Online Book: Engines For Cruising Boats

Matt explains those graphs that adorn engine brochures and manuals. Understanding these diagrams is the key to better fuel economy and less problems with your diesel engine.

Just what is a commercial or continuous duty rating on an engine, and should you get that? Matt starts this chapter with the reason that these ratings exist, and then moves on to how to select the correct engine duty rating for a displacement boat.

There are probably no two words that are more often misused when we talk about boats than power and torque. Eric demystifies both and in the process inoculates us against some potentially expensive misconceptions.

When choosing mechanical gear, especially engines, it’s important to understand power and torque. Many people misuse these terms to sell products, so being informed helps us make better decisions.

Matt brings his customary clarity to a complicated subject: propellers. Reading this post will cause you a bit of brain sweat, but doing so can help you get big gains in engine efficiency.

Running your engine at low power settings can slowly kill it. Here’s what to do about that. This could save you a bunch of money and aggravation.

In the last chapter in this Online Book, John wrote about how chronic underloading of your engine can wreck it, as well as waste fuel and produce unnecessary carbon. In this chapter we get to the good stuff: how to solve the problem for both new and existing engines.

Installing the new engine was a huge and expensive job, so how did it work out?

A diesel engine that’s been badly overheated will probably never run reliably again. A total cruise ruiner. Let’s not let that happen to us.

Colin has some great tips that will help you maintain your engine’s raw water system.

Your engine mixing elbow can damage your engine. Here’s how to prevent that.

A quick read that can make a huge difference to the reliability of your engine.

It’s easy to spend big money on our boats but still miss little details that will have big consequences once we go to sea.

I think most of us know that our engine start battery should be fused, but what about the rest of the engine harness. John was shocked to find the answer to that question.

The best of our engine maintenance tips, curated and re-edited.