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[QUOTE]Macintosh - 9/2/2015  5:45 PM

OK, so you're buying used. I was lucky enough to make the friend of a Mercury master mechanic who's been in the business for over 40 years, what he told me is that he doesn't focus on the hours when he buys a motor he relies on a few tests to tell him what kind of shape the motor is in. He does a leak down test, NOT a compression test,  and he will not compromise on that. He also has the prop shaft run out checked, if the prop hit a rock and bent the prop shaft that starts the internal gears grinding and would likely result in needing a new lower unit at some point.  Obviously if the motor has an onboard computer and can get a diagnostic you should get that too, in that case it would tell you the engine hours and the RPM range that it had been run at, but many of the older EFI and carb motors don't have this capability and those motors are relatively simple or to work on and maintain and can last a really long time too.  In all cases my friend doesn't accept a result that is near the edge of what is acceptable, he will only accept a result that is in the mid range or good end of Acceptable, this is to ensure that there is still wear- life left in the engine.   Especially bass boats get driven really hard,  but the problem is people don't let them warm-up or cool down before gassing them, but any boat can be rode hard and put up wet so you do need to look out for problem engines. However I personally know of a solid handful of engines that have multiple thousands of hours on them and are still going strong,  and according to this guy and the regular mechanic that I use locally that's not a fluke,  that's not luck, that's just people taking good care of them and running them responsibly.  I would absolutely look for a used boat, you can get a heck of a lot of boat for $15,000, but I would budget a solid six or $800 just to pay to have some engine tests done to make sure what you're getting hasn't been abused.  I recently bought a boat for about that money that I believe is in fantastic shape and I'm extremely happy with what I got and see no reason to look for a new boat, but I had to test five engines before I found one that was in good-enough shape that I wanted to bet my hard-earned 15 grand on it. I'll tell you from experience that a lot of people will look at you like you have three heads when you ask for this level of test to be done, but in the long run I believe it's money well spent.
 Also budget some extra money to upgrade the fuel system and whatever floats your boat, trolling motor, electronics, or anything else it needs. I don't care how good shape it's in, you're going to want to upgrade something!  Lastly, even though you don't want to be without a boat for four years, try to not be in a hurry. Don't look at a boat unless you're ready to walk away from it. If you get in a hurry you will compromise, and you might get lucky but you also might wind up with a problem and that's  what will set you back .[/QUOTE]

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Macintosh

Posted 9/2/2015 5:45 PM (#782904 - in reply to #782773)
Subject: Re: What would you do?

Posts: 117

OK, so you're buying used. I was lucky enough to make the friend of a Mercury master mechanic who's been in the business for over 40 years, what he told me is that he doesn't focus on the hours when he buys a motor he relies on a few tests to tell him what kind of shape the motor is in. He does a leak down test, NOT a compression test, and he will not compromise on that. He also has the prop shaft run out checked, if the prop hit a rock and bent the prop shaft that starts the internal gears grinding and would likely result in needing a new lower unit at some point. Obviously if the motor has an onboard computer and can get a diagnostic you should get that too, in that case it would tell you the engine hours and the RPM range that it had been run at, but many of the older EFI and carb motors don't have this capability and those motors are relatively simple or to work on and maintain and can last a really long time too. In all cases my friend doesn't accept a result that is near the edge of what is acceptable, he will only accept a result that is in the mid range or good end of Acceptable, this is to ensure that there is still wear- life left in the engine. Especially bass boats get driven really hard, but the problem is people don't let them warm-up or cool down before gassing them, but any boat can be rode hard and put up wet so you do need to look out for problem engines. However I personally know of a solid handful of engines that have multiple thousands of hours on them and are still going strong, and according to this guy and the regular mechanic that I use locally that's not a fluke, that's not luck, that's just people taking good care of them and running them responsibly. I would absolutely look for a used boat, you can get a heck of a lot of boat for $15,000, but I would budget a solid six or $800 just to pay to have some engine tests done to make sure what you're getting hasn't been abused. I recently bought a boat for about that money that I believe is in fantastic shape and I'm extremely happy with what I got and see no reason to look for a new boat, but I had to test five engines before I found one that was in good-enough shape that I wanted to bet my hard-earned 15 grand on it. I'll tell you from experience that a lot of people will look at you like you have three heads when you ask for this level of test to be done, but in the long run I believe it's money well spent.
Also budget some extra money to upgrade the fuel system and whatever floats your boat, trolling motor, electronics, or anything else it needs. I don't care how good shape it's in, you're going to want to upgrade something! Lastly, even though you don't want to be without a boat for four years, try to not be in a hurry. Don't look at a boat unless you're ready to walk away from it. If you get in a hurry you will compromise, and you might get lucky but you also might wind up with a problem and that's what will set you back .

Edited by Macintosh 9/2/2015 5:47 PM