Engine Concepts...

I would say if the plan was a stand alone entity you're both low on your funding. At least $500 million to get it all launched and handle the huge early losses.

Concepts

What ever the final number is, there must be serious money on the other side. Detroit Diesel advertised that it invested 1.5 billion in the DD15 development and plant set up. They must spend money like the federal government does.

But the <500HP market is supplied very well by Cummins, Yanmar, Lugger, Deere, and a growing number of Korean, Japanese, Chinese and European builders and marinisers who are very capable of supplying a rugged and reliable engine in that power range.

Comments about a production boat builder not wanting to risk using an off-brand engine are accurate but for an owner looking at a repower, there are a lot of options if they can get beyond the big name suppliers. But, in every instance, the engine has to be certificated and supported. A good idea alone isn't worth the energy to digitize and post it to the end user. To paraphrase another saying, hardware talks and BS just takes up bandwidth.

Anyone who takes the time to research the marketplace will quickly find an existing engine and gearbox that will do the job nicely. And in each case the manufacturer will provide specifications and performance data.

Marmot's statements about the Wright brothers, Howard Hughes and Bill Gates are factually correct.

Hughes himself invented nothing of importance during his lifetime, rather he funded others to conceive and implement technical advances, with Hughes taking the credit.

Bill Gates created no new technology, he (Microsoft Corp.) out negotiated IBM, resulting in Microsoft having a business contract which gave it a veritable monopoly position at a critical time in the then emerging personal computer (PC) business. In the business management field IBM's errors in negotiations with Microsoft is considered the single worst transaction in the history of free enterprise. Technology was incidental to the event.

Have you taken the time to determine how many trucks are on the road vs inboard boats?

It is a high stakes game and the R&D matches the market potential.

The <1000hp is fueled by the ON-HIGHWAY side, and marinization is an afterthought (except maybe for Volvo) for entry into this arena. CAT/Cummins pleasure craft inboard sales are just coincidental "bonus" not mainstream revenue........

Kmb

From a standpoint of building a business you're talking about all the wrong stuff. It's not about the product. It's about what the product does for me. It's about it fulfilling some desire or void. It's about making one's life better. Companies don't market products, they appeal to the consumer's emotional state. Don't tell me what the product does. Tell me what it's going to do for me, how it's going to make my life better, why I need it over all the others.

Coca Cola doesn't tell you what's in the bottle, but they convince you that you'll enjoy life more if you drink it.

And it's not just consumers who think that way. Investors do too. So far you've addressed only a need I don't have or feel. Does nothing for me to know two men can do a quick change job on you tube. That doesn't make me feel better. It's not something I'm craving and you haven't stirred up a sudden desire in me. So far, I'm happy with my old mousetrap.

I agree, but can definately see Cat being interested for both their generator market and smaller heavy machinery, and on highway uses. Possibly MTU for the same reasons although they're not a player in the smaller generator market. If the HP to weight ratio is very high and durability is there, I can see some uses in the 500hp< game. Another would be in the 2400-3500hp pleasureboat market, where CAT and MTU have big voids in engines.

Still using the old Sears catalogue in the outhouse?


Some spend their life stuck in a rut.

Others spend their life seeking efficiency.

The Buck is for the latter state of mind.

Problem is the Buck is only in the mind, it doesn't exist. I don't buy vaporware either.

Did not realize YouTube was into mental telepathy.


Buck Diesel - Single Cylinder Replaced Under 8 Minutes - Video Dailymotion

You mean that void that is entirely covered by MTU Series 4000 and CAT Series 3500 engines not to mention Cummins QSK50/60 engines for both Pleasure and Commercial marine markets????

Did you see that engine run? Maybe it was tinker toys. Sorry, but watching two guys replacing a cylinder in a shop just doesn't excite me. Is the slogan, "We have a lot of cylinder problems but they're easy to change?" Or is it a game for mechanics to compete at in the bar? Every two guys gets an engine and the ones who change the cylinder the fastest get free drinks?

