4BY2 engines

[PhilR]

I have the 4BY2180 engine in my R27Ranger Tug and have had personal experience with the coolant hose and the broken oil line problems....both of which made a mess in my engine room. Many of you probably don't know that this is a BMW engine purchased from BMW by Yanmar and marinized for use in boats. I am a die hard fan of and have owned several BMW autos...presently driving a 335I, and loving it! I'm pretty sure that the troublesome components are Yanmar, not BMW. In my opinion, and based on my experience, BMW engineering is second to none. BMW is the "ultimate driving machine" and I'm pleased to have that kind of quality pushing my Tug down the lake.

 

[HRowland]

I like to tell people that I drive a BMW. My road vehicle is a Toyota but I am still speaking the truth. The rep from Mack Boring that spoke at the NE Ranger Tugs rendezvous last year told us the B in the model number is for BMW. Y is Yanmar, obviously 4 is the number of cylinders, and the 2 indicates 2nd generation. I have heard that there was a campain some years ago to upgrade the original BY series engines into BY2s. This series has had its issues but Yanmar seems to be standing behind them. I agree, the problems are probably all with the marinization and not the basic BMW engine core. I suspect the oil line problem may be a vibration fatigue issue, I wonder if there is a specific RPM range that aggrevates the problem?
I was fortunate to already have the upgraded coolant hoses when built. I still have the original oil pressure line, and with about 80 hours engine time was thinking about it during our trip to Jamestown this weekend. I was primed to shut down quickly if I heard an alarm, and the number for TowBoatUS was also ready. We made it back without any engine problems. A local Yanmar dealer is going to call me on Tuesday to schedule the oil line upgrade.

Howard

 

[walldog]

We are at Blake Island with 298.6 hours on our 4BY2 BMW/Yanmar. We have had the coolant hoses replaced last summer and had started this trip from Anacortes when we saw the recall. No way to get it done over the Memorial holiday. So we will hope to make it back to Anacortes Wednesday and call for the local shop at Skyline to fix it for us. We too will have one hand on the switch and the other on the TowBoatUS button on our SPOT while running.

 

[PhilR]

The "bad" oil line is part flexible, part rigid. The replacement line is all flexible. My advice to those who have not had the line replaced yet is to watch carefully for any sign of oil in the engine room. If you see any oil near the front of the engine or in the bilge, shut down immediately and get a tow. If the line breaks you will have a mess. If your low pressure alarm goes off, shut down immediately. I did so and only lost about a quart...no damage done. Mack Boring stood behind their product and Andrew/ Ranger Tugs are the best!!!

 

[JerryE]

Phil, I followed you to Mack Boring after my engine oil pipe failed. Unlike your loss of a quart of oil, I blew out all the oil while running my R25 in the Florida Keys. I brought the boat back to New England and to Mack Boring where Norman did a splendid job and there was no hassle with replacing my engine two weeks ago. Only had 90 hours on the old engine! I had three BMW automobiles, but I would not own one once its out-of-warranty for obvious reasons. A buddy of mine just had a 5 series that needed a new battery after 39 months; $500 for the battery!!!

I'm frustrated, because I was among the first with the heater hose leaks leading to high temps in my old engine for which I was told "no problem" as my temperatures were still within specifications. Eventually, the hoses failed completely and Yanmar (in Florida this time) did not want to pay for the replacement of them until Andrew intervened. That helped lead to the heater hose recall, but I had months of issues before that trying to figure out what was wrong without much support from Yanmar. Then, I had the high pressure fuel pump fail, which was another huge hassle. Yanmar said they never fail and as they had no stock in the U.S. they had to order me one from Germany. They still maintain NO stock in North America, and I gave up trying to convince them that since they replaced mine, they do NOT never fail...

While everything was fixed at Yanmar's cost, the issue is when you buy a new engine or electronic device in its first year of service, you are a Guinea pig. It's been a trial, but hopefully I have the bugs worked out. 0.6 hours on my engine in a 2009 R25, that's cool. But then I have to do the break in all over again and replace the oil and filters at 50 hours... Well, I launched the boat yesterday and she ran smooth for a couple of hours and that was a great feeling!

 

[knotflying]

Jerry,
Glad to hear all is well and you are back in service. I have been waiting patiently at a local Yanmar mechanic to have my line replaced and am chopping at the bit to get back on the water. As horrible as this experience has been for some, I guess we are lucky to have the support of Ranger to apply pressure on Yanmar. Hopefully, as you said, all the bugs are worked out and if something else arises Ranger will be there to support the situation.
Happy Boating,
Mike

 

[baz]

I had my Oil sensor line replaced today. See my report with photos at http://www.tugnuts.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2683&start=15

 

[JerryE]

Thanks Mike (on Knotflying) for the kind words. I can only assume you are not in our waters otherwise you would have had Norman do the oil pressure line change-out. For those of you in the Northeast, depending upon location, we have two fantastic resources. One is Peter Haywood of Winter Island Yacht Yard, a Ranger dealer up in Salem, MA. I spent a couple days sleeping on my boat in his tiny yacht yard. He, and his crew, can fix anything as I watched. He uses a crane to lift boats in and out of the water. As Andrew advised me, he is a good resource to schedule the oil pipe repair (and the heater hoses if you have not yet done that).

I am nervous about the trailer experience up around Boston from Cape Cod, and then down a bunch of narrow ancient roads in Salem (witch country) to get to Peter. So I opted for Mack Boring which is the Yanmar distributor (they train the mechanics in our area) from the great lakes down through New Jersey. The service manager and their chief mechanic, Norman, are skilled and easy to work with. But, they are busy!! My oil line failed at 90 hrs while I was in the Florida Keys, and when a local mechanic thought my engine may have gone bad he called Mack Boring who arranged to let me bring the boat right to them in Middleborough, Mass without the normal wait for an appointment. They wound up replacing the engine. I had previously brought my boat to them when the high pressure fuel pump failed and the local Yanmar dealers could not diagnose it. They fixed that with no hassle. I highly recommend them in all respects after having them do two BIG jobs. Since they are so busy, they prefer to refer work to their dealers like Peter Haywood, but they are convenient to those of us in SE Mass. Another dealer they recommend is Burr Brothers in Marion, MA. I can not recommend any Yanmar mechanics on the Cape for warranty work; however, Bosun's marine has just signed on to carry Cutwaters in Mashpee, MA so we'll see if they get a mechanic or two trained on the new BY engines. Mostly I hear, "Geeze, I read about these new fangled engines, and that's the first one I've seen" when I ask a certified (whatever that means) Yanmar mechanic to take a look.