How to Choose a Diesel Engine Rebuild Kit

Marine diesel engines have unmatched longevity and durability, rarely requiring rebuilds. Because they are much more efficient than gasoline engines, marine diesel engines can last thousands of hours. If you only put in the average boater’s 200 hours a year, your boat’s diesel engine could last 40 years. However, even the most well-cared-for diesel motors can wear out, especially if you put in long hours on the water. Instead of replacing the engine, rebuild it to restore it to like-new operation.

But how do you tell if your engine needs a rebuild or just one or two parts replaced? And what parts do you need to rebuild a diesel engine? Cummins and Detroit Diesel engine rebuild kits are only two of your options that include all the parts you need to reliably restore your engine of the same brand.

How to Tell If Your Engine Needs a Rebuild

Your engine will tell you when to rebuild it. Wear will produce specific symptoms in your engine. Watch out for several common signs of excessive wear to know when to rebuild your engine.

1. Oil Level Changes

Check the oil regularly in your boat’s engine. The oil color will not tell you if you need an oil change. How many hours you’ve used the engine will dictate when you need to change the oil. A drop in the level indicates a leak somewhere.

The oil serves to keep the engine cool and lubricated while helping to keep cylinder walls sealed and protected from the corrosive power of the elements. The oil itself can become corrosive over time. Left overwinter in the engine, the used oil turns acidic, eating away at the inside of your engine and shortening its life.

Corrosion from any source that causes oil leaks can result in engine seizing. If you have leaks in your system, you may need to rebuild the engine to replace the worn parts and anything else damaged by the corrosion.

2. Blue Smoke

Just as changes in the oil level could indicate a leak, so does blue smoke coming from the boat. Modern diesel boat engines should not produce exhaust smoke unless there is a serious problem. Blue smoke often comes from oil burning in the engine.

Worn piston seals and valve rings could let oil into the engine. While these signs of wear often occur in boats nearing the end of their lives, you don’t have to get a new boat. Using a re-ring kit to replace the worn seals and rings can remedy the problem and give your boat new life. You should check for additional damage because if the seals have worn, other parts of the engine may also have signs of aging which could necessitate the use of a more comprehensive rebuild kit.

Another cause of blue smoke is overfilling the engine with oil. The excessive oil could severely damage the seals on the crankcase. If you run your boat with blue smoke, check the crankcase seals. You may need to replace them. You often find these seals in many rebuild kits.

If you have a turbocharged engine, a leak in the seal could allow the motor to burn oil instead of diesel, causing blue smoke and an engine that still runs even with the fuel tank empty. Once you get the boat stopped, tow it in before replacing the seals on the turbocharger and checking for other engine damage caused by burning lubricating oil instead of diesel.

3. White Smoke

A diesel boat engine that produces white smoke has one of two potentially severe problems. The first is a fuel injection issue in which the injectors are pushing in so much fuel that the engine cannot burn it all. You can test for this by seeing if the exhaust smoke has a diesel smell. If it does, your engine is not burning fuel properly.

The second cause is from a severe coolant leak that gets into the crankcase. Often, this happens when you have a blown head gasket. Because a damaged gasket breaks the seal around the engine, damage to other components may occur. You will need to replace the head gasket and likely all the seals in the engine. It’s a good idea to replace these anyway as long as you have the motor pulled and disassembled to replace the seals and rings.

4. Worn Bearings

Bearings help parts of the engine move smoothly against each other. But when those bearings wear out, they cause knocking from engine parts hitting against each other. Do not ignore engine knocking because it can lead to extensive damage from bearings that continue to wear out.

What Are Engine Rebuild Kits?

Engine rebuild kits include the components you need to replace the bearings, seals, gaskets, pistons rings and other parts inside the engine. The specific components depend on the type of kit you purchase. Some rebuild packages have more parts for more intensive overhauls of the engine.

As long as your boat does not have severe damage or cracks in the engine block itself, you can use a rebuild kit to restore the seals and bearings. These commonly worn parts may be all you need to replace to restore engine performance and stop the problems that encouraged you to seek a rebuild.

During a rebuild, you take apart the components of the engine, clean them and replace seals and other worn parts. You may need to replace piston rings, bearings and even the pistons themselves. Clean and replace components in the upper part around the cylinders if necessary.

Rebuild kits have new seals and occasionally pistons in them, but you will also need to thoroughly clean out the pistons to ensure the new seals and pistons create the required seal and don’t leak. Unless you carefully clean and replace all the reused parts and install the replacements correctly, the rebuilt engine won’t work. Always test the engine after a rebuild to verify the accuracy of the job.

Rebuilds for two-cycle engines differ slightly from four-cycle ones due to their operating differences. First, two-stroke engines must have a turbocharger to pressurize the air before it goes into the cylinder. Four-cycle versions don’t have this component.

In a two-cycle engine, multiple actions happen simultaneously, making for a more complicated engine, though with fewer motions.

