Troubleshooting Marine Diesel Engines, 4th Ed.

When you are looking for a simple explanation to a complicated set of directions you usually ask a friend, not in this case, just look at the book. I found Peter Compton's book a very helpful and interesting guide to trouble shooting your way out of a frustrating situation. I am teaching marine engineers and running courses for weekend sailors and would have no hesitation in urging them to buy a copy for their book shelf. The diagrams are first class and I use the book as an example to my students. Well done Peter for giving me the tools to make the job easier.

Last Friday evening I gave your book to a friend as a gift. The next day we all went out on their boat to enjoy the Fleet Week festivities. About 1 mile offshore the engine just quit, no warning just quit running. The first thing we did was to drop the hook, the second was to get your book out.We went down the trouble shooting tree, checking each item and following the Yes-No flow. Well, 45 minutes later we had the engine running. The beauty of it was that without the book we would have NOT found the problem. (The problem was in the fuel return line) Without the book we would never had thought to check there for the problem.Needless to say my friends just LOVE your book.

When you read this book you suddenly realise that diesel engines are extremely reasonable creatures that behave or misbehave for reasons that are usually very predictable. The main problem with owning a diesel engine is that you can pay a "diesel" mechanic a lot of money for him to find the cause of a problem,and then pay a lot more for to fix it. The whole process can be made a lot cheaper and quicker with this book as it explains, in simple english, how to troubleshoot your way from the symptom back to its most likely cause. So even if you don't intend to do any of the work yourself, Trouble Shooting Marine Diesels puts you on a resonably equal information-footing with a mechanic and stops them exploiting your ignorance in order to pay for their childrens' college education.

After a quick review of this book you will realize that you do not have to be a mechanic to keep your diesel engine healthy.This book provides great assistance for dealing with the everyday operating requirements of your diesel engine. It is very comprehensive yet simple and informative at the same time. Excellent trouble shooting flow charts. Lots of very clear uncluttered "how-to" diagrams.Having owned and operated a marine diesel for 9 years I have become familiar with the everyday requirements of feeding and caring for my engine. This book addresses those requirements and helps me maintain my diesel so it will remain reliable for years.Kim Coleman

I didn't know anything about diesels before I bought my 41ft Morgan -but at $50 an hour for a mechanic I thought I'd have a go. I bought this book because it claimed to cover maintenance and troubleshooting in depth but with easy to follow diagrams. My first job was to solve an annoying smoky exhaust. The local mechanic suggested I needed to replace my aging Perkins and was quoting over $10,000, but after following Compton's excellent troubleshooting chapter I quickly narrowed it down to defective injectors nozzles which I had a shop replace for less than $200 !!!. I've since rebuilt the raw water pump, cleaned the heat exchanger and cooling system, and next I'm going to tackle installing the charge booster to improve output on my alternator. Compton's book is great! It specializes in the topic is well laid out and with all those graphics is very easy to follow. What's more it doesn't get sidetracked into stuff that's no use to me when I'm trying to get my boat going! A great do-it-yourself book that I can truly recommend to any and everyone who's got a diesel engine in their boat.