How long will a Diesel Engine last

[Tony Meola]

Just came across this interesting article on calculating the life span of a diesel engine.

https://boattest.com/article/how-long-w ... e=hs_email

[THESALTYSATO]

thanks for posting the article. Informative and helpful

[scenarioL113]

Great article. It has a lot of math and calculations to get a good idea of what kind of hours you will get out of an engine.

The moral of the story (or the cliff-notes) is to NEVER OVER-PROP

If you under-prop you will get more hours between overhauls

[bob lico]

i guess i could write 10 pages on the subject but be it as it may my cummins 6bta -m3 330 hp are 15 years old and run exactly as the day i installed them and ZERO repairs in 15 years other than raw water pump upgrade .from what i hear from others i will just thank my lucky stars.

[Bruce]

Not sure what the back ground of the writer is, as most writers have little to no life experiences in what they write, but I know Bob and certainly I could write volumes on engine life.

There is no perfect answer, I've seen engines out of the crate blow up and others that receive very little maintenance last 20,000 hours.

One thing is for sure, a good maintenance program, keeping excessive moisture inside and outside the engine from accumulating and allowing an engine to not over heat is key.

And there is the fact that assembly at the factory, or a rebuild is important to long engine life.