And you thought John Deeres were only in tractors? This model 6068SFM from John Deere has 300 hp at 2,600 rpm. The 6.8L six-cylinder engine is turbocharged and sea-water aftercooled. John Deere's PowerTech engine line runs from 4.5- to 12.5L with maximum horsepower output of 526. They say, "Nothing runs like a Deere.
We knew going into the Miami International Boat show on assignment for Truckin' magazine's boat section that we would end up finding some very cool diesel engines that the readers of Diesel Power would be interested in. We found even more than we had expected and present here a collection of the most interesting diesels at the world's largest boat show.
There's just about nothing you won't find there that can't overwhelm you. The promoters say it is the world's greatest consumer marine exhibition, and we'd have to say the five-day event (with more than 2,600 exhibitors and more than 150,000 attendees) more than lives up to the billing. The most expensive boat at the show was listed at $5 million, and the largest powerboat was 83 feet long.
The show is not only held at the Miami Beach Convention Center, but there are also the huge yachts at the Strictly Sail portion at the Sea Isle Marina & Yachting Center, plus sailboats at the Miamarina at Bayside, but really, who cares about sailboats?
Since we love diesels, it was easy to narrow our focus and make sure we recorded what we found so that you could revel in the glory of diesel power.
The size of some of the components on these big diesel engines is intimidating. | 
Caterpillar has a bevy of marine propulsion units. This happens to be a photo of the monster C32 Acert, a V-12 four-stroke diesel that cranks out 1,800 hp and a mind-numbing 5,322 lb-ft of torque. The engine has an electronic unit injection fuel system with a fuel priming pump. | 
Despite the fact that the MTU engines are painted white-on-white, they are still quite beautiful, with nice finishing touches. |
Volvo/Penta's five-cylinder D3 is extremely light and compact. With four valves per cylinder, double overhead camshafts, and a common-rail fuel injection system, the Volvo puts out 190 hp and nearly 400 lb-ft of torque at 2,000 rpm. The variable geometry turbocharger is aftercooled. | 
Yanmar's 8SY-STP puts out 900 hp at 2,300 rpm with 15.6L displacement. Torque tops out at just a little more than 1,700 lb-ft. The direct injection engine is twin-turbocharged with a charge-air cooler and is fresh-water-cooled. | 
OK, this thing is freaking huge! MTU's 16V Series 4000 Common Rail engine created quite a stir at the boat show. It has sequential turbocharging for low-end throttle response, common-rail fuel system, Advanced Diesel Engine Control, a single exhaust, 8-, 10-, 12- and 16-cylinder configurations, and as much as 3,650 hp. Torque? Indescribable. |
Cummins MerCruiser Diesel introduced the new Quantum Series of diesel propulsion. The QSM11 showcases between 300 and 715 hp, depending on size, with 1,700 lb-ft of torque available. This engine is EPA Tier 2 certified. | | |