58 Sedan Bridge Official Thread

Brian - GREAT post!!

 

Awesome post Brian!

I was wondering about the possible interval differences from seasonal use in the Northeast.

What is your average seasonal hours on the MANs?

 

Thank you Brian, great information. Very good point, once you get to a 58ft boat with 1800 HP it has to be more than my 44 with QSC 500s.

 

Just to add a little flavor to Brian’s comments on northeast maintenance vs. southern climates. One step further is the ease and frequency of maintenance for those of us boating in freshwater. My MAN certified mechanic out of Wisconsin inspects cores and always has me monitoring engine data to determine how “deep” to go with maintenance. My boat is a 2005 with just over 400 hours on it. This summer we are going to check and adjust valve clearances and at the same time update the valve cover gaskets to the newer design to eliminate a few nuisance drips.

Also, related to annual services; oil, filters, and oil samples, for mains, generator, and gears, as well as all fuel filters, racors, and new impellers, labor and travel time is around $2,500 - $3,000. Samples have always been clear on all components.

Bottom line, don’t be afraid of MAN’s. There are thousands of them out there in the recreational marine market. My buddy in Florida has 5,000 hours on his sportfish and has only replaced injectors in addition to the suggested maintenance.

 

I only average about 50 hours per year. The interesting point that the MAN engineers told me was that equally as important as annual operating hours was the number of hours the heat exchangers were exposed to salt water and the temperature and salinity of the water. With a Northeast boat (lower sea water temperatures and salinity compared to a Southeast boat) that sees less than 200 hours a year and is winterized for 4-6 months with antifreeze and corrosion inhibitors, the exposure to salt water is significantly reduced. They are actually more concerned with the sealing surfaces of the heat exchangers than they are of the tube conditions with that kind of use. This has to due with the design of the heads and the gaskets and O-ring materials MAN uses. That is why they gave me the guidance that extended intervals for the A1 and A2 services were acceptable to them. That's also why Carter is able to extend his service interval to 3 years even though he boats aprt of the year (winter) in FLA but the rest of the year in fresh or brackish water. That's also why, as Jeff stated in post #64 that a fresh water MAN CRM engine can go even longer between A1 service intervals.

 

Jeff

That makes absolute sense. If I include the 5 Racors and 5 oil samples and raw water impellers my annual parts come to just under $1600. Add in 6 hours of labor and whatever travel time is necessary and you wind up in that range.

 

GREAT POST - Thanks

 

Thank you very much for your help.

 

Thanks for a great post on the Maintenance and cost -

 

What straps do you use to tie down your 11 foot boston whaler to the swim platform on the 58 Sedan Bridge

 

I use 1" ratchet straps with SS ratchets - I think you can find them at Defender...

 

I also use four 1" straps with SS ratchets. Mine came from GHS, probably cheaper at Defender.

 

Anybody have their engine hours dramatically increase? Two years ago, my stbd engine suddenly indicated 52,329 hours one day. It is caused by a soldered-in battery on the MMDS board. My "MAN man" sent the board off to MAN for a fix. Last week, my port engine read 520,543 hours! Same thing. Since most of our boats are the same age, you may see this someday. MAN says it's OK to continue to run until you get it fixed...

 

That might be tough on resale value...

 

Carter, I had my MMDS boards repaired by MAN. Hopefully you only had to pay for the shipping, they did mine as warranty work, even though the engines were out of warranty. This failure is pretty common with our displays. As MAN said to me, it isn't a matter of if, but rather when, it will happen.

 

I had to pay $625 for the first one...

 

On the contrary - what great engines to run that long!!!

 

Thanks for the quick response - i will check them out