DannyC Posted November 4, 2018 Report Share Posted November 4, 2018 (edited) Hi all, I was hoping for some advice on engines from you kind people. I am looking at two boats and trying to decide which is best. BMC 1.8 Diesel Barrus Shire 45 Does anyone have any experience with or knowledge of these? Thanks in advance. Edited November 4, 2018 by DannyC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan de Enfield Posted November 4, 2018 Report Share Posted November 4, 2018 1 minute ago, DannyC said: Hi all, I was hoping for some advice on engines from you kind people. I am looking at two boats and trying to decide which is best. BMC 1.8 Diesel Barrus Shire 45 Does anyone have any experience with or knowledge of these? Thanks in advance. Engines are easily replaced or repaired - the hull should be your deciding factor. Whatever the engine a boat on the bottom of the river is not much use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan de Enfield Posted November 4, 2018 Report Share Posted November 4, 2018 (edited) Assuming both boats are identical (except for the engines) you can chooses between : BMC - reliable if has been well maintained, getting a bit long in the tooth, spares readily available and cheap. Barrus - relatively modern engine, spares expensive, reliable engines. Both 'will do the job', both will use about the same amount of fuel. Edited November 4, 2018 by Alan de Enfield Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyC Posted November 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2018 Thanks for the advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichLech Posted November 4, 2018 Report Share Posted November 4, 2018 I've a Barrus Shire 45. Engine is actually a Yanmar as used in some tractors and diggers. Built in 2005. Done just over 2K hours now. Only thing I've had to replace is temp gauge sender unit. I priced up spare Barrus Shire alternators and they were prohibitively expensive so I managed to find alternatives. Yanmar filters are pretty expensive. There are alternatives but I don't bother just to save a few quid once a year. Uses somewhere between 1.0 & 1.5 litres per hour. Overall, I've been delighted with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bizzard Posted November 4, 2018 Report Share Posted November 4, 2018 I'd go for the Barras Yanmar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momac Posted November 4, 2018 Report Share Posted November 4, 2018 Anything BMC is an antique and was hardly high tech even in its day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmr Posted November 4, 2018 Report Share Posted November 4, 2018 The Barrus is a modern Japanese engine and is good and reliable. The BMC is an antique lump of British Leyland technology that has probably been badly maintained, and they have some known weaknesses. But, if its running well the BMC does sound really quite nice, they have a very pleasing tickover and they are almost a classic Vintage engine in a funny sort of way. There are a lot of them on the cut and a lot of spares available and a lot of people who know how to fix them. ................Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan_fincher Posted November 4, 2018 Report Share Posted November 4, 2018 Previous comments about the BMC are a tad harsh - it's not a bad engine at all, and there are many still about that are well maintained. One thing to be aware is that after BMC finished UK production, they continued to be made for a large number of years in Turkey, and these were actually still available as a new engine not that many years ago, (i can't remember exactly, but less than 10 years ago, certainly). So if the boat had a Turkish BMC 1.8, (and it may well have), it may not be very old after all. There are some small but significant differences between the UK engine and the Turkish one, so you need to know which you have when ordering spares. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted November 4, 2018 Report Share Posted November 4, 2018 I love my BMC 1.8 . Engine of choice with no cost constraints. Didn't want jap ****. Head down with a few pints of Admans Broadside in me??? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cereal tiller Posted November 4, 2018 Report Share Posted November 4, 2018 2 hours ago, MartynG said: Anything BMC is an antique and was hardly high tech even in its day. nothing was high tec when the BMC's were Contemporary 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boater Sam Posted November 4, 2018 Report Share Posted November 4, 2018 There are more BMC running today than there will ever be of Barrus. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Movin' on Posted November 4, 2018 Report Share Posted November 4, 2018 3 hours ago, DannyC said: Hi all, I was hoping for some advice on engines from you kind people. I am looking at two boats and trying to decide which is best. BMC 1.8 Diesel Barrus Shire 45 Does anyone have any experience with or knowledge of these? Thanks in advance. Pick the boat not the engine 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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