Missing Camshaft Sleeve on Universal M25XP and M35BC Engines

by Phil Rojas

On November 7, 2002, I spoke personally with Gerry Douglas of Catalina Yachts. A problem was discovered by Westerbeke that concerns many M35B engines - a problem which could cause cam shaft failure.

Once the problem was discovered, Westerbeke/Universal came out with directions on how to check and how to add a 'cam sleeve' to the raw water pump to fix the problem. It's a relatively simple fix, and Westerbeke/Universal will send owners of all M35B engines the cam sleeve and directions at no charge.

Unfortunately, it's not possible for Catalina to tell exactly which boats, by hull number, are affected. Therefore, Gerry Douglas asked that the Catalina 36 International Association help Catalina Yachts get this word out to Catalina owners with potentially affected engines.

According to a follow-up email received by Catalina's Gerry Douglas: "The best way to determine if the engine is included in the group covered by Westerbeke's Service bulletin #235 is to check the model designation of the engine on the i.d. plate on the engine, the engine is suspect if: (1) There is a 'B' in the model name , i.e.; M35BC, (2) the manufacturing date code is E001 ( January of 2000 ) or older. Older would be D912, D911, D910 , D909, etc. The E= the decade, the next digit is the year of the decade, the last two digits are the month of the decade. (3) These engines may be in 28s, 30s,34s, and 36s,up to and including 2001 model year boats."

Owners of all Catalinas with the M25XPB & M25XPBC and the M35B & M35BC engines (this includes Catalina 28, 30, 320, 34, and 36) are asked to review the service bulletin (click on the graph image below) and check your boat engines to make sure a cam sleeve is in place behind the raw water pump. Steps on getting a cam sleeve (at no cost) from Westerbeke are in the service bulletin.

In the coming months your association will collect M35B information and post data on this website to assist other owners, and to assess the magnitude of the problem.

Catalina Yachts, Westerbeke/Universal, and C36IA want to see this concern checked and corrected as quickly as possible.