Good as new? Volvo is now offering full factory remanufacturing of their boat engines
Why fit a brand new engine when Volvo Penta’s remanufacturing service can rebuild you an old one to the same standard for a fraction of the price? Hugo Andreae investigates
One of the joys of buying a good quality new or used boat is the length of service it can give you. Hull design hasn’t changed massively in the last 30 years and a well-built GRP or metal hull should last for another 30 years or more. Everything else from the interior to the electrics, plumbing and nav gear can be renovated or replaced.
So if you want to extend the life of your current boat or buy a secondhand boat with a view to refurbishing it, that just leaves one key element outstanding: the drivetrain. The boat may have a timeless hull and a spotless interior but if the engines are tired and unreliable, you’ll struggle to enjoy it properly.
Until now, your only options for resolving this have been to have the engines rebuilt by a technician or to replace them with brand new ones at considerable expense. Now Volvo Penta is offering a third option: a full factory remanufacturing service that restores them to as-new condition at a fraction of the price.
Currently the offer is only open to D4, D6, D8 and D13 pre-EVC 2.0 engines but it’s due to be extended to D11 and D16 engines in 2025/26 and others beyond that. It can even include a full rebuild of the IPS pod drive unit.
Valves and top end parts are often replaced
Good as new
All the work is done by Volvo Penta technicians, in VP factories using VP parts to the exact same standards as brand new ones. As a result, the ‘Reman’ engines, as Volvo likes to call them, are guaranteed to deliver exactly the same power, reliability and fuel efficiency as a new one and, provided they are also installed by a Volvo Penta technician, they come with the same 24-month parts and labour warranty. It sounds like a tempting proposition, so how does it work and what exactly does it involve?
The first thing to understand is that it’s a different process to an engine rebuild service. It’s not a case of sending your current engine off to Volvo and getting the same one back three months later. Instead, you exchange your current engine for one that has already been through the remanufacturing process.
The benefit of this is that you don’t lose months of valuable boating time waiting for your engines to be rebuilt. And any updates and design changes made to components since yours was first built will be incorporated as standard.
There is also an option to have the EVC throttle and joystick controls upgraded to include new features such as assisted docking and joystick steering. The only proviso is that it has to be the same engine as the one you’re exchanging it for and the donor engine needs to be approved by the dealer to ensure its ‘core’ is fit for remanufacturing.
Upgrades can be applied to the EVC throttle
Re-use and recycle
Once approved, the engine is sent to one of two specialist remanufacturing facilities based in France and Sweden. Here, it is stripped down to its individual parts and then cleaned, scanned and inspected to evaluate what can be refurbished and what needs replacing. Typically, the replacement list includes anything prone to wear and tear, such as cylinder liners, piston rings, cogs, valves and ancillaries like belts, starter motors and alternators, while blocks, crankshafts, crankcases, flywheels and the like can usually be refurbished.
Typically, up to 60% of components are re-used, while the remainder are recycled.
‘Reman’ is a cost effective and less wasteful way to replace your current Volvo Penta engine
Not only does this save considerable expense, it also reduces waste, preserves natural resources and consumes less energy. In fact, Volvo estimates the Reman process uses 56% less CO2 than building a new engine from scratch.
Once the shopping list of new parts has been drawn up, it’s sent off to the warehouse for picking, while the rest of the components are refurbished and retested to the same precise tolerances as a brand new one. Only when they are satisfied that everything meets these standards and the new parts are delivered, is the engine reassembled, repainted and put through a series of tests to ensure it performs like new. IPS drives go through a very similar process and are actually assembled on the same line as the new ones.
PS drives are rebuilt on the same production line as new ones
The costs
Volvo is a bit vague about the likely cost/saving of repowering with a remanufactured engine instead of a brand new one, saying only that: “The price for any Reman package depends on the boater’s installation and an assessment made by an authorised Volvo Penta dealer. It is difficult to state actual percentages of savings across the board as it depends on the type
of vessel.”
However, it does point out that there are significant additional savings to be made due to the speed and ease of installing a remanufactured engine that fits directly into the vessel, with no need to change any of the surrounding systems such as engine mounts, cooling systems, throttles and steering controls.
Of course you do need to have the same engine already fitted to your boat for this to be an option. You can’t just buy a remanufactured engine off the shelf or offer a different make or model of engine in exchange. It has to be a like-for-like swap. Nor is Volvo able to offer a remanufacturing service for its Aquamatic DP sterndrive units, although it doesn’t rule this out in the future. But as a means of extending the life of your current boat or as part of a comprehensive refurb of a recent secondhand purchase, it appears to make a lot of sense.
If you enjoyed this….
Motor Boat & Yachting is the world’s leading magazine for Motoryacht enthusiasts. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams, as well as tests and news of all the latest motorboats.
Plus you’ll get our quarterly Custom Yachting supplement where we share the last on offer in the superyacht world and at the luxury end of the market.
Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.
This article Good as new? Volvo is now offering full factory remanufacturing of their boat engines appeared first on Motor Boat & Yachting.
