Engine-Hours Survey

[Bingy]

Thanks
I have to travel up and down the Detroit River which sometimes require 3 to 4 hours running at continuous speed between 5.5 and 6 knots due to adverse currents and wind.
The motor seems to be working a little harder after 3 or so hours.
I am worried about possible thrust bearing or other bearing becoming hot .
Motor has fresh oil,cooling system flushed ,stuffing box very slow drip.
Any comments appreciated

[sastanley]

bingy, you may want to start a new thread in the appropriate section of the forum..it will likely get more attention.

[mpohrille]

I have a 1976 FWC A4 with reduction drive. 2100 hours, compression 110 all cylinders and oil lab results show no problems. I change oil @ 25 hours . Amazing engine

[hanleyclifford]

I have a 1976 FWC A4 with reduction drive. 2100 hours, compression 110 all cylinders and oil lab results show no problems. I change oil @ 25 hours . Amazing engine

May we see some pictures?

[romantic comedy]

Interesting thread. I have a few thoughts and questions.

In the 80s, I was at a Honda power equipment presentation. They told us that the usual rebuild time was 2000 hours. I think that I have also heard that figure elsewhere.

Doing some fuzzy math: Consider a car: 50 mph times 2000 hours equals 100,000 miles. How does that sound?

I also wonder about hour meters. I had a 1965 Chris Craft cabin cruiser with a 283 Chevy inboard. It had a mechanical tachometer and hour meter. The manual said that one hour equaled a certain number or revolutions, and it was not based on time. I think it was 3000 RPM, but I am not sure. So one hour at 3000 RPM was one hour on the meter.

As I understand it, engine hour meters are just clocks. I have an old stewart warner engine hour gauge that I took apart. It has a clock mechanism in it. Pretty cool.

I guess for our engines, run at the same RPM for long hours, an hour is an hour. The RPM, whether 1400 or 2400 probably is not significant.

So, how about that 4700 hour engine? Say the boat runs at 6 knots.
6 nautical miles/hour times 4700 hours equals: 28,000 nautical miles
Now that is more then the circumference of the earth!!

2000 hours at 6 knots equals: 12000 nautical miles. How does that compare with 100,000 automotive miles?

I ran down the ICW from Annapolis to Florida, about 1000 nautical miles.

1000 nautical miles equals 6 knots times 167 hours. Does that mean that I ran the engine for 167 hours? If I ran for 8 hours a day, which sounds right, it comes out to 21 days. That is what my log book says too.

Then the question is how many miles would 167 hours be on a car. Since the engine is running at almost full power, compare to a car going at 100 MPH.
167 hours times 100 mph equals: 16,100 miles. That sounds right to me.

Getting back to the 4700 hour engine. How many car miles would that be?
4700 hours times 100 miles per hour equals : 470,000 miles.
Earth circumference is 24,901 miles, according to wiki.
That means that at 4700 hours, a car would have gone, at 100 MPH, 18.9 times around the earth.

So it is 130 am and I am sitting here in front of my computer, at home, and not snuggling my wife, in the Vee berth, swinging on the hook....

Then again; if a sailboat leave the dock heading north at 4.5 knots, with a 12 knot sw wind........

[edwardc]

You have GOT to switch to decaf!

[Mo]

Thought I put this in a post somewhere but couldn't find it. This year the boat was in the water from March 30th to October 28 - 2012. The stats are as follows:
-mileage for year 2012 is 1601 nautical miles.
-moving average speed 4.0 kts
-total average speed 2.9 kts
-max speed 9.9 kts (surfed the boat)
-stopped time 164.6 hrs
-moving time 395.5 hrs
-total time 560.1
-odometer reading (since spring 2008) 7532.3 nautical miles.

engine hours. (When I got the boat I think the hour meter said 1238 hrs (pretty sure that was it)...did the overhaul of the whole boat that summer and finally put it in the water for 3 weeks in Sept 2007... hardly getting a chance to use it. All following numbers are done on haul-out at the end of the sailing season which is end of October for me.

-2008 ... 40 hrs on engine ...1278 hrs showing. / / / (1106.8 nm sailed for that year).
-2009 ... 33 hrs on engine ... 1311 hrs showing. / / / (1552 nm sailed for that year).
-2010 ... 73 hrs on engine ... 1384 hrs showing./ / / (2037.1 nm sailed that year).
-2011 ... 73.3 hrs on engine ... new hour meter installed 73.3 hrs + 1384 = 1457.3 hrs / / / (1235.2 nm for that year).
-2012 ... 93 hrs on engine ... 166.3 hrs + 1384 = 1550 hrs on engine / / / (1601 nm that year).



Edits:

* I put on more engine hrs this year than any previous. We had a great summer, along with that exceptionally nice summer came calm days with little or no wind. There were days I went out and had to motor out as much as 6 miles onto the ocean to find a draft of wind...hence the 93 hrs. Other years show lower engine use. An example would be the year 2009. I spent the summer cruising the coast. As summers go 2009 was a terrible summer and with more than usual fog and rain. There was, however, always wind. There is also the fact that I will start the engine sooner now than 5 years ago...maybe I'm getting old. The kids are older now and demand to "get home" as the wind gets light. There was a time when it would be sacrilege to start the engine when the wind got light. LOL

**I screwed up. I had written in my 2008 log until Aug and then stopped.....so I had to figure out the end data....the rest were recorded in my log.

*** As I read the engine hr meter from now on I have to add 1384 hrs to the number on the current meter to record the previous amount of hrs.

