Yacht engine derivations

This page is a composite of posts from a thread on the PBO site of www.ybw.com  Not all my words and I cannot swear to the accuracy of the information, but it rings true! Thanks for the contributions.

Many designs of the engines that we have in our boats started life as concrete mixer or dumper truck engines.

I got the following concerning the VP 2030 from somewhere on the web in the distant past:-

Your engine is what Perkins calls a 103-10. Perkins started importing these 100 series engines from a Japanese company called Ishikawajima Shibaura Machinery, Ltd. nearly twenty years ago. ISM is part of Ishikawajima Harima Industries, one of Japan’s largest industrial companies. Perkins marketed this engine in a marinised version as the Perama M30. They sold the engine to Volvo Penta who marketed it as their MD2030. They also sold the engine to Massey Ferguson, McCormick, Terramite, Textron, Jacobsen, Cushman, Vermeer, Leech Lewis, JCB, Kobelco, and Northern Lights to name just a few. In the US, the engine was distributed through Detroit Diesel – Allison which is closely tied to the MTU conglomerate. By 1996, Perkins had become so successful at marketing these engines to other equipment manufacturers that they formed a joint venture with ISM called Perkins Shibaura Engines, Ltd. and began assembling the engines at the Perkins facility in Peterborough, UK from parts shipped from Japan. In 1997, Perkins was acquired by Caterpillar. With an added boost from Caterpillar, this little engine has become one of the most popular engines in the world. It’s used in turf equipment, tractors, mini-excavators, brush choppers, compressors, welders, pumps, generators, etc. etc. etc. Even Caterpillar uses it in some of their smaller equipment. The “Perkins” name was highlighted on the engine ID plate which is located on a distinctive boss just forward of the injection pump. The 2006 model year’s production of the engine has “Shibaura” highlighted on the ID plate. In 2001, the larger Shibaura 400 series engine was introduced with assembling at Peterborough, UK from parts mostly from Japan, and in June, 2004 assembling of the 400 series engine began at a Caterpillar facility in Griffin, Georgia, USA with production exceeding 100,000 units per year.

Some engines, like the Bukh were purpose designed as a marine engine, although the single cylinder Bukh does have a similarity to the engine found in a tractor built by Porsche (yes Porsche!)  http://www.porschetractors.com/

One benefit to boat owners, if they know where their engines started life, might be cheaper service parts and spares. I bet a set of pistons for a Perkins is a damned sight cheaper than VP ones!

My engine is a Sole Mini-14 (Spanish) marinisation of a Mitsubishi small commercial engine. Also to be found on a variety of site equipment.

On my mate’s boat, we installed a Yanmar commercial engine that had been badged by ThermoKing and drove the fridge unit on a trailer. The engine is the same unit as a 2GM 20, but the front end ancillaries are specific to purpose. Such things as filters and pipework are much cheaper from the Thermoking agents!

For anyone interested who doesn’t already know, the Volvo Penta MD22L is based on the Montego 2.0 Diesel engine circa 1990. So far I’ve been able to source belts and filters from car suppliers at much less than Volvo prices. I think it is also a Perkins Prima 50 in another guise, (Blue??).

The MD 21 engine is built upon an Indenor/Peugeot XDP-90 2112 cc base, used on the road in the Peugeot 504. The same engine was used to produce the Vetus P4-21 and the Lehman 4061, plus many engines in the Low Countries simply referred to as ‘Indenor Bootsmotor’. Also used in some Fords (Granada 2.1D) and currently used in a Mahindra Jeep, although the water pump casing is a little different.

In a previous boat, we had a BMW D12 – I believe the D12 was originally a Hatz generator engine.

The Volvo 2003 (and other 2000 series) is a Volvo unique unit and replaced by the much more modern 20 series, Perkins based.

The smaller Beta and Nanni engines are based upon the Kubota range of industrial engines. Having owned and worked on one in the past, I can say that it was a superbly constructed engine, with internals made to a very high standard. You don’t expect to see polished connecting rods on a small industrial engine!

http://www.betamarine.co.uk/  http://www.nannidiesel.com/

The Vetus M3.10 is a based on a Mitsubishi K3D and the workshop manual for this engine is available within that for the Toro Groundsmaster 345/325-D tractor.  The url for the K3D manual was pretty difficult to track down. It is Chapter 4 of this:
http://www.toro.ca/customercare/comm…df/92801sl.pdf