Bukh DV 20 diesel

[PeterSibley]

Hello all,
I have been offered a DV20 Bukh diesel...it should suit my mythical boat quite well(under construction). Has anyone any experience of the beast, pro or con ?

[Oyvind Snibsoer]

My dad has one in his boat, it's close on 30 years old and still going strong.

The only major thing to have happened to it was that the camshaft had a heat crimped gear, which slipped and endend up bending the valve rods. They have since improved that design. More recently, there was a problem with the gearbox. This was most probably due to years of running with the incorrect oil in the gearbox! I believe the manual specifies singlegrade SAE 30 oil. This is not a readily available oil, and my dad had been told years ago that he could just use regular multigrade engine oil. This has obviously been a piece of bad advice, the correct singlegrade oil MUST be used, (although it'll run for years on regular engine oil before the trouble starts).

It's otherwise an engine with a very good reputation. On one of the very rare occasions that we've had to get some spares for it, the guy at the store said that he no longer offered repair services for Bukh, as there simply was no money to be made from it since they never seemed to break down. He said that those engines just keep on running as long as you change the oil and filter at regular intervals.

I don't think you can go wrong on that one. Go for it!

[MAGIC's Craig]

We had a Bukh DV-20 in our previous boat (BCC) and it worked quite well for the 9 years we had it in the boat. AFAIK, it is still going strong. The only problems we had were with a fuel pump accessory.

We were never able to hand start the beastie - but then we did not learn until later that the two decompression levers should have been un-linked from each other.

[PeterSibley]

Thank you Craig,thank you Oyvind.....just what I wanted to hear! smile.gif

[PeterSibley]

Well..I bought it,it comes recommended by a good friend, its out of the boat so I couldn't hear it running but the report was that it runs well, 450# compression.No gearbox....A$850....I'm happy. smile.gif Now for a gearbox!