5000 hrs. on a Lehman is just getting broken in. 10,000 hrs. is easy,
and a lot run up to 15,000 hrs. with no problems. The trick is to
change the oil, oil and air filters often. For oil, every 100 hrs. or
annual, or 200 hrs. if you run hard and all the time, like a work boat.
Call American Diesel if you have questions; Bob Smith was in charge of
marinizing them all. 804-435-3107. Make sure you use a good oil rated
for diesel. I use straight 40 wt. Delo 400 in mine. Shell Rotella is
good as well. I'm in Texas, so it's pretty warm year-round. You would
want to use straight 30 wt. up North.

Keith wrote:
5000 hrs. on a Lehman is just getting broken in. 10,000 hrs. is easy,
and a lot run up to 15,000 hrs. with no problems. The trick is to
change the oil, oil and air filters often. For oil, every 100 hrs. or
annual, or 200 hrs. if you run hard and all the time, like a work
boat. Call American Diesel if you have questions; Bob Smith was in
charge of marinizing them all. 804-435-3107. Make sure you use a good
oil rated for diesel. I use straight 40 wt. Delo 400 in mine. Shell
Rotella is good as well. I'm in Texas, so it's pretty warm
year-round. You would want to use straight 30 wt. up North.

Yeah, you're right-on. If a trucker only got 5,000 hrs out of an engine he
wouldn't be buying Ford. That's about 100,000 on-road miles, you gotta be
joking!

DP

Dennis Pogson wrote:

Yeah, you're right-on. If a trucker only got 5,000 hrs out of an engine he
wouldn't be buying Ford. That's about 100,000 on-road miles, you gotta be
joking!


@ 20 mph. Most truckers drive a bit faster.

On 19-Apr-2006, "Keith" wrote:

American Diesel

Well.....I guess I will jump in. The advice of clean oil and clean air is
dead on. As to the original poster's questions about engine life I would
make the following observation. I have been watching Yacht World boat ads
for years. I have NEVER seen a trawler (Private - not commercial) for sale
with a Ford Lehman in it with 10,000+ hours. If you do a search with the
following parameters of 32-50', diesel, and trawler you will get about 2,000
hits. Start digging through them and see if you find a 10,000+hr engine.
I've got $20 that says no. I feel that since the trawlers I look at tend to
be 30+ years old I would like to find one in the 2,000 to 3,000 hr range.
That equates to 70-100 hrs a year. I would only buy a 5,000+hr boat if
everything else was perfect and the price allowed me to replace an engine
and still be able to sell the boat w/o the loss of $15,000. I get cranky
when I lose money.

Just one mans opinion. Good luck...dave