Buying 470 with seawater piped to engine?

[juicebronco]

So I'm looking at buying a boat for the engine, the Mercruiser 470, which as you know has the fresh water cooling system. Well I guess the heat exchanger was bad, and instead of spending all the money to replace it, he re routed the seawater through the engine. My question is, would that cause any problems? It was only used in the fresh water, so there won't be any salt issues. My motor blew, so I still have my entire cooling system intact, so I could put it on the new motor.

Thoughts?

 

[Bt Doctur]

If its never seen salt or brackish you should be ok, just remember its 50/50 mix,not straight water

 

[stonyloam]

I am not sure how you could do that and make it work. Seawater (even fresh water) has no rust inhibiting properties, so the area on the cam where the waterpump seals rest would corrode very quickly and destroy the cam surface and the seals, dumping water into the pan. Unless you can get it for nothing and use it for parts to fix yours I would not touch it.

 

[juicebronco]

Good point on the water and the rust on the front of the cam, I didn't even think about that.

 

[stonyloam]

That being said, since both engines would be out you could probably swap out some parts and get one good engine out of the deal. What happened to yours?

 

[juicebronco]

This is what happened to mine. I think'll I'll hold off on it for now, I have another option that might pan out. I don't want to spend too much time tearing down and rebuilding in the summer.

 

[stonyloam]

Yeah I see where that could be a problem LOL! Good luck!