Before doing anything It would be nice to tally the cost of refurbishing the
Atomic 4 Vs replacing it with a new 3 cylinder's diesel.
The big question is how much would your boat sells for on today's market.
The cost of installing a new diesel will not be recoupable when you sell
your boat.
By having a new diesel installed you will gain satisfaction and
dependability. Conversely rebuilding the Atomic 4 may well suit your sailing
needs.
Here the approximate cost of replacing the A4 with a 3 cylinder's diesel:
Diesel engine = $7000.00, shaft = $200.00, propeller $350.00, fuel tank
$200.00? plus re-bedding to suit the new engine , shaft and alignment many
more imponderables plus labor. Not to mention that you may have to replace
the strut.
I estimate that by the time you are finished you will have spent around
$7800.00 without the cost of labor. In some case $10000.00 is not
uncommon.
The later figure is very conservative. You can easily exceed that amount.
Depending on your purchasing power, the cost of labor and the amount of work
require to fit a new engine. I do not know your boat but in certain type
they had to use a shoe horn to installed a new engine.
On the other hand rebuilding the A4 may cost you much less money and
aggravation.
The saying that diesel will outlast a gas engine is questionable. We see
many old A4 around and working well.



"DSK" wrote in message
...
Thomas Wentworth wrote:
A friend has offered me his old Pearson Vanguard 33' sailboat.

You mean, for free?

... It is in good shape.
But, it needs a new engine. It has the original Atomic 4 gas.


I bet there's a lot of other stuff it "needs," too. But an
engine could well be the biggest single item.

What diesel engine would be the best replacement?

There's a drop-in diesel replacement for the Atomic 4, IIRC
it's called a Beta. Fits in exactly the same; but you also
need to put in a new fuel tank & piping.


... How much do the diesels
cost?

More than the boat.

... How much work is it the replace an old Atomic 4 in a 1968 year
sailboat? When replacing the engine, does the shaft, fuel tank etc also
get replaced?


Shaft & prop, no. Pretty much everything else, yes.


ck wrote:
Tom, have you considered keeping the Atomic 4? Even if it can't be
rebuilt,
it may make more sense to replace it with a working Atomic 4 than with a
diesel.


Depends on how bad you want to use the boat.

Safety is an issue that can and must be addressed in using gasoline, but
economically, a conversion to diesel will never make sense.

It makes good sense *if* you plan to use the boat for a long
enough time to amortize the diesel. Simply dropping in a
diesel will not raise the market value of the boat to cover
the cost of the new diesel engine, agreed. But then, that's
true of every kind of upgrade for the boat, especially
electronics... and people go hog-wild over all that stuff.



.... As evidence of
this, compare the estimates of conversion cost to the cost of boats
similar
to yours in size, age, and quality that already have diesels. You may
find
it cheaper to buy a used boat with a diesel engine than to convert
yours.

Possibly so, unless he is getting the Vanguard as a gift.


This will surely ignite some contrary opinions.


Was this one contrary enough for ya?

Fresh Breezes- Doug King