MAN Mechanic South Florida

Marine Diesel. (954) 467 9010

I'd go with them or another of their authorized service centers.

Their one day and their full survey shown on the linked page.

http://marinedieselspecialists.com/surveys

I agree, I use Marine Diesel Specialists as well. They're a good outfit. Not sure if it's worth it to go with an independant surveyor on Man's. 40' Cabo express with 800 Mans cruises 31.5 knots @ 80% load (trimmed correctly) and 63 GPH of fuel. It's a fun boat.

Well, to cruise at 27-28 knots, you need to be able to push 30+.

I hear the anti-MAN fear mongering on parts cost and other things, but no marine engines have cheap parts. MAN is used in many applications such as Cabo because of the combination of weight and performance. As with any engines the care of them over the years is the key and hopefully they'll survey well for you. We own Riva's where there was no choice and have been very happy. We own a Sunseeker where we could have had CAT or MAN and chose MAN for a number of reasons (acknowledging CAT as excellent engines).

Low oil pressure warning? Most engines never ever see this. I haven't had an oil pressure loss on an engine in well over a decade and 300,000 NM's.

Why cruise them at 27-28 knots? Mans like to run at 80% load. The boat should cruise 31.5 knots properly trimmed at 80% load. The Mans were quieter at cruise than the Cat's, however most 40's I ever ran were Cat or Zues powered (Cummins) which honestly is the nicest package in that boat. Easiest to get around the engines, fastest and 40% more fuel efficient with no vibration.

I haven't had a catastrophic failure with any Man's nor a failure where the engine would not run. The only failures I've had were high pressure fuel lines on earlier non-common rails, and lots of sensors on the common rails and also alarm monitoring boards on one. Maintenance is more of a pain, mainly the upside down fuel filters and crush washers. Parts prices for general maintenance parts and sensors is quite a bit higher than cats.

I have a boat with twin MAN 1200hp 12-cylinder engines from 1999. Nothing but problems due to valves melting (design defect) but the road to solutions began when I Found MArine Diesel Specialists in Ft. Lauderdale--great group.

how many hours on engines? What is causing the valves to melt?

Defective valves that MAN never stepped up to the plate and did a factory recall on.

Thanks, just wondering. Recently purchased a 1999 54' Viking Sport Yacht with twin MAN 1050's. 1k hour service was completed by MAN just prior to my purchase last December.

First, this problem was solved circa 2005 when I had a metallurgist analyze the failed valves--the problem was that they melted under the high temperatures generated by the turbocharged engines. During that period MAN's were known As MANgrenades. Man had redesigned the valves but there were so many engines involved that they would'nt own the problem. In fact, when one engine was rebuilt the MAN rep replaced only the failed valves, leaving bad valves that hadn't failed to fail on sea trial.

Second, it required a lawsuit to get MAN to assist in the solution. They clearly knew the reasons but mislead us to cast blame on other parts, e.g. Fuel injectors. Eventually they agreed to replace all 24 valves with the new design. I hope they have better customer service now, but I'm sceptical.

Third, the first failure was at around 700 hours, the second was at about 5 hours later on sea trial, and the third was at about 900 hours. All three failures were same problem, same engine. Once identified and resolved, that engine went to 8,000 hours before routine rebuild. The other engine never even hiccuped. I've always wondered why.

I have the man 820s and they have been very good to me but I have been very good to them. Man corporate has a long history (in the marine market) of not owning their problems and sticking the consumer.