5' 9" in the A25's forward cabin. And an real double bed that's not a V berth that you have to convert back to settees every day. My being over 5'10" means I have to hunch over a little in the forward cabin. All those things that come with a bigger, beamier boat. All of which of course also comes at a substantial cost.

We've also given thought to storing our A25 up there somewhere, but again, the distance from home. It would be like you buying an A25 and storing it for use in San Diego or L.A. When things cool down around here in two months' time I have a number of minor projects to catch up on like refinishing some of the interior joinery, minor canvas repairs, etc. The biggest overdue project is getting the topsides painted, which it sorely needs. Not the sides of the hull, they're OK & the original gelcoat still takes a mirror shine with light polishing & waxing. But there are spots on the foredeck where laminate is showing through. So we are due for a cosmetic overhaul. That & maybe pulling, inspecting, and possibly cleaning the fuel tank which has never been done since at least 2001.

I wish we'd known before you sold the GB that you were looking to downsize back to an A25 . We could have made a boat sharing or boat swap deal!

DSCF3610.JPG

[11kolive]

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