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Volvo Penta D1-30F


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Had a D1-30 installed about 3 years ago. Engine mounts were too soft so had hard mounts fitted. The soft mounts caused excessive vibration with engine damn near jumping off the mounts.  Other than that, no issues.

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Seems they had an issue with the control panel and / or control box not starting or stopping the engine, and not feeding power out to run the tach or alarms. This was a few years ago, I worked on a D1-20 yesterday that’s ~2.5 years old and has the issue. Evidently a world wide problem on all D series. Other forums have people saying it may have been a bad batch, may have been the official story, although others say they had several parts replaced sometimes more than once to solve it. I’d want to know this was resolved before buying one. 

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mattm, yep, that was a real issue for some users. Some had multiple sequential failures, and some units were faulty out of the box. They are now on the 4th (or even 5th?) generation of the engine control box, and the latest ones seem ok. Some people have moved the control box from the standard engine mount to a bulkhead, as the issue was a heat and vibration one. 

Just as a side note, if you have a D series engine with this issue, it can still be started with a wire to the starter soleniod switch  + with 12v. You wont have any instruments, but the engine will go, and can be stopped with the stop lever (marked "STOP") on the engine. Not ideal obviously, but it will get you home!

Other than that, they are a pretty good engine, IMO.

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thanks,  my issue has been covered perfectly,  i put a new one in 3 weeks ago, and the box failed after 5hrs, was told they have never seen that before,  yet in talking to other owners it very quickly became apparent it is a well known issue,  my box was replaced under warranty with a warning that i need to get the whole electrics on the boat checked as another failure would not be covered, will have that argument if the time comes,  engine was installed by a volvo dealer and signed off with the 5yr warranty so until that time i dont want to make mods that void that such as shifting the box but i will mark it down to be done the day it comes out of warranty,  given the new engines run so hot i am questioning the placement of the box directly below the heat exchanger.

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Just out of interest then, whats the part number on the current unit? (So I can check and see if its the newest one)?

Also, it should not be hotter than any other engine - should run at just under 90c (water temp)....if you have a water temp gauge or the NMEA connection box, so you can see the temp.

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Re... not stopping

I discovered by accident that if the batteries have somehow been turned off while the engine is running then the engine stop button won't work. Even if the batteries are turned back on the button will still not stop the engine so you have to resort to the manual engine stop lever located on the engine.

Turning the ignition off then on again (with batteries turned on) and then starting the engine... then everything functions as it should.

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According to the Volvo gauge they seem to run at 95 deg... been this way since new and consistent and no issue for 8 years now and 1245hrs. I don't know how accurate Volvo's gauge calibration is though.

One other issue with the D1 series (which Ovlov say nothing and claim no issues despite plenty of evidence on the internet) is the factory placement of the coolant tank. From memory if you heel over a bit on port tack (doesn't even have to be excessive) you can get air into the coolant system and get the temp warning buzzer going off very quickly.... in which the best thing to do is tack and shut down the engine if the buzzer doesn't stop pretty quickly but ideally tacking gets the air out of the coolant and circulating again. The cure is to remotely locate the coolant tank to a place that will remain above the engine when heeled on either tack. This issue was discovered shortly after installation and despite Ovlov investigating  nothing was changed until we did our own research and fixed the fundamental design problem ourselves.

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95 seems hot with an 87deg thermostat. Could be the gauge. If you are heeling sufficiently for the header tank to suck air, I'd be worried about oil pressure. If you're heeling that much, then you must be sailing? Why the engine? The old 2000 series has a max angle of 22 deg, not sure on the D series though.

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Acccording to the book thermostat starts opening at 90deg and not fully open until 102deg,  i have been told that 100 deg is not unusual and wont trigger the alarm,  will check that part number next time i am down, i am also going to take an IR thermometer and check what temp the heat exchanger gets to

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My D2 40 F runs at 89.7 deg virtually all the time, with short duration minor fluctuations of less than 2 deg. This is what the NMEA 2000 interface reports. 

The heat exchanger should be hot to touch at the hot in end, and only warm at the cool out end. If its too hot to hold your hand on for a few secs at the hot end, I'd suspect  it needs cleaning, or there is insufficient flow for some reason.

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If you look at the attached image you can see the coolant tank and heat exchanger and associated hoses are essentially at the same height but opposite sides of the motor. It takes stuff all heel for the Coolant tank to no longer be the highest point in the system... at which stage the issues start. Remote locating can completely resolve this problem.

Generally I motor or sail... but the way the motor comes ex factory the buzzer could sound within 2 minutes of hoisting the main on port tack even with minimal heel... I certainly what to be less restricted than that. 1245hr later and no real mechanical issues (other than a slight oil leak from a o-ring) would suggest oil pressure has never been a problem.

 

volvo.jpg

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Well, I dont agree with that, but your call. Here are the MIDI box part numbers;

Volvo Part Number Year released
3843668 2006
21120710 2008
21120871  
21511215  
21558929 2014
21558939  
22458451  
22458451-P 2017
22594274  
23195776 2018
23231607 2019

 

Lots of them!!!

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Hi @chariot, could you please share which engine mounts you ended up going for, and what was the shore hardness on them? I am having the same problem now with a freshly installed D1-30 and looking for a good set of replacement mounts.

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On 9/06/2020 at 8:02 PM, Cameron said:

If you look at the attached image you can see the coolant tank and heat exchanger and associated hoses are essentially at the same height but opposite sides of the motor. It takes stuff all heel for the Coolant tank to no longer be the highest point in the system... at which stage the issues start. Remote locating can completely resolve this problem.

Generally I motor or sail... but the way the motor comes ex factory the buzzer could sound within 2 minutes of hoisting the main on port tack even with minimal heel... I certainly what to be less restricted than that. 1245hr later and no real mechanical issues (other than a slight oil leak from a o-ring) would suggest oil pressure has never been a problem.

 

volvo.jpg

@Cameron, so if you self-relocate the coolant tank or the MDI box - does it affect Volvo's 5-year warranty?

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8 minutes ago, Olaf said:

@Cameron, so if you self-relocate the coolant tank or the MDI box - does it affect Volvo's 5-year warranty?

Yes. 

Also, the coolant tank is not and has not been an issue on any of the boat fitted with a D series that I've worked on. MDI boxes are another story. Here is an iteresting link about them https://nordkyndesign.com/engine-reliability-a-look-at-the-volvo-penta-mdi-black-box/

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I have since sold the boat so am working on memory. I take it that you have a shaft drive. I told the Volvo agent that did the install that I would not accept the amount of vibration so they changed the mounts from the factory soft mounts to the mounts used on the 50hp. 

I suspect the mounts used were for a sail drive application but were not appropriate for a shaft drive.

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