Cummins rebuild cost

[PPandE]

Greetings,
A search of the forums hasn’t yielded the info I need so I thought I’d just ask...

I’m looking hard at a Mainship 400 With a Cummins 380QSB5.9 with over 5000hours. This sounds like she’s on borrowed time to me so I need to consider the cost of rebuild in my offer.

Anybody care to guess at a ballpark price? Can this be done in frame or will the engine have to be pulled? Any suggestions of a yard to use somewhere south of Hatteras and East of Little Rock?

Many thanks

 

[ksanders]

Buy a Cummins reman. Great value for what you get vs the price.

My remans cost around $25K each installed but that was 2011

 

[twistedtree]

I think it's good to know what the worst case scenario is, which would be a rebuild or reman. And I would use the high(ish) hours as leverage in negotiations.


That said, unless the engine has been abused, or there are clear problem signs, 5000 hrs is not an issue. Just get a good engine survey to be sure. 5000 hrs is maybe middle age, at best.

 

[fryedaze]

My 31 year old 6BT5.9M 210 HP cummins have 6200 hrs on them. We have put 3500 hrs on them in 10 years. One engine has no oil consumption the other is less than a quart between 250 hr oil changes. They have been run at 1500 rpm 99% of their life. My guess is I have a lot of years left.
I don't know anything about QSBs. Here is some interesting info.

https://www.sbmar.com/articles/measuring-blow-by-the-real-test-for-internal-engine-condition/

 

[Ken E.]

Buy a Cummins reman. Great value for what you get vs the price.

My remans cost around $25K each installed but that was 2011

+1. I repowered with Cummins Reman. Completely satisfied. They also come with a new-engine warranty. I would certainly go this route compared to a major overhaul.

 

[PM]

I think I already gave my opinion on this, maybe forgot to post it.

That engine has plenty of life in it yet. Starting today put $5.00 into a kitty for each hour you put on the engine. When it is ready for extensive work at around 10,000 you will have $25,000 in the kitty, just about enough for the rebuild.

pete

 

[PPandE]

Thanks to all for the info and advice. Exactly what I need to move forward.

I tried the engine kitty with an airplane. The problem was that when it got so big that others were lusting after it I had to buy a new GPS to keep it from being reappropriated to non aviation budgets.

 

[Barabus]

More important is Marine Age and not hours. See Tony Atkins at SeaBoard Marine for the meaning here. With The small displacement high horse QSB Marine Age is more important. Basically how much fuel has gone thru them. Could be 5000 gal or 100000 gals. That is marine age.

 

[wwestman]

When we blew an exhaust valve on a 6bta and the pieces of the valve bounced around in the cylinder, it cost around $25,000 for a reman engine. Included everything but that was 5 years ago. As a bonus we got $4,000 for the core when we shipped it back. Better than rebuilding in that you get running much sooner. We planned ahead and had the new engine installed in one day, the longest part was getting it aligned where we were happy. Those costs do not include the labor of pulling and installing the engines.

 

[Cacoethes]

The Cummins 5.9 is an amazingly strong engine. Hot rod diesel guys regularly get more than 500 hp out of them without blowing up. I have one in a 35' motorhome and one in a '92 Dodge pickup with 270000 miles with engine never touched. I also have the 4 cylinder version in a Case backhoe with 7000 hours and it still works great. That being said there are some issues. There is a locating pin in the timing cover that can pop out and drop in the timing gears. That is a bad day. It is easy to fix and prevent ever happening but you have to take the timing cover off to do the fix. The other thing with the 5.9 is it does not have liners in the block. If it gets worn to where it needs boring (not likely in our lifetime) you need to remove the engine to bore it. Wet sleeve engines like the John Deere you can replace a cylinder and sleeve without messing with the block. The other thing good about the Cummins is there are a lot of them around and you will never run out of parts. You can buy a rebuilt short block for $5K (getting it in your boat is costs more than the motor). A complete engine rebuild kit is around $2K. If you want to save money, have the engine hauled by your favorite marine service and then have your engine rebuilt dealing directly with a truck engine rebuild service then let the marine service reinstall. This will save at least $10K. Oh, and as for the 6K hours on a cummins, unless they never serviced it, it isn't hardly broken in yet.

 

[Swfla]

Good luck on the survey and negotiations. The 40 is a nice boat.

 

[FF]

"If you want to save money, have the engine hauled by your favorite marine service and then have your engine rebuilt dealing directly with a truck engine rebuild service then let the marine service reinstall. This will save at least $10K."


Good tip , at least they have seen the engine before , unlike some boatyards.

 

[Pdxstriper]

new factory rebuild

Hi,

I was looking at a tug with lots of hours last year. I found somewhere that Cummins factory rebuilt 330hp 5.9L BTA ran $27K and came with a 2 year warranty.

Pete

Greetings,
A search of the forums hasn’t yielded the info I need so I thought I’d just ask...

I’m looking hard at a Mainship 400 With a Cummins 380QSB5.9 with over 5000hours. This sounds like she’s on borrowed time to me so I need to consider the cost of rebuild in my offer.

Anybody care to guess at a ballpark price? Can this be done in frame or will the engine have to be pulled? Any suggestions of a yard to use somewhere south of Hatteras and East of Little Rock?

Many thanks