Shipped from Spain. 10 days delivery.
Vessel: Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 40.3 2006, sailing in Greek waters in 2021.
The main mission of a boat’s engine mounts is to assure the engine seat by isolating the vibrations generated by the engine itself and absorb any shock and vibration when the ship is sailing.
In addition to the noise and little comfort on board, the vibrations generate a wear on all boat bindings, going from the screws of the furniture through the electrical system to the steering and rudder systems.
What happens if I do not change the engine mounts on the boat?
The use and years in service of flexible marine engine mounts damage the anti-vibration properties of the silentblocks. This happens in all engine types, including Yanmar or other brands of sailboats or yacht engines. Not replacing the engine mounts can cause damage to the marine engine itself, twist the propulsion shaft, cause inconvenience to passengers, and potentially be a flotation safety risk if the engine is not properly fixed to the vessel.
Can the replacement of the marine mounts be done at an affordable price?
Without being a professional mechanic, you can change the engine supports of the boat. With the correct tools, you only need to follow several steps. There is a community of ellebogen marine media users, who share their experiences and ways to change the supports. In this community there are explanatory videos about how you can do the replacement of these supports when the sailboat or boat has an engine compartment of small or large dimensions.
We will explain a real case of an owner of a sailboat Sun Odyssey from 2006. The engine is a Yanmar 4-cylinder reference Yanmar 4JH4E. It is a sailboat of 12.2 meters in length and 3.1m of beam made of monolithic polyester with its hull being strengthened with Kevlar and keel epoxy treated. All with a total displacement of 8090Kg.
This Sailboat well maintained and properly stowed can accommodate 8 people.
Before start, you should know the engine reference. This reference is on a plate attached to the engine cylinder head cover.
Having this information, we must identify the reference of each flexible engine mount of the Yanmar engine. Generally speaking, they have a number engraved on the rubber that is visible on side of the flexible engine mount that can be either 75, 100, 150 or 200.
Then install the equivalent Ellebogen flexible marine mounts that contain the same number as the piece to be exchanged, as it is shown in the illustrations below:
In case you do not know what engine mounts correspond to the Yanmar engine, you can enter the reference of the Yanmar engine in the section “choose your engine” in the selector of our website: https://www.ellebogen.com/us/shop-online/
It automatically gives the answer of which Ellebogen marine mount are suitable for the chosen engine. The following Yanmar engine references can be chosen: 2GM, 2GMF, 3GM, 3GMF, 3GMD, 3GMDF, 2YM15, 3YM20, 3YM30, 3YM30AE, 2GM20, 2GM20B, 2GM20F, 3GM30, 3GM30B, 3GM30F, 2GM20V, 2GM20VE, 2GM20FV, 2GM20FVE, 3GM30V, 3GM30VE, 3GM30FV, 3GM30FVE, 3HM, 3HMF, 3HM35, 3HM35F, 3JH2, 3JH2BE, 3JH2TBE, 3JH2E, 3JH2TE, 3JH3E, 3JH4E, 3JH5E, 3JH5AE, 3JH40, 4JH-E, 4JH-TE, 4JH-HTE, 4JH-DTE, 4JH2, 4JH2E, 4JH2TE, 4JH2BE, 4JH2TBE, 4JH2HTE, 4JH2DTE, 4JH2UTBE, 4JH2UTE, 4JH3E, 4JH4, 4JH4-E, 4JH4AE, 4JH5E, 4JH45, 4JH57, 4JH3TE, 4JH3HTE, 4JH3DTE, 4JH4TE, 4JH4HTE, 4JH80, 4JH110.
As long as the drive shaft is well aligned, it is convenient to ensure that it can not move. For this, we can place, for example, a wooden board under the shaft, and we proceed to release the connection between the shaft and the transmission.
Once this step has been done, we can start replacing the flexible engine mounts. In this case, Carlos, the owner Jenneau Sun Odyssey 40.3 called “Velero Krait” decided to make an sketch of where the mounts had to go and place each mount near the position that had to be installed.
With the engine secured and ready to be raised, the fastenings of the marine engine mounts have to be loosened, so that the marine engine is elevated and the flexible supports of the boat can be easily removed.
With all bracket fasteners released, it is needed to raise the motor and replace the old supports with the new ones, one by one, looking at the references of the rubber. It is convenient that each new support has the leveling “H” at the same height as the old support. With this step, we ensure that the shaft remains well aligned.
At this point it is important to note that in some installations, the levelling nut may be lower than the 12mm thick standard washer that the Ellebogen mounts incorporate.
If this is the case, we recommend to keep and use the nut of the “old” mount or use the extra low height nuts that come in the box of Ellebogen flexible marine engine mounts as an extra: http://ellebogen.com/elle/wp-content/downloads/extra/Extra-low-height-levelling-nuts.pdf
In some cases, this 2 mm height difference, may avoid forcing the shaft on the stern gland.