1. When the piston moves up, it compresses the air inside, which receives a spray of diesel fuel.
2. The compressed air ignites the fuel and the explosion forces the piston down for the power stroke. When the piston descends, it allows more compressed air from the turbocharger to enter the cylinder.
3. The fresh air pushes the exhaust out of the cylinder.
4. The piston then further compresses the air by moving back up for the compression stroke.

Unlike a two-cycle engine, the four-stroke model follows the same steps but requires four separate strokes instead of two. Four-stroke motors do not have turbochargers, so the pistons must increase the air pressure, contributing to the extra steps.

1. First, the piston moves down, drawing air into the cylinder for the intake stroke.
2. Next, the piston moves up to compress the air for the compression stroke.
3. Third, fuel injectors send diesel into the cylinder, which ignites in the compressed air. This step is the combustion stroke, during which the heat and exhaust generated from combustion send the piston down.
4. Lastly, the exhaust stroke occurs when the piston moves back up to push the exhaust out of the cylinder.

These differences mean two-cycle engines will have specific parts in their rebuild kits due to the differences in the presence of a turbocharger and the pistons.

What Does a Master Engine Rebuild Kit Include?

Engine rebuild kits come in varying sizes with some only including gaskets and seals and others including the pistons. Master engine rebuild kits will have the seals, pistons and other components to rebuild and restore the engine. Depending on the brand, complete engine rebuild kits include the following:

Rod bearings

Main bearings

Crankshaft bearings

Thrust washers

Pistons

Piston pins

Piston pin retainers

Gaskets for the head and oil pan

Piston rings

Cylinder liners

Upper engine gasket set

The most complex rebuild kits may also include gaskets for the lower portion of the engine and front and rear crank seals. More complex packages frequently go by the name of overhaul kits and often are out-of-frame kits for use with the engine pulled from the boat.

Types of Engine Rebuild Kits

Engine rebuild kits reflect the level of restoration the engine needs. The most basic models are re-ring kits that include only gaskets and seals to restore power lost from leaking oil or air. Inframe kits allow you to work on the engine without taking it out of the boat. Out-of-frame kits are the most extensive, requiring high levels of skill and effort to rebuild the entire engine.

Of these three, the most common are inframe, which balance installation with the number of parts.

1. Re-Ring Engine Kits

The most crucial distinction of re-ring kits is their lack of pistons. If you must replace the pistons, you will need an inframe kit.

Even if you do not need to replace the pistons, you will still need to remove them to install the new cylinder liners. As long as the pistons work well, you can save money by purchasing a re-ring kit to replace the seals and gaskets in the engine.

2. Inframe Diesel Rebuild Kits

Inframe engine kits have all the parts of a re-ring set while adding pistons and an upper gasket set. Aside from gaskets for the lower part of the engine, inframe kits offer a complete solution for your engine while being more straightforward to install than out-of-frame sets.

As the name suggests, the engine can stay in the boat while you install and inframe kit. Instead of pulling the entire engine out, you only need to remove the parts from the upper half.

These kits often have everything in a master engine rebuild kit. You can replace almost all the bearings and seals in the upper portion of the engine.

3. Out-of-Frame Engine Rebuild Sets

The most complex and challenging kits to install kits are out-of-frame. Some of these kits also go by the name of overhaul kits, though some inframe options use that term as well.

Out-of-frame kits are not as popular because they require more time and effort to install. These kits include everything from inframe kits with the addition of front and rear crank seals, though parts will depend on the specific brand and engine model.

How to Choose an Inframe Diesel Engine Rebuild Kit

The most popular type of kits for rebuilding engines are inframe. These have numerous parts, including the pistons, and allow you to keep the engine inside the boat during the process, making it much easier to work on.

When choosing an inframe rebuild kit, you will have several options, including those for two-cycle and four-cycle engines, various brands and prices.

1. Type

The type of engine you have will determine the inframe kit you purchase. Always order your set based on your engine’s type. If you have a four-stroke engine, the more complex parts of a two-stroke engine will not work on it. For some two-cycle engines, the pistons have two parts while others have one-part pistons.

To avoid part mistakes, order rebuild kits based on the engine type, brand and part number. For example, the elements in a Detroit Diesel overhaul kit won’t fit on a Cummins engine. Choose parts carefully to prevent wasted time by having to return ill-fitting components.

2. Warranty

The warranty on rebuild kits should guarantee the quality of the elements in the kit. If considering an aftermarket kit, choose one backed by a warranty.

Aftermarket parts need to meet or beat OEM specifications. This quality is vital for rebuild kits that need components designed with precision to fit your engine without gaps.

Each of our premium parts, including our rebuild kits, comes with a full warranty, ensuring the quality of the design and typical use of them.

3. Price

As much as you may not want to admit it, the price will play a role in your choice of the rebuild kit. No one wants to spend more than necessary, but for many engine components, you get what you pay for.

While you do not want to skimp on quality by choosing subpar components, you can save money by opting for premium aftermarket parts instead of OEM. With premium parts, you get OEM quality without the manufacturer’s inflated price.