Can an engine hour meter read too high???

[Mark Sutherland]

I'm looking at buying a 1986 C34.  The owner says the hour meter does not work, but says he thinks the boat has around 1500 hours on it.  The troubling thing is that the "thousands" digit of the hour meter is on "3", seeming to indicate that the motor has at least 3,000 hours on it.  Is it possible that the hour meter could be erroneously showing 3,000+ hours when actual hours are only 1500?  I don't know enough about the mechanics of an hour meter to know if this is possible, but it seems far-fetched to me.  Thanks.

[prh77]

It would not be out of line for a 1986 boat to have 3000 + hours on given a lot of engine use. I will usually put 100-150 hours of engine use per year on my C34. Hour meters can stick and read low, but reading 1500 hrs high seems a bit far fetched. Still, there is always a first time. Ask for maint. records,they usually have dates and engine hours for service items.

[Stu Jackson]

The engine hour meter read or counts when the key switch is on.  At least that's been my experience, although we seem to have had that discussion before.  It could be that the PO kept his key on all the time for some bizarre reason, thus the hour meter read a lot more than the actual engine run time, but that would mean he had the alarm going when the engine was off, unless he disconnected his low oil pressure wiring!!!  Sounds weird.  It would be rare to have many, many less actual engine hours than the counter reads.  And, if so, how would anyone know?  Only way to check is go to the boat and turn the key on for 15 minutes and see if the counter reads a half hour.  The buzzer will get to you well before the 15 minutes are up!

[Ken Juul]

it is also possible that 2 or 3 of the tumblers have stuck together.  Only way to tell for sure is to watch what happens. 

I have not had the hour meter apart, but if it is like a car odometer the number wheels turn on a common shaft.  Usually a simple job of removing the shaft and cleaning the individual wheels keeping them in order then reinserting the shaft.

[tommyt]

I would agree with checking the maintenance records over the years. At only 100 hours a year you would be looking at 2500 hours and that would not seem out of the ordinary.

In my case I am on the third tachometer on a 2004 C34. The entire tach stopped on one of them and on the last just the hour meter stopped.

My guess, there are a lot more than 1500 hours on the boat!

[Ron Hill]

Mark : I agree with Peyton, that a 1986 year boat could easly have 3000 hrs on the engine !!  A thought

[pablosgirl]

Mark,

Payton is right, look at the maintenance records if they are available.  A well maintained kabota diesel will run for 5000 hours.  There could be a lot of life left in that engine yet!  If the records are sloppy or non-existent and the engine does not look well cared for then you will have to consider that in your purchase decision.  Hire a diesel mechanic to come out and inspect the engine before you shell out $600+ on a marine survey.  Should only be $100 - $200.  Have an oil sample analyzed, it will tell a lot on how healthy the engine is.  Have the mechanic put a mechanical oil pressure gauge on the engine to measure the oil pressure, this will tell you a lot about the state of the bearings in the engine.  Rebuilt engines are not that expensive.  I have see them on line for $2500 to $3000.  If you are handy with a wrench, you could rebuild it your self.  There is a very good description in the Wiki under the engine section to let you know what you are in for.  Ultimately you will have to decide If this particular boat is worth the possibility of a future re-power exercise.  A well care for 86' model would be worth the effort.

Paul

[Roland Gendreau]

Yes the engine hours can accumulate at a faster rate if the tachometer is not calibrated properly.

For 2 seasons my tach was out of calibration because the PO had changed the alternator and the tach was not re-calibrated (the calibration procedure requires a change to the dip switch settings).   During that time, I noticed that not only were the indicated engine RPM's higher than expected, but also the hours were accumulating at the rate of about 1.25 for every real hour.

The instructions for recalibrating the tach are available someplace. If you need them, let me know and I will send them to you.

If your engine RPM's appear to be  normal then this probably is not the cause of the engine hours being so high.

Roland Gendreau
Gratitude #1183

[Mark Sutherland]

Thanks everyone.  After a lot of persistence, I got the PO to give me the previous Survey.  Seems that the old survey indicates 2700 hours by PO-1, a rebuild, 300 more hours by PO-1, about 300 by PO, totaling around 3300 now.  In addition, I found a mechancal receipt that showed about 3200 on the meter.  So I think this is mystery solved.  I think the meter may actually work but it's so faded it can't be read.  Thanks again everyone.

[Stu Jackson]

I think the meter may actually work but it's so faded it can't be read.

Glad to hear you solved the mystery.

We put a canvas cover over the cockpit panel as well as the coamings.