Fig 9: Picture on the left shows the levelling of the mount with the 12mm height nut, as it can be seen there is no levelling. This could cause in some cases a noise on the stern gland. In such case the original nuts, should be used or directly the extra low height nuts supplied on the box: http://ellebogen.com/elle/wp-content/downloads/extra/Extra-low-height-levelling-nuts.pdf
Once the four marine engine mounts have been replaced, the engine must be lowered, and it is advisable to leave it at rest for 48 hours so that the supports can perform their main creep/settlement.
With the engine already in place, we present the two driveshaft discs and proceed to perform the alignment. It is necessary to level the anti-vibration mounts, adjusting the height of the support nut, so that the discs of the driveshaft be in parallel.
The leveling between the base nut and the fixing nut should not exceed more than 7mm. Since the propulsion force of the engine can generate a moment on the height adjusters and this can make it shear by fatigue.
If a higher elevation is needed, it can be achieved by placing a metal plate at the bottom, but in general this corrective measure is not very usual.
To check that the two discs are in parallel, it is convenient to be able to introduce a gauge of 0.003́ ́/0.07mm on all four sides and it must be able to go through without difficulties.
This is hard work, but it is important. A misalignment of the driveshaft will surely bring lot of eccentricity and, therefore, noise and vibrations.
A well done job pays off, proof of this are the videos we show below where you can see the Yanmar 4JH4E engine after the installation of the Ellebogen marine supports.
Carlos and Ivana, a young couple from Alicante, Spain decided to live the dream. After pausing their jobs, rented their house in Alicante and decided discover the world.
Their first trip was to Greece, island hopping from Balearic islands, Sardignia, Italy and then Greece. Live itinerary:https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV_KRAIT
During the month of August, they met a French sailboat owner who shared with them his travelling experience on the boat and particularly a problem with the flexible engine mounts on his marine engine.
Carlos after doing a websearch contacted Ellebogen on the 11th of August. The mounts were shipped directly to Lekkas Shipyard in Greece.
The delivery was done with DHL, the selected Ellebogen transport company. The mounts arrived at the harbor on time. Collecting the mounts required some investigation as the internal logistics at the Shipyard was not quick.
After checking the Proof of delivery of the DHL service and the signature of the person who received the goods, the mounts were found and embarked on de Krait Sailboat.
During the installation there were some hickups with the question of the height of the nuts.
Ellebogen technical assistance guided Carlos to the correct installation and he wrote this letter for Ellebogen.
Translation to English:
I will tell you a bit about our experience and the reason why we changed the silent blocks and why we decided on your product.
We are a couple who like the world of sailing, life on the boat. We have our boat a jeanneau sun odyssey 40.3 from 2006 that we bought in 2016 in very good condition but with a lot of time to dedicate to living on it and traveling through different countries, which was our goal. For those of us who sail long distances through the Mediterranean, we know the vital importance of our mechanical propulsion source “our engine”, a 55hp atmospheric yanmar model 4jh4e, I say the vital importance because unlike other seas such as the Atlantic when navigating through this is our sea and having to make long crossings we always have to do more engine hours than we would like, if it is not because we run out of winds or at night in the middle of a 200 mile crossing it is because we have little and we have to go doing mixed sailing “sail and motor” to be able to do a decent speed and to be able to meet some objectives to free some winds not to reach complicated and unknown places at night. For all these reasons, the engine of our boat must always be in perfect condition and we cannot allow to have breakdowns due to lack of maintenance, wear or fatigue of materials. One of the most important parts and that many owners tend to forget are the silent blocks since they are in charge of supporting the propulsion forces of our propeller, they are also in charge of absorbing the vibrations of our engine and therefore making the navigation more comfortable.. We had planned to change them a few months ago but for one reason or another we could not find the time.
This summer 2021 in our trip through Greece we met a French captain who had had serious problems due to the breakage of two silent blocks, this was the moment in which we decided that we had to do it now and not wait any longer since we were in Greece (Saronic Islands) and we had a long journey to Spain. We started searching the net and found the ELLEBOGEN website, we really liked its presentation and the quality and dedication in its manufacture. On the same website we saw a phone number to contact us and we contacted AITOR one of the managers of the company who is also a lover of navigation, when we discussed our case he advised us very well and made things very easy for him. shipping on the island of Greece where we were. 15 days later we had the silent blocks on board, the presentation of the product is perfect. With the explanatory videos on your website, we had no problem installing it. Now we have great peace of mind knowing that these important parts are new, on the other hand we have already been powered by a few hours with them and we have noticed fewer vibrations transmitted when we have the engine started.
We thank Carlos and Ivana for their confidence on Ellebogen. The values of our company Ellebogen are those that we like to see between sailors, this is to say, brotherhood between Seamen and troubleshooting when things are not easy.
More info on Carlos and Ivana. Two real Ellebogeners:
Instagram: @velerokrait
