Buying a 1998 405, with engine fire history

[TomFromTheDelta]

Hi Everyone,
Just wondering, small engine fire, diesel engines with an oil hose rupture fire.
I am going to look at her this week.
I was hoping to see if there is any good advice here.
1) The ups and downs of a 405,
2) Bilge fires and what to look for???
(Naturally I am hiring a surveyer to have a look before purchase, but I want was hoping to hear from owners about such items like,\
Running the 405, fuel mileage (Cummings 5.7), pros and cons, hints at this vessel in general

As always thankiong you in advance,
Tom

[waybomb]

You are doing the right thing with the surveyor. I'd also do an engine survey if not planned. I'm sure he'll check the structure of the hull, cabin floor and wiring. Have no experience with a 405, so i can't help there.

Oh, and Welcome!

[CYO Admin]

You are doing the right thing with the surveyor. I'd also do an engine survey if not planned. I'm sure he'll check the structure of the hull, cabin floor and wiring. Have no experience with a 405, so i can't help there.

Oh, and Welcome!

What Fred said!

The fire could be no dig deal or a real big deal. I good vessel and engine survey is a must. Let is know how it goes!

[AaHubb]

I looked at a Bayliner that had burned up one engine, could still smell the smoke even several years after the fire, passed on it. My 404 has the Cummins 5.7 diesels. They have been completely reliable for the four years I have owned the boat. I don't have hard figures on fuel burn rate but they seem to be thrifty. I cruise at 1200 ~ 1400 rpm (8~10knts) top speed is around 18knts.

[TomFromTheDelta]

Well,
We bought it!!!!!!!!!!!
The fire looks like it was the result of a failed oil cooler hose. when the hose failed, it sprayed tranny oil on the turbo and caught fire. The halon system put it out with in a minute or two. You can't even smell smoke when you board her. Of course once we started tearing into the damage, we started to but no damage at all to the interior cabin.
The surveyer looked at it and said it was no big deal, there were wires that were overheated and melted, some of the 3/4" plywood where the wire molding was attached to was scortched. We've had it a week and so far we have replaced all the bad wiring using heat shrink butt connectors and are in the middle of pulling out all of the wire molding and damaged wood.
The turbo injested the fire so its in the shop getting rebuilt. The tranny needs to be pulled out and get rebuilt.
I'm doing all the other maintenance myself. I pulled the oil coolers, and the after coolers and dropped them off at the radiator shop to get boiled out. The oil cooler was 90% plugged up with old zincs that unscrewed themselves and flowed to the water inlet. Next I plan on removing the heat exchangers and seeing how bad they are. Looks like the zincs may have been a little old, one was broken off halfway down the lenght of it.
We ran the generator, and the port engine and they both sounded fine. Because of the fire damage, (turbo) we havent got to run the starbord engine yet.
I had last week off, so I could get a lot done. The next few weeks will be working on it during the weekends, but with the 120 volt and 12 volt systems up and running my wife and son are able to stay onboard and take care of a whole bunch of other stuff.

[waybomb]

Congrats on the purchase!
It sure feels good fixing things yourself, doesn't it? Sounds like you are going after the correct things.

So, now we NEED pictures!

[CYO Admin]

What Fred said... PICS!

[ScubaPete]

I have a 2002 406 with Cummins 6BTA's, sounds like basically the same boat. Glad the fire wasn't a big deal and you went forward with the purchase.
Do you know why the oil cooler hose failed? You may want to replace the two on the other engine as well. Let us know how it's going. Where is your boat? (Salt or fresh water?)