1995 330 Sundancer

W

Wdd5885

New Member
Mar 9, 2012
4
Georgia
Boat Info
330 Sundancer
Engines
Merc 7.4, Hurth V Drives
Looking at a 95 330 with vdrives and the 7.4 mercs. They are carbureted engines with 890 hours. Freshwater boat. Boat is in good shape, but high time engines worry me somewhat. Opinions? Thanks. This will be my first Sea Ray.

David
 
If they have been properly maintained, 890 hours is no where near end of life. Have it surveyed, Good luck!

Welcome to CSR!
 
Look at the maintenance records and see what has been done and when. Hours for age sound about right. 17 years old, roughly 50 hours a year.
Most importantly as the previous post, have it surveyed


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I have a '96 330 with a little over 700 hours. My understanding is that I should expect over 1500 hours if everything is properly maintained. That is the main point here. What usually kills a motor is deferred maintenance, especially the exhaust system. If the risers and manifolds are not new and are over 3 years old, then as a wiseman here once told me, the risers should be removed annually and inspection of the manifolds, risers as well as the mating surfaces should all be done. The primary failure seems to be the gasket at this junction. It fails and results in either salt water or anti-freeze intrusion. This at a minimum will affect the mating surface further eroding it and can damage the valves causing a drop in compression or hydro-locking of a cylinder in extreme cases. I am not a mechanic and if any of this seems off base I am sure that the populus here will chime in to correct me!!

The point of this is to be sure and get the maintenance records that are available and a survey is also a solid recommendation. As far as the hours go, they seem fine to me!
Good luck, these are great boats!!
 
With proper maintenance and care the engine should last a lot longer. Probably more than double the hours. But the key is changing the impellers, oil and inspecting the exhaust. Then if you don't abuse the engines. The boat has a lot of life still.
 
The owner kept a log of all maintenance performed since he owned the boat. 16 pages worth. The boat has been well maintained. Survey Monday. Thanks for the responses.

David
 
We had the same boat. Sold it last year with 2,000 hours on it and this is in saltwater, and used year round. Maintenance was excellent and we had the records to show that. I had no reservations taking that boat anywhere right up until we sold it (to buy a bigger Searay).

Good luck on the survey!
 
Understand that a hull survey and a mechanical survey are 2 different things.

Because of Merc's exhaust system design, engines with this number of hours should have the exhaust riser or elbows removed and checked, a compressions check done, a leak down test done and fluid analyses done on engine oil, transmission oil/fluid and coolant.....all of which are beyond the usual scope of a surveyor. You should hire a Mercsuiser technician to do the mechanical survey which should take ±3.0 hours.
 
what everyone else said.... survey!
Just as a reference point my engines have over 1000 hours, I bought the boat with 900 hours
she runs like a dream.... (knock on wood) key is maintanence
 
There is the same boat at our dock owned by good friends of ours.. he bought the boat about 4 years ago with close to 1200 hours and 4 years later still going strong.. as everyone has said trust be verify...
 
Congratulations! Nice looking boat!
 
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