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What happens to hour meters with an engine swap?

Discussion in 'Engines' started by bobhorn, Jun 17, 2023.

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  1. bobhorn, Jun 17, 2023
    #1
    bobhorn

    bobhorn Member

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    Boat is an '89 but engines were replaced in '93. In that circumstance, would the hour meters be reset, replaced or just left alone, so then essentially showing accumulated hour for the old and new?
  2. Pascal, Jun 17, 2023
    #2
    Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    Who knows… usually the hour meters are left alone. How many hours are they showing?
  3. Capt Ralph, Jun 17, 2023
    #3
    Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    Gee, new stuff keeps track in its ECM.

    When we replaced gen-sets and old engines, we replaced the hour meter.
  4. bobhorn, Jun 17, 2023
    #4
    bobhorn

    bobhorn Member

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    Don't think there is anything electronic on these engines. Both hour meters show just under 2000 hours.
  5. MBevins, Jun 17, 2023
    #5
    MBevins

    MBevins Senior Member

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    Any logs on the boat?
    If so look back .
    Capt Ralph likes this.
  6. mapism, Jun 17, 2023
    #6
    mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    I can confirm that there's absolutely nothing electronic in the Cat 3116.
    In the event of a catastrophic electric system failure, your only engine problem would be that you must go down the e/r to turn them off, by manually pressing the red button on the stop solenoid.

    As a consequence, you (as well as the previous owner) can connect to their key contact any hour meter you like, and replace them whenever you wish.
    In other words, the short answer to your question is... Who knows? :)
  7. bobhorn, Jun 17, 2023
    #7
    bobhorn

    bobhorn Member

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    The current owner showed me a whole stack of documents. Didn't have the time to go through them. Current owner has owned the boat for about a year. He's not much on the details. Owned and just sold a big sportfish so this little Carver didn't get a whole lot of attention.
  8. bobhorn, Jun 17, 2023
    #8
    bobhorn

    bobhorn Member

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    >>In the event of a catastrophic electric system failure, your only engine problem would be that you must go down the e/r to turn them off, by manually pressing the red button on the stop solenoid.<<

    Been there with twin FL turbo engines. No power, no stop solenoid.
  9. Capt Ralph, Jun 18, 2023
    #9
    Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    A run fuel solenoid. Needs B+ to run.
    Key off, kills this and the engine.
  10. mapism, Jun 18, 2023
    #10
    mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    Not sure of what are the FL engines you're referring to, but if you mean that with no DC you were unable to stop the engines because the stop solenoid didn't have any manual/mechanical stop button, that's indeed weird, if not downright dangerous.

    On the other hand, if their stop solenoid were "powered to run" as CR suggested (rather than powered to stop), the engines should stop there and then, as soon as DC is missing for whatever reason.
    Which imho is actually worse, but that's true of many modern electronically controlled engines.
  11. bobhorn, Jun 18, 2023
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    bobhorn

    bobhorn Member

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    They were Ford Lehman 225HP turbo engines and required power to the stop solenoid to stop. We were bringing the boat home after buying it and about halfway home everything went dead, plotter, radio, etc. but the engines luckily kept running. Plotter was no problem, I knew the area and we had a handheld VHF, but when we got into the slip I couldn't stop the engines with the stop button. Had to go below to manually pull the stop lever. We would have been in a heap of trouble in the middle of the Houston Ship Channel if the engines had quit when power went off.
  12. mapism, Jun 18, 2023
    #12
    mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    Aha, I didn't think of Ford Lehman, also because they are almost unheard of, in Europe.
    Anyway, I see what you mean, and it's exactly the same as in the Cat 3116 of my old boat, or also the mechanic MANs in my current one.
    That's all gone by now with electronically controlled engines, which would leave you stranded wherever you are, if DC would be lost.
  13. Pascal, Jun 19, 2023
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    Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    I m not sure how you would loose all DC especially on a twin engine boat. If properly designed, each engine and gen should have its own battery plus a house bank. In theory that should prevent a complete failure.
  14. bobhorn, Jun 19, 2023
    #14
    bobhorn

    bobhorn Member

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    Bought the boat in Beaumont, TX, and were on the the way bringing it back to Clear Lake. We were on board for the sea trial and haulout, quite a way down the river, and there were no problems. Seller assured us that the engine start, genset start and house bank were all isolated from each other. We anchored out for one night and during the night a fresh water hose fitting broke which caused the fresh water pump to dump the whole tank into the bilge and then the bilge pump ran to pump it overboard. The next morning all batteries were dead, turned out, that contrary to the seller's comment, all batteries were tied together.
    We were in the middle of nowhere so it took some time to get a jump. Started the engines and we were on our way. About halfway to the marina, first the VHF quit due to low voltage and then the plotter died likewise. Turned out that one alternator was dead and the other one developed a loose connection, hence, no charging.
    In hindsight, probably should have run the genset on the way home.
  15. Capt Ralph, Jun 19, 2023
    #15
    Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    Sadly, the things you have to find out the hard way; about previous owners and then the boat.
  16. DOCKMASTER, Jun 19, 2023
    #16
    DOCKMASTER

    DOCKMASTER Senior Member

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    How big of a fresh water tank are you talking about? I can't see where there would be enough fresh water that the bilge pump pumping it out would kill the whole battery bank. Sounds like the issue of a 1 dead alternator and 1 loose connections alternator was the root cause and you would have have been sitting there regardless of the bilge pump?

    On your question about hour meters, when I repowered both my mains and both gens, all started with fresh 000 hour meters. But my old meters as well as new are internal to the engine ECU's and gens. That being said, I would still expect manual meters to be replaced with fresh engines. And if not replaced, at minimum I would I expect it to recorded or labeled as to what the readings were when new engines installed. In a perfect world I guess you would have dual meters with total hours on boat since original and a set of new meters for engine hours. Never seen that though.
  17. Capt Ralph, Jun 19, 2023
    #17
    Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    In the old days (real old); for rebuilds, original hour meters were left intact if they still worked (usually did). Hours were on the block/crank for life.
    The ships log would show hours when services including top-end or overhaul was preformed.
    So, a meter that shows 8K hours, and the log shows records and receipts of two majors was the standard.
    Sadly, no proof, no pudding. I don't believe anybody now days without a stack of records.

    Then, new to the boat equipment got new hour meters.
    Sad part of these new meters, failures were common. Like float switches, lucky to get good ones..
    FM
  18. Pascal, Jun 19, 2023
    #18
    Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    The gauges at the helm should have shown the alternators were not charging. You probably had some loads on overnight as the fresh water pump and the bilge pump should not have killed the batteries. Unless the banks are too small.

    Does the boat have a parallel switch, that would explain both banks dying. Parallel switches should only be used for start if needed and not left on
  19. bobhorn, Jun 20, 2023
    #19
    bobhorn

    bobhorn Member

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    No switches, all batteries were tied together.
  20. Pascal, Jun 20, 2023
    #20
    Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    That’s a crappy set up
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