[gfatula]

My hour meter?

Don,

After 4 seasons my rebuilt finally made the 50 hour mark this past year. I was checking my new tach with a portable unit that attaches to the coil using alligator clips. I discovered the jumpers in my new Moyer tach were set for a 6 cyl and I changed them. The comparison test using the portable tach only lasted a few minutes. When I checked the hour meter after the test it had jumped to 70+ hours? It too attaches to the coil. How did my portable tach's connection speed up my hour meter? I have logged the glitch and the hour meter seems to be working properly now.

George

[Sabre28#9]

Less than 500 hrs

The boat is a 1972 Sabre 28 hull #9 with a rebuilt MMI from 1997. We have just less than 500 hours on her; she’s a sail boat and a slippery one at that. The boat was laid up for 5 years before I purchased her. After cleaning the carb, new fuel, plugs, points, coil, starter and some MMO in the cylinders over night she turned right over. Shocked with such minimum work. I’m easy on her and she’s real nice to me!

[Mo]

More slack that effort this year sailing. No excuse for the lower mileage except that I spent more time tied alongside downtown than in previous years. I had one minor electrical problem on the boat this year because of a bad connection at the alternator. It caused my power to panels etc to go out. Took a few minutes to repair that. That really wasn't an engine issue as such and the engine ran perfect for all 107 hrs it was called upon this year. To be honest, I find I get bored very easily if the boat is not working / moving under sail. On light air days I've usually sailed downtown and tied up, had a few beer or some wine, and motored the 2 nm back to the club. If the wind is up usually head out of the harbor and sail until I have to make an appearance at home. Very little needs to be done to the boat this year as she doesn't look too bad after coming out. Bottom paint is ablative and will only need minor touch-up. The dodger and my 100% jib need to go out for some work...otherwise, not bad at all.

-mileage for year 2013 is 1370 nautical miles.
-moving average speed 4.1 kts
-total average speed 2.3 kts
-max speed 9.9 kts (surfed the boat)..same as last year. It was reset to zero but 9.9 was the max this year and I couldn't beat it. I did opt out of sailing a few good windy days where I might have topped it.
-stopped time 245.6 hrs...well over 100 hrs more than last year.
-moving time 338. hrs ....67 hrs less than last year.
-total time 583.5...around 20 recorded hrs more on the boat this year than last year.
-odometer reading (since spring 2008) 8892.2 nautical miles.

engine hours. (When I got the boat the hour meter said 1238 hrs (pretty sure that was it)...did the overhaul of the whole boat that summer and finally put it in the water for 3 weeks in Sept 2007... hardly getting a chance to use it. All following numbers are done on haul-out at the end of the sailing season which is end of October for me.

-2008 ... 40 hrs on engine ...1278 hrs showing. / / / (1106.8 nm sailed for that year).
-2009 ... 33 hrs on engine ... 1311 hrs showing. / / / (1552 nm sailed for that year).
-2010 ... 73 hrs on engine ... 1384 hrs showing./ / / (2037.1 nm sailed that year).
-2011 ... 73.3 hrs on engine ... new hour meter installed 73.3 hrs + 1384 = 1457.3 hrs / / / (1235.2 nm for that year).
-2012 ... 93 hrs on engine ... 166.3 hrs + 1384 = 1550 hrs on engine / / / (1601 nm that year).
-2013 ... 107. hrs on engine...107. + 1550 = 1657 total engine hrs. / / / (1370 nm that year)

[sastanley]

Hmmm...less sailing miles and more motoring time...definitely been hanging out at the watering hole a bit more this year, Mo.

[Mo]

Most definitely Shawn. My buddy retired just over a year ago and we'd take off every morning 9 or 9:30 and come back around 3 in the afternoon...showing him the ropes LOL. Typical trip was downtown Halifax and tie up at Bishops Landing. There's a wine cellar about 60 feet away, numerous restaurants, people going to and fro...it only gets old if it gets too hot. July and part of August are pretty hot sitting dockside so it's rare that I go in then, but May June Sept Oct are very nice without getting "baked" in the cockpit.

[celtic sea]

Just wondering where & how most hour meters are connected?
Over this winter lay up it is one of the jobs that I plan on definitely getting done.
Thanks
John
Celtic Sea
1973 Ericson 27 / A4

[capnward]

Engine hours 4360

My Atomic 4 was built in 1974, as near as I can determine from the serial numbers. It was rebuilt in the early 80's, and again in 2001, at 2488 hours. It has a mechanical tachometer/engine hour meter, driven from the accessory drive near the distributor. I assume the hour meter was new with the engine. I don't know if the meter was ever reset before I bought the boat in 1994. If not, total engine hours since new are 4360. Hours since last rebuild are 1872. I put 150 hours on it this year, 200 last year. Fresh water heat exchanger, Indigo electronic ignition, oil change every 50 hours. No oil filter. Will start changing oil every 25 hours. No thermostat, instead have a thermostatic mixing valve next to the heat exchanger. New plugs, cap, rotor, impeller every year. Marvel Mystery Oil in gas and oil. Engine seems to be doing fine. Just installed a new starter, and adjustable main jet.

[edwardc]

Just wondering where & how most hour meters are connected?

John,

I connected mine in Parallel with the electric fuel pump, past the Oil Pressure Safety Switch. This way it only counts the time the engine is actually running (more or less), and not the key-on time.

Probably just my OCD kicking-in. The extra key-on time before starting isn't going to amount to a hill of beans unless you somehow manage to leave the key on for hours at a time without burning out the coil!