Kubota V3600

Hello all,
I've sourced a newish Kubota v3600, a prm 160 and the drive plate to mate them. I know I could run a dry exhaust but this is going into a CT41 sailboat so I'd like to know if there is an off-the-shelf Exaust header/Heat exchager from Beta or Nanni or some such. Or is there a custom option to water cool the exhaust? I don't want to engineer something in my shop but I will if that's necassary. Any thoughts?

Yes there is, the problem is getting one. Beta 75, and Beta 90 are based on the V3 series, as well as the Nanni 4.115. Kubota V3300, V3600, V3800 all use the same exhaust manifold (please verify this independently before buying) and should fit the same wet manifold/heat exchanger combo. The problem is that you can't buy one unless you provide an authorized dealer with a valid block serial number (one that is on their books). So you either find a wrecked engine and liberate the parts or a friendly owner who lets you use his serial number.

Realistically you are stuck with welding your own water jacketed manifold and using a separate heat exchanger of appropriate size then plumbing them together the old fashioned way.
Welding or casting a combined manifold/heat exchanger unit is possible but only for someone with the appropriate skills/shop.

Ah ha, I suspected something was up. I couldn't get a straight answer from several "suppliers" to save my life. So refusing to supply parts is their way of making sure we don't cobble together our own setups for 1/10th the price. That seems like 1950's thinking but it sure looks like that's what I'm running into. Silly, it just opens up a business opportunity for someone else...maybe me.

It's their intellectual property, the do as they like. You design yours you can always sell it.
I forgot one manufacturing option, you can also 3D print the watercooled exhaust.

Anyway, this guy says he does a V3300 manifold: https://www.mesamarine.com/Catalogpink.html#KUBOTA

Thanks, you are correct of course. However this type of behavior is illegal in the states. It's a type of market manipulation called Price Fixing. Which is why they do it on the downlow and aren't just above board about it.

It's not market manipulation, over the years there have been other Kubota marinisers (some like Sole still exist) with their own solutions and at least one vendor that offered combined exhaust manifold/heat exchanger units for the smaller Kubota engines for sale. Beta, Nanni, etc. are not in the business of diy marinisation kits, they are under no obligation to sell their parts to the general public. They are obligated to service their customers and are happy to do so, if you own one of their products (even third hand) they will provide the parts. The fact that there are no third party suppliers for you is because you just happened to pick a not very popular engine model (for marine applications) at a bad time.

The great days of diy marinisation are over, people aren't really interested anymore. For the very popular engine models there still are legacy kits in stock or people that will make you a new one for a price. But earning a living just from making kits isn't going to happen anymore. The guys willing to go to the trouble of fixing up a bargain second hand engine usually have some skills to fabricate the needed stuff themselves and aren't willing to pay commercial prices anyway because "How much? Keep dreaming man, I can weld that in an afternoon for the price of scrap". People wanting a brand new engine will just buy it already marinized, simply because the savings for diy are really slim when buying everything new.
Wich leaves only guys wanting exotic engines, and those either have serious skills and don't give a *** about existing solutions or enough money to employ a custom shop. These are the people who 3D print a new oil cooler or turbo manifold just because they think their new design is better then OEM or their own old design.

Another example of the "Marine" surcharge. Corporate ethics are carcinogenic.

Phaser has a few for their generators, think they are Bowman made not positive they go as large as the 3300 but it might be worth a call. Bowman might have something in the catalog. Call Mesa marine, they may have a universal design or a reasonable royalty. We did a 4045 that had someone else's design, royalty was reasonable (cheaper than hiring a scan or cad one off). The Mesa web site is from the last century and seems as out of date, they are pretty knowledgeable on the phone.

Actualy I think Bowman is the one I have on my little Perkins 4-154, And they seem to be pretty good quality.

comfisherman said:

Phaser has a few for their generators, think they are Bowman made not positive they go as large as the 3300 but it might be worth a call. Bowman might have something in the catalog. Call Mesa marine, they may have a universal design or a reasonable royalty. We did a 4045 that had someone else's design, royalty was reasonable (cheaper than hiring a scan or cad one off). The Mesa web site is from the last century and seems as out of date, they are pretty knowledgeable on the phone.

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Thanks, I'm checking with several of them now and I'll report back. Several say they make/have made v3300 heat exchanger manifolds and Kubota says v3300 and v3600 are identical heads but does anyone know for sure?

Try here - Marine Exhaust Systems of Alabama, Inc. https://www.marineexhausts.com/ Call them. Ask for Mark. They have stuff for V3300 at least.

Marine exhaust of Alabama was the most responsive and the best price at $2800 for a keel cooled variant. I'm still mulling it over. If it was $800 it would be a no brainier, if it was $1800 I'd be on the fence. At $2800, I just think it would be not that hard to make in my little modest shop with mig and a milling machine

You could also try Torresenson marine - they handle a lot of Universal diesel parts. The Sailboat Specialists Since 1965 - Torresen Marine https://torresenmarine.com/

We did a small cummins a few years back. Used a basic photo scan of the exhaust outlet, then had some plate laser cut to match the exhaust ports then tigged up a box over some exhaust tube. Then added a few plumbing ports and an off the shelf radiator cap assembly.

It has a few years and several thousand hrs on it, so far so good. Just need a laser table, access to cad, a lidar scanner and a tig machine...

comfisherman said:

We did a small cummins a few years back. Used a basic photo scan of the exhaust outlet, then had some plate laser cut to match the exhaust ports then tigged up a box over some exhaust tube. Then added a few plumbing ports and an off the shelf radiator cap assembly.

It has a few years and several thousand hrs on it, so far so good. Just need a laser table, access to cad, a lidar scanner and a tig machine...

Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking, maybe $400 in material and $400 in labor maybe a bit more but that's the idea.

Neighbor had one done locally for about that on what I think was a 4039 dry stack, said it was about 800 from a local shop so your estimation is in the mix.