Engine Hours - How Many Is Too Many Or Too Few?

S

sw23185

New Member
May 29, 2007
14
I'm sure that there will be more than a few opinions on this topic but I did a search and didn't see anything on point.

My wife and I are seriously in the market for a 240 Sundancer, most likely a 2000 model year +/-. We're looking at a number of boats in our area (southern Chesapeake) and have been surprised by the wide range of engine hours on the various boats. For example we've seen two 1998 boats with only 70-80 hours on them and others the same age or newer with 300, 400, 500, and even 600 hours on the clock.

Understanding that proper maintenance intervals and complete maintenance records can help to reduce any negative impact from an otherwise 'high' run time boat, just how many hours is too many? Too few? Is there a rule of thumb that says a boat in this class in this part of the world should get 'x' hours per year? :smt017

Sorry for the newbie question but I'm coming from the world of diesel sailboats where you can go up to 5000 hours without a re-build ...

Thanks in advance for your input!

Stuart
 
In general the life of a well maintained, well cared for gas I/O is 1,500 hours.

Each boat hour = about 100 car miles.

So a boat with 1,500 hours is like a car with 150,000 miles.

Some will go more, others less.

The second part is, as a boat is unused and aged, how is it for corrosion and other age related issues.

Beast thing you can do,find the boat, get to a price and make the offer contingent to the boat passing a marine survey including the engine and drive. At least get a compression check on the engine, have the boat out of the water for a drive inspection.

The survey is on you to pay for so do this last, after all haggling is done.
 
Generally speaking, 50-100 hours per year is a good guideline to go by. Higher means the boat gets used a lot, less and it means the boat sat for a while.

Some people list original hours and others since major or minor overhaul. The two to consider are original and major overhaul. Minor overhaul is not significant for engine hours. On a 2000 or newer, they should be original hours.

In the Chesapeake, consider 2 outings per month from April to October, and each outing has 4 hours of engine time. That would be 56 hours in a year (2 x 4 x 7). This is not a magic number, but rather an example.

The 98 with those low hours would be a potential red flag to research. Don't take it as a positive until you research the history.

And of course make sure you do a good test run and survey before purchase.

Esteban
 
I would venture to say that a 100 hours could be used as a consistant average of regular usuage during a year in the southern states where boating can be year around to 8 months. Other areas that the weather gets colder faster and you have 6-5 months you might have a little less. So far on my 04 I have 225 hrs as of this weekend. That's only 75 per year. A little slow for me since I try for 100.

There are a lot of older clean boats that just don't have a lot of hours because the owners went to one spot, anchored and that was that. Others like myself who like to travel and sight see will have more.

I would use hours as only 20 percent of your decision to purchase a boat.
 
My 2000 has 190 hrs, but I've got a summer and a half on it that account for 90 of those hours and I don't use it enough. So my boat had averaged 20 hrs per year for the first years of its life and was rack stored... literally looked brand new with the exception of one ding and a small vinyl issue.

For this reason, I would not stray away from low hour boats without taking a look at them. Now, if they have been sitting salt water you are going to have to take a close look, but also don't get caught spending a huge premium for an 80hr boat over a 200 hr boat. I find that most boats on the market with over about 400 hrs are showing quite a bit of wear and tear cosmetically as most aren't as anal about their boats as your average board member.
 
I guess that makes my close to 200 hours a year high :smt017
 
you better get boating cause i'm catching up. I've clocked 25 hours before memorial weekend. :lol:
 
chuck1 said:
I guess that makes my close to 200 hours a year high :smt017
Click to expand...
Have you gotten out of it yet this year? :grin: :lol:
 
Engine life depends on how you use and care for the boat. Marine patrol boats with Crusader big blocks are run for 8,000 hours according to a seminar leader I listened to last summer. They throw the engines away at that point. Engines used on the Great Lakes easily last 20 years with good maintenance. We change impellers at 4-5 year intervals and frequently find them in like new condition because our water is very clean. Manifolds and risers last the life of the engine and require no inspections for the same reason. A friend of mine repowered his old 39' Betram that had 454s with 2500 hours on them. They were shot, but had pushed that big old boat through a lot of water for 20 years.
 
Thanks to everyone for their responses - there's a lot of good info here that we'll keep in mind as we search for our next hole in the water ...

Cheers,

Stuart
 
Bought a 12 yr old boat with 270 hrs. Nickel and dimed me to death.
Bought a 14 yr old boat with 700 on each engine and was flawless.
Engines need to be run.
 
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