That video is pure smokescreen. I can change a light bulb in seconds but that doesn't mean the light fixture is superior.

K1W1 posted a link to a post made by the Buck guy about 5 years ago:

Buck Marine Diesel - Page 2 - Diesel Bombers

Read it and compare the content to what has been posted over the past few days.

Pay particular attention to the BSFC numbers. If they have slashed the BSFC by a third they would have been better off making a movie about that rather than some mechanical gee whiz flick.

In an industry where an incremental improvement in fuel efficiency of few percent is heralded as a milestone, it defies logic why a 32 percent reduction in BSFC (which makes the thing probably the most fuel efficient 4 stroke diesel engine on the planet) takes distant second place to how fast a cylinder can be changed.

You're not going to see CAT 3500 series engines in planing hulls (large SF, Motoryachts like the Westports) due to their size and weight and low rpm rating. You don't see Cat's being used about the C32 acert in those boats. The 3500 series is a great engine, but more geared for displacement or semi displacement motor/megayachts. There are HP and size gaps between like say a 16v2000 and a 16v4000 and if this Buck engine is compact and light and durable then there is some room in that arena. What you see being used now, and about the only thing in the large custom SF arena and planing larger motoryachts are the MTU products, but between the 16v2000 at 2400hp and I believe the 16v4000 starts at 3800hp is a large gap and the 4000 is a massive engine in size.

There is one consistency five years apart. That's the only topic either of them ever posted on the board they were on. So simply trying to use a forum to promote their business idea. Guess they haven't been successful in that time finding investors.

Well it does make that fuel economu when it's setup to run 50lbs of boost, but that is also why you can rebuild the motor so easily..... like a Nascar engine.....rebuilt after every run......

Actually MTU has many engines in that hp range. For fast vessels with low load factors they have the 16 V 2000 with 2400 and 2600 hp. Then the 12 V 4000 with 2736, 3140, and 3460. The 16 V 4000 then picks up at 3648. For fast vessels with high load factors they have the 12 V 4000 with 2575, the 16V 396 with 2682, the 12 V 4000 with 2897 and the 16 V 4000 with 3433.

Buck V Bukh

Reminds me of my days representing Bukh diesels, the manufacturer wrote in the owners manual a time to remove and replace each component on there range of engines and informed the owner that is the time that a dealer would charge them for.

Obviously we came no where near those times but the manufacturer would only pay those numbers under warranty. It was not until I went to the factory did I find out where they got those figures from.

Two mechanics each side of the engine sitting on a stand with trolleys with each socket already mounted to a separate rachet and the same for each tongue wrench.

Each joint perfectly clean and plenty of space all around the engine plus no limits on the head room.

I told them to stick there dealership and switched to Yanmar and Kubuto's. Much more practical to deal with.

I did not see either of these video stars cleaning off or renewing any burnt on gaskets and that alone would take 10 minutes at least in some cases.

Balancing the power output of each cylinder is no new rocket scientist stuff either, I had to take hand drawn indicator cards and balance my engines from them and that was 30 years ago.

Maybe Marmot and I should make our own video of the real world replacement of a cylinder kit showing us struggling to remove a jammed cylinder head or a seized cylinder "jug". Cleaning joint faces and replacing "O-rings", would we split the manifolds and not replace all of the gaskets or just tighten them back up, no way. If they are using a seal at each joint would we trust that they don't move.

Would we put the cylinder heads back on without cleaning the carbon off. No.

Now do the same work in a cramped engine room rolling around while at sea or sweating you know what off doing that work here in south Florida. I know I would be the one standing between the engines and send Marmot to the outboard side (if he can fit in over there) to jam himself in sitting on compressors etc. or no space over there because of the fuel tanks.

All of this is obviously after finding millions of dollars to build them in the first place.

Anyway good luck.

PS. I found a load of "real" light bulbs at Ace hardware about two weeks ago, lol

Concepts

The design should work in any engine application. Marine might be just the place to start.