Gene Kearns wrote in
news
On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 22:07:24 -0500, Eisboch penned the following well
considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

snips

Turns out they deliver
the advertised horsepower (440 ea) but are *very* high revving engines
for diesels at 3600 rpm.

"high revving" and "diesel" do not belong in the same sentence.

Regardless of the fuel source, high speeds means, by definition,
accelerated wear... quite the opposite of the goal of using a diesel
engine.


My story why diesels and high engine speed are mutually exclusive:

In 1985 I acquired a Volvo Turbo Diesel 780 sedan. My father had just
purchased it new a month before for my mother who had just passed away
suddenly. My father offered to sell it to me at a discount, no money
down, easy payments, no interest. I actually didn't want it, even on
those terms, but we had a baby on the way and my whole family, wife,
father sisters etc. essentially forced me to get it to replace my wife's
"unsuitable for a baby" two door sports coupe. I was very suspicious of
car diesels, having seen several GM car diesels of the era melt down. I
was assured by lots of friends I consulted that the Europeans knew how to
make a car with a diesel and there shouldn't be any problems with the
Volvo diesel.

Well, within two years, it was smoking so bad that cars behind me would
slow down to get out of the cloud. By 30,000 miles I took it to the
dealer to figure out the problem. By now it was out of warranty (much
shorter warranties in thoses days). Compression was bad, but they didn't
know why. Pulled the heads and reported to me that the cylinders had
"enlarged." Enlarged? I've worked on cars since high school (all gas) and
had never seen that one. Bad rings, valves, but enlarged cylinders? I
asked them how that happened after 30,000 miles and they couldn't answer
me. I answered them: since the car had always been serviced at the
dealer, the car was either poorly serviced or poorly built, but either
way I ought not to pay. After weeks of threatening letters and promised
lawsuits directed to Volvo North America in New Jersey, they capitulated
and rebuilt the engine at Volvo's expense. They made me pay for the new
belts and hoses. I traded it on a Ford Tarus wagon within a week and
never looked back.

The point is, that we drove the car like we drive our gas cars, and not
with a light foot. We revved it high going up the onramps, drove it to
the ski lodge up the mountain at full speed and even took it on a car
rally or two. With the turbo, it had plenty of power and high revs to do
these things. But stamina it didn't have. The thing was toast after
30,000 miles. I will never own another diesel in a car as long as I live,
unless that's the only thing going. As lots of the other posters have
said, they are NOT made for high revving.