Moving Forward

View of the boat yard from our mooring at Hakoya

What makes engine replacement a daunting task is that boats are built around their engine. In Snow Dragon’s case, it’s a Perkins 4-236 which is no longer made. Though parts are still widely available, rebuilding the engine at Norwegian wages would cost more than half a new one and would leave us with a twelve year old engine.

After talking to Perkins, we began to think about the M92b, the modern version of our engine. The placement on the engine bed would be the same but the M92b is slightly taller and wider. Parts of the engine could be dismantled and reassembled once it was in place but it was still was a questionable fit.

With our mind bouncing back and forth between new Perkins and a rebuild, we called Trans Atlantic Diesel, the supplier of Snow Dragon’s engine. Their gut feeling was that we should go for a rebuild instead of the new Perkins on the grounds that the 4-236 was made for many years and parts were ready available. The M92b has not been around for that long, making parts more difficult to obtain. It was also questionable how much longer the M92b would be made.  

Trans Atlantic’s advice was sensible and we would have gone with it except for one problem, we hate the 4-236. It’s noisy, not fuel efficient and has a high level of vibration that would not be tolerated in a modern engine just to name a few of its less appealing qualities. Yes, it’s an engine that any competent mechanic could repair but it has never been a pleasure to use. 

Repowering is something that can not be taken lightly. It requires changes to the engine bed, propeller and placement of fuel lines. Tromso does have ship yard facilities but not the level of welding that would make us willing to have extensive changes made.

After looking at several engines the Yanmar 4JH4 quickly became the obvious choice. Frances originally wanted to put in a Yanmar instead of a Perkins but at the time turbo chargers were still not proven. The 4JH4 is physically smaller which will make access easier and unlike the Perkins, parts are standard world wide.

The new engine will be delivered tomorrow and Snow Dragon is already sitting at the yard’s dock, waiting. We towed her over ourselves by lashing the dinghy with the outboard to Snow Dragon’s side. Frances had already disassembled the Perkins to make it easier to remove before we left our mooring at Hakoya. We spent the weekend in our new location, removing some of Snow Dragon’s interior and her day tank to gain access for engine removal and replacement. 

View into engine room where stairs used to be

Ideally by the end of the week, the Perkins will have been removed and the Yanmar will be sitting on the pilothouse floor waiting to go into the engine room. Between engines, we will repaint the area underneath where the engine sits and get the new engine bed bolted on.