Reliable Power?
 

I was reading the Apache vs Cig thread and I saw the mentioning of reliable power. What would be considered reliable power in today's market. What HP and who's power?

hey Dan,
here we go again.........do I need some popcorn and beer for this thread???? :)

Reliable?? Boy, that really depends on who you ask. Some folks feel reliable means use it twice and rebuild it, others feel it is 10 years.

From my personal experiences I have found 500 hp or less equals reliable.

On the other hand I know of a set of 650 hp engines with 400 hrs, so it is all a crap shoot.

Reliable....= Starts everyday and outside the normal boating concerns you do not have to worry about it leaving you in the middle of the lake everytime you take it out for the day......

Proper engineering, building and research can make big power reliable..within reason ofcourse. THere is always the weakest link though, and that is usually the drives. Big drives = Big $$$$$$$$$$$$$....so beefing up the drives usually comes last for most of us....atleast for me;)

On the motor....Maybe a tear down every 2-4 years or 250-300 hours. Doesn't sound like much, but I will take that if it is over 500 hp or so and is run moderate to hard.

Just my $.00000000005;)

Mercruiser is the top of that list. I'd say Sterling, Innovation and then pick your favorites for the remainder of the list.

One way of looking at it is that there is reliability in cubic inches. The bigger the cubes the more you can de-tune it so that it will live. In other words, it would be better to have 500 horsepower coming from a 572 cubic inch engine vs. a 500 cubic inch engine. Just my own .02

I would classify reliable as turn key, no real work needed on the motor for 200 hours or so....

Is this possible in an 800 hp plus motor???

Reliable is running 5,000 hrs hard with no major work needed on the prime power unit. Reliable is when that work needs to be done, it gets done quickly and right the first time. Reliable is recognizing that if it did not meet the above requirements the customer did not get full value out of the product and it is made right.

The marine industry is not reliable. I have been boating for over 30 years and have yet to see reliable (as described above) associated with pleasure boating.

One thing to remember....nothing is free......reliability costs money. In todays marine industry......Mercury offers the closest thing there is to a reliable product for the performance oriented boater.

Think diesel or turbine for reliability.

nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reliable to me would mean taking off from Miama and cruising to the Bahamas without having to go with other boats or constantly checking the guages to make sure something isn't about to explode.;) Regardless of horsepower.

Ron has a very good point.

As strange as it may sound, a turbine is the most reliable.

A diesel is very reliable, but it will lose some of its reliability in the future. Up to quite recently, engineers didn't completely understand what really goes on in a diesel, so it was overengineered, just in case. The lack of a sophisticated ignition system also added to its reliability.

Diesel technology is now well understood (with the help of some supercomputers ..) Diesels can be built lighter now. Sophistricated fuel injection systems are added, sometimes with the fuel pump right in the injector. Turbos are added routinely. A diesel can now be as light and as peppy as a gasoline engine, but also as complex.

Don't pooh-pooh diesels. Fabio Buzzi loves them.

Sorry, but I would not call that reliable. There is NOTHING reliable about a BBC running high horsepower numbers at high RPM's. The engine was never designed for that.
Even the highest strung turbo or supercharged aviation recips have a TBO of at least 1500+ hours.
If you want reliability in a marine environment, diesel is the answer. Of course, there is no doubt of the reliability of the turbine engine- I have been maintaining them for over 20 years, but they will never catch on for everyday marine use with initial purchase costs being so high.
I think you can achieve a pretty high reliability factor with the package that is in my Active Thunder- Mercruiser built 350MagMpi's coupled to Bravo drives.

So far, so good...................;) :)