bertram31.com

Anybody have these motors? or had?......Starting to grow comfortable with the performance especially when the superchargers kick in. Swapping info would be helpful (do have the detailed manuals)

Don't have these motors myself but I have been involved in repowers that use the Volvo engines.

Better have REALLY DEEP pockets when you need parts.

hb

I ran into and serviced them from time to time over the years.

Never saw any major issues, although I don't remember any being high hour engines.

I just never cottoned to an engine design that had variable blower startup to handle load that the turbo couldn't provide.

Boating in general is expensive(guess you could stay in the house and save all kind of money).
Bruce....The roots compressor stays on for about 1000rpms, just to get out of the hole then shuts off, but it feels like a rocket ship. when you say high hours can you be more specific for that motor?

High hours on anything I saw would be over 1500.

My average customer, leave out charter operations, put 50 to 75 hours a year on their engines.

Never took a reading, but I'd like to know how much boost pressure the blower is introducing.

Compressing air heats it up and can lead to burning off of cylinder wall lube and scoring rings, pistons and cylinder walls. You already get enough from the turbo.

I have the KAMD 42A's in a 1994 28B. I picked up the boat really cheap 2 years after Katrina and plan on selling it soon so I can start on my 31 repower.

The boat was is terrible shape when I got it. I've replaced both the turbos, 1 roots compressor and both tranny coolers. These component failures were due to no maintenance and water damage (possible shallow water sinking of boat)

I was batteling an overheating problem and just changed the circ. pump on 1 engine @ $600+ for parts.

The supercharger brain is also known to fail... I replaced 1 when I 1st got the boat running... no problems since.
Volvo's are notoriously high dollar for parts as I'm sure you've learned, but I still like the engines so far.

The boat will do over 30kts but I don't have exact data or any fuel burn info... got an old Nothstar GPS with a burnt screen, can only see data on screen in perfect conditions.

Are your motors in a 31?

Ray

Yes there in a 31. The boat tops out about 28kts. 10-4 on the compressor brain, had that issue.

I had Volvo TAMD60Bs in my 31 Bertram and while they ran great and had incredible fuel economy, parts were obscene. What would cost 300 on a Cummins, cost 1,300 on a Volvo. As an example -- the starboard Gearbox cooler went -- I called Volvo and found out that just the bundle was a little over 900. For under 600, I put brand spanking new units from Lenco on both engines -- and they weren't that crazy Volvo design of copper bundle, stainless steel throughbolt, and aluminum housing -- they were all naval bronze. Yes, on a boat everything is expensive, however, the Volvo parts are hard to come by and way overpriced. In my humble opinion!

The kamd's are also outfitted with an aftercooler.

So were my TAMD60bs -- and the plumbing around all the coolers was "fragile" and EXPENSIVE to put it mildly. My new project is undergoing power option evaluations right now, and it is either going to be Yanmar or Steyr.