FPT Cursor Marine Engines: C9 & C16

Cursor is FPT Industrial's larger marine family. In the United States we can supply two of them: the C9 at 8.7 litres and 625 to 650 hp, and the C16 at 15.9 litres and 500 to 1,000 hp. Guild Marine is an FPT Industrial dealer in Port Huron, Michigan — we sell them, stock parts for them, service them under warranty, and install them.

The two we can supply

• C9 — 8.7 litres, six cylinders, 625 to 650 hp. The compact Cursor, and the natural step up when an N67 has run out of top end but you do not want the weight of a C16.
• C16 — 15.9 litres, six cylinders, 500 to 1,000 hp. The heavy end, and a genuinely robust engine across that whole range.

Both are common rail with four valves per cylinder, turbocharged and aftercooled. Spec sheets for the individual ratings are further down this page.

FPT's international Cursor range also includes the C13 at 12.9 litres. That one is not available to us in the States — if you have been quoted one here, ask hard questions.

Which one, and at what rating

Around here, a Cursor answers one of two questions. Either you have a big cruiser and want an engine that is genuinely loafing at cruise, or you run a commercial hull and the engine has to make money for thousands of hours.

The C16 spans 500 to 1,000 hp because the same block is set up for different duty cycles — not because the top of the range is a highly strung version of it. A C16 at 1,000 hp is still a very robust engine. What the rating actually tells you is what the engine has been optimised for: fuel burn at your real cruising speed, service intervals, and how much of its life it expects to spend near full load.

So the question is not which rating will survive your boat. It is which one suits how you use it. Tell us the hull, the loaded displacement, the gear ratio, the running gear and — honestly — the hours you expect to put on it and at what throttle. A charter boat doing 800 hours a year at three-quarter throttle wants a different setup from a private cruiser doing 150 hours mostly at displacement speed, even if both owners start the conversation asking for 650 hp.

Repowering with a Cursor

Cursors are heavy, and a C16 in particular is a structural job as much as a mechanical one. Beds frequently need fabricating, weight distribution has to be thought about rather than assumed, and exhaust, cooling and the shaft line all have to suit the new engine rather than the old one.

We do that work in-house — structural fiberglass, fabrication, electrical and plumbing, controls and instrumentation — so one shop owns the whole job. The full process is on our repower page.

Parts and service

We stock and ship genuine FPT parts and we can carry out warranty work. On a Cursor, have the engine serial number ready when you call: parts vary by build, and the serial is what resolves it. For service, we cover routine maintenance, common rail diagnostics, injector and pump work, cooling and exhaust, and alignment.

Talk to us

Call (586) 960-5829 or email sales@guildmarine.com. Guild Marine, 3605 32nd Street, Bldg 5B, Port Huron, MI 48060.

Smaller boat? The N67 covers 350 to 570 hp. See all marine services.