ER>Im in the process of converting my boat from gas power, (twin GM V-8
ER>230 hp. on Volvo legs, to twin GM 6.5 turbo diesels.  Have many
ER>problems to resolve, such as rewiring, exhaust sys. etc..  Anybody have
ER>any experience or useful advice.  Would sure be appreciated.
Ed, I have no advice to offer, but I am curious: Which GM engines are
these?  I assume the 6.5 indicates liters, so the engines are probably
6-71s or 8-53s (or 4-92s... vbg)  How does the power compare with the
gas rig?  The weight?  The size?  My experience with big diesels is
mostly with the GM 53 series (goes back to the 70's) and I can tell you
that you can run those engines at full throttle max rpm all day and they
love it. You can't do that with a gas rig.  Therefore one diesel
horsepower is more useful than one gas horsepower.  (The boat - a 43'
Hatteras - was underpowered and needed max power to plane at all.) We
put over 800 hours on a pair (which had 1200 hours on them when we
started) and aside from normal maintenance (oil, filters, pump rebuilds)
the only abnormal maintenance we had was a broken blower shaft.  The
trannies were something else, however.  We had the old Warner Velvet
drives and they kept blowing. Finally found the problem: GM put the
tranny oil cooler in the engine fresh water loop. Even though it was on
the cold side of the fresh water loop, that water is thermostatically
controlled to about 140 degrees. Finally talked to a Warner engineer and
it turns out the tranny is designed to be no hotter than 120 deg. Bought
two new oil coolers, installed them in the raw water loop, and end of
problem! PS: tranny rebuilds are expensive! And no warranty...
Good luck and tell us all how it is going!  -Skip
 * OLX 2.1 TD * Very funny, Scotty.  Now beam up my clothes.
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