Offroad-Express

Hi guys,
Not really a 4WD post at all but couldn't find anywhere else to put it. My boat is powered by an old Isuzu C240 truck engine. From all accounts these were great little engines. I'm going to be refurbishing and rebuilding the boats interior and while I'm in there I'm considering between either repowering it with something with a little more grunt (TD42 maybe) or just cleaning this old engine up.

Any pros or cons against or for this engine. Its NA, barely uses any diesel, in this application she is required to sit at about 1900RPM all day and runs at about 170 degrees F. Maybe someown owns or has owned a truck with the C240 in it and can give me any advice.

Cheers all, Dylan.

You could bolt a 4jb1t in its place. 2.8l turbo

I wouldn't worry about updating it unless it's giving you issues or a lack of power for the application. good little engines.

cheers guys, haven't really had any issues thus far so thinking I'll just clean her up a bit

That old saying


"If it aint broke, dont fix it"

yeah mate they're super basic old things can't argue with simplicity for your application!
lots of them in gensets/loaders/rollers etc from the 80s that have big hours on them and run fine.

Yeah I've totally decided that Im sticking with it. Simple, easy, reliable and bullet proof. Any ideas on how to wind up the power a little? Would they handle a small turbo? It is currently rated at 55hp. Being in a boat application I can't really swap engines that easily as the propellor shaft, stern gland and transmission flange need to be waaaay more perfectly aligned than I could manage to do.

So if I can, I neeeeeeeeeeeeed more power. Maybe 20-30% more

sell the entire boat and buy a boat with more power. Likley to work out much cheeper

you could tweak the fuel and add a j-pipe type turbo setup and it'd probably go ok.
infinite cooling so you could run a water-air intercooler and probably actually get quite a lot of grunt out of it, although I'm not sure how much it'd handle.
being a boat you've got pretty constant loadings vs. that of a car/ute so you can probably achieve more than you'd think.

give it a go haha

Mudde1 wrote:sell the entire boat and buy a boat with more power. Likley to work out much cheeper

haha yeah crossed my mind.....

Yeah the loading is very constant and increases with RPM considerably. My most fuel efficient engine : water speed is at 1900 RPM. With more HP I can swing a steeper prop at the same speed. Will look into costings.

cheers all. Now get back to ya trucks!!!