Trojan Boat Forum

Danny , I will go take some this morning and email them to you

Can you answer a couple of questions for me
What was the height differnce between the 440 and the Cummins
What did you pay for your Cummins (approx ok)
great article to follow
Glen

Glen,
There is considerable height difference....if you have the 440's you know how long the transmission is (further forward means higher off the bottom due to 14-15 degree shaft angle) and how much room you have between the top of the engine and the bottom of the hatches. The Cummins are 1" off the bottom of the boat at the lowest point which is the outboard corner of the assembly flange on the ZF 220A transmission. I don't have the floor / hatches back in yet, but I'm sure I'll have to do some cutting and modifying. There's no way a 6BTA Cummins would fit in an F-36 without a 10 degree down angle transmission like the 220A.

My cost was less because I'm very mechanical. I bought two used Cummins for $15K. One was basically sound....I rebuilt the turbo, cleaned out the heat exchanger, and installed a new oil pressure sender. The other was worn completely out from running 6700 hours cold with two cabin heaters hooked to it. Cost me $4-5K for parts, 6 sleeves and machine work for that one. I did all the tear down and assembly myself. I wouldn't advise this for everyone. I bought the transmissions new for $4K each. If you have to go buy two re-con 250's you're looking at $32 -38K locally. I shudder to think what two new common rail electronic 6BTA's would cost. Out of my range for sure.

Hey Danny, nice job!!

Paul, great pictures! did you use the stock shaftlog too for 1.1/2" shaft?

Took my new fuel tanks down to the yard Monday on my landscapers trailer and burnt the transmission out of my truck! Spent Wednesday trying to fix the tranny & Thursday trading trucks. Another $15K added to the cost of this repower. Anyway its only money right and the important thing is to fix the boat. I did get my tanks in this week, partly framed and partly hooked up, and got the glass back in the back of the cabin so all this rain is not going inside and got my new trim tab actuators installed. Its going together slowly but surely. More pictures next post.

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee26 ... 0_0593.jpg Here's one of the new aluminum tanks in place and framed back in. I still have to add spacer blocks to the top to replace the 2" in height I took off the original tanks. Throttle and gearshift cables are hooked up and rigged....had to reverse operation at the quadrants, gas throttles push...diesels pull. Also had to reverse operation of R/H gearshifter. Easy to do....just swap position of cables on the bottom of the lever. New stuffing box hoses are in with new clamps. I've been planning my exhaust system (photos from Prowlerfish have been a BIG help) and have initial elbows and connectors on order. Exhaust piping will be 5" back to the original 5" mufflers. It appears there will be enough slope from the engine to the stern outlet, but if there's not I have already located 5" water lift mufflers on the net. Hope to finish plumbing fuel system next week and fill the tanks to see if 1. they leak and 2. how much fuel they hold. More next week.

Danny did you see that cummins on ebay with only 600 hours on it the bid is 3500.00 for now i think that would be a great start to a repower dont you think. Their is a block ,crank, and other parts aswell Hows your project going .still out west look to come your way i hope.

Ray,
You have to be careful with some of the older Cummins 6B engines. You didn't say what year it was but a lot of the early 90's 300 HP engines had serious problems with heads, valves / seats, head bolts, etc.
Danny

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee26 ... 0_0595.jpg It took two trips to Lowes to find enough brass fittings to build my new fuel manifold, but it and the Racor MA900's are in. Thanks again Paul for the Racor advice...it was right on the mark! The fuel truck showed up Tuesday and filled the new tanks. No leaks, but I didn't expect any as the tanks were pressure tested by the builder. These tanks only hold 100 gallons each as they are not as high as the originals, but I can remove them if I have to without pulling the engines. The UPS truck brought the last two pieces of my exhaust system yesterday (pics later....it looks just like the one on Prowlersfish). I patched in a battery and a garden hose to the raw water pump and fired 'em both up yesterday. No surprises and they were a lot quieter than when I had them here in my shop running. Hope to launch next Tuesday....more later.
Danny

Update: I got so engossed in what I was doing I forget to update you guys.

Boat was launched Jan 15 and ran back to the dock under her own power. Engines ran well but had faulty oil sender gauge on one so I arrived at dock on one engine.

Later, after fixing oil problem, took her out again and broke in port engine which I rebuilt. Ran them both up to 2600 and GPS was passing 24.9 knots when I pulled them back. I love the way she runs, sounds and handles with these engines....full plane in two boat lengths, talk about torque!!

Currently working part time on raising floor 1.5 inches to clear aftercooler and allow room for soundproofing. Also having to remodel house to keep mama happy. I have to move my batteries behind the bulkhead, and build a new instrument panel for the flybridge before the repower is complete. The way diesel fuel prices are, I don't know if we'll take any long trips this summer or not, so there's no rush. More later.

Wow, that lil' hunny fits in there better than my stupid 454s. I removed the saddle tanks in my boat. So, with those 6BTAs I could walk all the way around for maintenence.
Damn! I wanna pair of those!!

Tony in Sw FL
1982 F-36

Danny,

Nice instalation!

Hope you are enjoying those beautiful, white babies!

A little electric fuel pump with a spade type pop out fues to keep it from getting accidentialy bumped on is just the trick for topping off those Racors during a filter change.

Clean, easy, fast & neat !

I also use mine to pump to or from my 17 gallon generator tank, should the need arise.

RWS

Hearing all the complaints about gas prices I just had to pull this one up one more time. We took Southern Cross from the dock to Cape Lookout and back last weekend, a 60 NM round trip and got 2.5 MPG at 1200 RPM's and 7.5 - 8.5 Kts. Now I don't like to crawl snail speed any better than anyone else, but if it's go slow or stay home, I'll chug a lug. I had tried this same tactic with the 440's prior to the repower and never got over 1.15 MPG at any speed. 'IF' I had it to do over again and I 'KNEW' fuel prices would stay so high, I would have put much smaller diesels in her with the knowledge that she would never plane again, but would be efficient enough to run.

I get about 1.7 mph when slow cruising at 9mph with my big blocks. I think the difference could be I turn big wheels by using 2.5 to 1 trannies. With large, 4 blade props the boat is much more efficient < 20mph than with 3 blades... and less efficient over 25 mph which doesn't happen very often.

If I wasn't driving I'd relax and enjoy the nice, slow cruise. But I get bored and kick her back up on plane pretty quickly. I guess ADD makes boating more expensive! I'm headed out fishin' early in the morning....

TC