when are low hours not so low anymore?

[shoestring]

in looking for a used boat, when do low hours become average hours or high hours. i know i know it depends how well it has been maintained. but are there any hard fast rules like, at x hours expect the doomaflager to start giving you trouble or at x hours the kanibular pin should be replaced. so when (if) you get to see the service records you can see the work has been done. a v8 vortec with 275k on it, it dosen't matter if you changed the oil every day, most of it's life is spent. i'm just trying to get a feel of, ok the boat is x years old and has y hours on it, then z parts should have been replaced by now and if not how soon will i be needing to do it on my dime. been boating since birth, never owned an i/o. smashed the piggy bank today and scraped up 15k for a used boat. will probably wait til dead of winter to go shopping. so i have several months to try and educate myself.

 

[rbh]

Re: when are low hours not so low anymore?

when you spend more time fixen it then having fun on it !!!
rob
"still having fun"

 

[shoestring]

Re: when are low hours not so low anymore?

when you spend more time fixen it then having fun on it !!!
rob
"still having fun"

i mean before i own it. if your answer applies to me then i have made a bad decision. which is what i'm trying to avoid.

 

[captharv]

Re: when are low hours not so low anymore?

The average boater puts 50 engine hours on a year. Maybe a bit less for the colder climates.
A friend bought an 8 yr old boat in an estate sale with only 50 hours on it. The engine was started up properly (different when a boat sits for a long time.
Then, he changed:
all bellows, hoses ,and belts.
Had the outdrive seals changed.
All fluids.
Had the carb cleaned out
Replaced all batteries.
Now, if that 8 yr old boat had 2-300 hours on it, and teh service records showed that the maintenance was done on time, I would not hesitate taking it on a short cruise tomorrow.

Engine hours alone is not an indication of the reliability of the engine. Look at the oil in the dipstick, smell it. Look for water intrusion. Same with the drive oil. Have a compression test run.
The surveyor will check everything else. Yes, they cost money, however, they can save you buying a lemon or having to spend big money repairing it. Thats what they do.
Next item: The engine hours is recorded on a meter. Its very easy to pop out a meter with 800 hrs, and put in a new one that the owner attached to a battery so it shows 200 hrs.

I bought a boat 20 years ago that showed 105 hrs on the meter. The owner told me that the original engine threw a rod thru the block at 90 hrs, and theres 15 hrs on a new engine and its warranteed for a year. I said: lets see the paperwork. he produced it. I called the shop and they verified the story. Because of the warranty, and after a test drive, I bought it.
Long story short: traded it at 800 hrs, original engine, still running ( I saw it on teh water last year). The engine was maintained and gave good service. I ran mostly at 3500 RPMs. There are those boaters who run full throttle all the time and engines with only a few hunderd hours are going bad.
Again, hire a pro to help you. Money well spent.

 

[shoestring]

Re: when are low hours not so low anymore?

The average boater puts 50 engine hours on a year. Maybe a bit less for the colder climates.
A friend bought an 8 yr old boat in an estate sale with only 50 hours on it. The engine was started up properly (different when a boat sits for a long time.
Then, he changed:
all bellows, hoses ,and belts.
Had the outdrive seals changed.
All fluids.
Had the carb cleaned out
Replaced all batteries.
Now, if that 8 yr old boat had 2-300 hours on it, and teh service records showed that the maintenance was done on time, I would not hesitate taking it on a short cruise tomorrow.

Engine hours alone is not an indication of the reliability of the engine. Look at the oil in the dipstick, smell it. Look for water intrusion. Same with the drive oil. Have a compression test run.
The surveyor will check everything else. Yes, they cost money, however, they can save you buying a lemon or having to spend big money repairing it. Thats what they do.
Next item: The engine hours is recorded on a meter. Its very easy to pop out a meter with 800 hrs, and put in a new one that the owner attached to a battery so it shows 200 hrs.

I bought a boat 20 years ago that showed 105 hrs on the meter. The owner told me that the original engine threw a rod thru the block at 90 hrs, and theres 15 hrs on a new engine and its warranteed for a year. I said: lets see the paperwork. he produced it. I called the shop and they verified the story. Because of the warranty, and after a test drive, I bought it.
Long story short: traded it at 800 hrs, original engine, still running ( I saw it on teh water last year). The engine was maintained and gave good service. I ran mostly at 3500 RPMs. There are those boaters who run full throttle all the time and engines with only a few hunderd hours are going bad.
Again, hire a pro to help you. Money well spent.

thats what i'm looking for, thanks. i have always done my own mechanical work. i can rebuild an engine, or manual transmission. dial in a rear end, dive into a carburetor, have never really been skeerd to tackle any mechanical problem. i know how to judge how well a vehicle has been maintained. the person that you spoke about that runs at wot all the time will probably have hit his trailer a time or two, beached it hard a time or two, dropped a cigarette a time or two, yada yada yada. it is easy to tell when someone cares about and cares for their prise possesions. and easy to tell when they don't. where i become ignorant is nowing the life expectancy of the parts inside of a mercruiser or volvo outdrive.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: when are low hours not so low anymore?

This is for outboards; I don't know about inboards but it could pertain:
My Yamaha OB manual refers to maintenance interval of 200 hours/1 year, indicating typical use. 50 hours a year sounds very low to me, unless "engine hours" is not the same as hours on a clock while running. I've done almost 50 since I bought mine in April and I'm not a heavy user. Break-in is 10-20 hours--almost half a year to break in?
One thing to consider when buying, motors like to be run so low hours are not the same as low miles on a car. (Contrary to my own advice I just bought a motor that hadn't been run for 2 years--different circumstances can throw rules out the window).
At our hunt club we wore out a motor afer 2 years; the mechanic said it looked like a commercial use engine. Turns out the it was overpropped so we were running around 6000 at WOT. He told us that every minute at 6000 was an hour of life at 5000. So if you are looking at a used boat look for that factor as well and determine if the prop you are testing is the one it ran with. Some people will keep a stainless prop and reinstall the factory aluminum when selling.