Any ideas on this one, my Aquabell 27 is currently powered by a pair of ford 2.5 di diesels, they are economical but pretty gutless. Ive been told they are bullet proof though. I am looking at keeping all the marinising bits and going to look out for a pair of identical engines but the 2.5 tdi, the turbos will give the engines about 100 hp standard, this should get her on the plane as she cant do that at the moment although its not the end of the world because she is a pleasure to be at sea in.
I know there are plenty of tricks to getting a few more hp out of the turbocharged motors such as changing the injectors, winding the fuel screw in and even intercooling them, any other ideas or opinions on this would be valued.
Might be an idea asking on one of the diesel engine forums. A bigger turbo would also help and as you say intercooling the intake air which is pretty effective when you can utilise cold sea water. Of course the more HP you extract from any engine the more stress you put on big and little end bearings, rods, pistons etc etc. It is always a trade off HP for reliability.
Good luck which ever way you go but in my opinion, if it ain't broke don't try n fix it too much or you could end up with a blown engine and big bill.
I cant afford to replace the engines yet but have turned the pumps up a bit and will re-prop her later as the revs aren't enough to get into the power band of the engines. As they are non-turbo they lack power anyway so putting turbo charged engines of the same type will give me a combined hp of about 40-50 hp, that should do it.
