Inboard Diesel Engines - What To Know When Upgrading
In order to calculate the horsepower required for inboard diesels, first you need to calculate the following:Boat size and displacement. Your sailboat manufacture will be able to supply this data, should you not have it handy.
What's Under The Hatch?
Work out the theoretical hull speed in calm water. Plus the horsepower required to do this. Manufactures have figures for this as well. The idea is to use medium revs rather than exerts the engine. You should never have to use maximum revs - if you do then you'll burn it out more quickly.
<<>>To achieve theoretical max boat speed your engine should be at half of it's available power range. That's 3/4 of the RPM on the counter.
Simply putting a higher horsepower engine in won't solve the problem either. Yes you'll have more power, but these are the issues. The weight of the engine may put the boat out of balance. The extra power will be predominately useless too. This is because your hull and boat overall is not designed for the extreme increase. Don't shake your boat to bits!
Another consideration is the propeller. Before investigating engines, you need to find out the maximum width of propeller the boat can handle. Once you have these pieces of information discuss the increase in engine power with yoursupplier.
So the engine power is dependent on, the size and displacement of the vessel, the diameter of the propeller and the RPM. At least with this knowledge you won't buy an over sized engine and find out too late!
If you overhaul your motor then look for the marine engine parts specific to your needs. Example Volvo Penta propellers, will work best with Volvo Penta engines.