Thread: Gas vs Diesel
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Old 08-26-2009, 03:23 PM
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Jeff,

Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffgerritsen View Post
I have a 1976 Pearson 35 with an A4. At 750 hrs on the rebuild, I'm thinking this is a mid time engine, so I'm going through the gas vs diesel repower mental exercise. From what I'm reading on this thread, its thumbs up on staying with the A4 and performing whatever major maintenance is needed, if any. It will sure save me a lot of money staying with the A4.
We have a 1969 Pearson 35 with an A4 said to be from 1980 rebuilt in the 1990's with probably more hours on it than yours, although the POs' documentation lacks specifics. The problems you and I face with our boats being powered by A4's are two, value and power.

As to value, the market prefers diesel and when we bought last year we were able to take advantage of that by paying a low purchase price. I figure the cost to go to diesel, were I so inclined, would probably be roughly the same as whatever increase in value we might experience on resale. We aren't selling any time soon, so I'm content to keep the A4 and spend my boat bucks elsewhere.

As to power, our P35s are probably the most boat the A4 can be expected to push. I'm trying to find ways to increase RPM to get into the A4's real power band which is definitely above the 1500 to 1700 RPM I'm able to reach now. We did quite well downeast this year with the OEM two blade, but I'd feel more comfortable at some higher RPM. To start, I'm going to install an Indigo next spring. What prop do you use?

Mark S
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