Logo

Perkins 4108 won't start when warm!

SailorPie

New member
Hi all,

I am new to the forum. Just bought a yacht equiped with a Perkins 4108 and I have some issues with it. It doesn't seem to start when it is warn, that is when it has been used for few hours, which seems really weird to me as I thought that diesel engine would actually work better when warm...?

When I had a try sail with the previous owner, everything went smoothly (heated for 15 seonds, started the engine, run for few minutes to get out of the marina, had a one hour-ish sail, started the engine again and came back).
When we first took the boat by ourselves, we started the engine alright in the morning, had to motor for a little while (30 min), stopped for breakfast, start and run for another 30 min or so, stopped 15 minutes, and then it was a nightmare to get it to start again (had to heat up like crazy until we saw white smoke out of the air inlet, and cranked the key for 10-15 seconds).
Tried again at the end of the day (we had to motor for 8 hours), simply won't start... It did eventually after we let it cool down for maybe an hour.

Any ideas?

The engine is from 1990, has 1800 hours.

Also, newbie question: is there any danger in heating the engine for too long or in keeping the key in the start position for too long (say 15 seconds?) It is possible to overheat or overflow the engine or something?

Thank you in advance for your expert advices,

Antoine
 
Back
Top