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For over 50 years, Crusader has provided the ultimate in premium power for the world’s finest inboard motor cruisers and sportfishing boats. In 1998, Crusader was acquired by the Pleasurecraft Marine Engine Company, a highly regarded inboard manufacturer for over 25 years. The union created the Pleasurecraft Engine Group, which is now the largest manufacturer of gasoline inboards in the world. The company presently offers gas inboard power for eight of the 10 largest powerboat manufacturers.
Bill Balsley of Crusader Engines - Reviewing the Do's and the Don'ts
If you want to understand Crusader Engines you need to know a little history. By the middle of the 20th Century, interest in speedboat racing was at an all time high, especially on the Great Lakes. One of these enthusiasts was a local Detroit Cadillac dealer, Cal Canal. In 1955 Cal decided to open a marine engine company. Being a Cadillac dealer, it was only logical that his marine engines were built on a Cadillac block. Crusader Engine was born. That explains a lot, especially their quality.
To quote David Pascoe, a noted marine surveyor ... "Of all the questions I am asked, one of the most frequent is which gas engine is best. Hands down, I give my top award to the ... the Crusader line of engines. Coming to this conclusion was easy because their engines simply outperform all others in terms of service life. The fact is that Crusader engines keep going long after others have had overhauls, engine replacements, or replacements of expensive parts such as manifolds, risers and cooling systems, often giving reliable service life in excess of 100% over other engines."
Note: David has some very definite opinions about Crusader because he performs a lot of gas engine surveys, as well as engine failure analysis for insurance companies.
I should have known that Tiara would use the best they could find. It seems Crusader is the king of inboard gasoline.
Improving Fuel Efficiency of your Gasoline Inboard Engine
 Our well informed engine mentor, Bill Balsley from Crusader, guided us through the ins and outs of engine maintenance and performance enhancement.
"I am often asked how a boat owner with a gasoline powered inboard boat can improve their fuel economy.
This always starts out with the obvious. The first step is to make sure that your engine is functioning at its peak. You can do this by doing a tune-up, which includes spark plugs, setting of engine timing and replacement of worn points, rotor and condenser on older models. The newer fuel injected models only need fresh plugs and timing checked. This is a good practice to do every spring if you winterize your boat and fog out the carburetor or throttle body on fuel injected boats.
The oil residue from fogging will cause a lowering of performance. Make sure your boat is able to obtain the minimum required Wide Open Throttle RPM. This will make sure that you are not (lugging, overloading) the engine and causing it to burn excess fuel. If your boat at this point shows only a marginal improvement, you need to look at a few more factors. Have you added any equipment to your boat that is not essential? Remove any items that are not needed for your day-to-day use of the boat. When you get back from a trip, make sure you remove the items you brought for that trip. When you keep adding weight to the vessel, the performance will go down as that weight is added."
Note: Part of Crusader’s reputation is earned from what they term “bulletproof durability.” Shared by all of the Captains Choice models is a build and design philosophy focused on robustness and serviceability. One of the features that support this reputation is an over sized, stainless-steel water pump with improved efficiency. The freshwater cooling system cools not only the entire block but also the exhaust system; so salt water will not come in contact with any engine component. Even the engine and transmission oil cooler is over sized and heavy duty.
"Lets now talk about the items that can be improved on carburetors and fuel-injected engines:"
Check List to Improve Carburetor and Fuel Injected Engines:
1: Carburetor Engines
a."If you have a carburetor engine with a points type distributor, you can increase our fuel mileage by going to a high-energy distributor like the Delco HEI. (Crusader part number 22752) this will make your engine start better, idle better and have a hotter spark to increase fuel efficiency."
b. "Make sure you are getting full throw on your throttle to carburetor adjustment and have a technician make sure the carburetor is functioning properly."
c. "Cruise your boat at 75% of your maximum Wide Open Throttle RPM, (if you have two engines, use the lowest of the two RPMs to calculate this throttle position.) This should keep you just below the secondary open up on the four-barrel."
d. "Some heavier yachts may not be up on full plane at this 76% of WOT position. A yacht that is pushing water and not up on place causes strain on the engines and may be opening up the secondary prematurely. Check your fuel economy at 75% and 80% of Wide Open Throttle. You may find that at 80 % the boat is ten up on plane and may get better fuel economy that at 75%. It may take some testing to find the best performance in that range for you particular yacht."
Sitting down between twin engines like most of us sit in a comfortable easy chair, Bill fielded questions with grace.
2: Fuel Injected Engines.
a. "Crusader Fuel Injected engines are produced to run on 87 or 89 octane gasoline. Do not run higher-octane fuel in your fuel-injected engine unless it is the only choice you have. Running the higher octane will reduce your fuel economy and the additional cost makes it very expensive."
b. "Fuel injected engines do not have a secondaries as carburetor engines do, when opened it drastically increases fuel consumption. They have a more even fuel usage as your engine RPMs are increased. We do not recommend that you run your gasoline engine above 80% of Wide Open Throttle. The higher RPM will cause premature engine wear and possible failure. You will need to turn your engine for a short time at Wide Open Throttle to determine cruise RPM. Long periods above 80% of Wide Open Throttle are not recommended."
3: Other Obvious and not so Obvious Suggestions.
a. "Make sure that you keep the bottom of your boat clean."
b. "Do a compression check once a year to determine if you have excess engine wear, which reduces performance."
c. "Only start your boat when you are going to run it long enough to obtain maximum operation temperatures. This will insure that the fuel systems add oil passenger do not get guild up which will deter performance."
Crusader Inc. Pleasurecraft Engine
40580 Van Dyke Rd., Suite E
Sterling Heights, MI 48313
United States
Phone: 810-977-0100
Fax: 810-977-0880
www.crusaderengines.com
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