2005 Sundancer 320 question

[VR1200GSA]

Hi everyone,
I am new here, and new to the boating.
I am looking at 2005 Sundancer 320 to buy, the boat, overall, is in good shape, but it has ~1100 hours on it. On another hand, it has new engine blocks that have about 200h on them. As I can see from the picture, these are 350 MAG MPI engines. So... What do you think? How much life the whole thing has left in it? The price is rather high.
What do you guys think? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!
Val

 

[Todd320]

I would like the fact that the boat has 1100 hours on it, that means it has been used and not just sitting around doing nothing. I bought my 320, 07, with 215 hours 2016, and there were a ton of items that needed to be replaced, the engines kept failing for one reason or another (fuel pump relays, the blue plugs in the fuel pump were rotten, and the raw water that cools the pumps just flowed into the bilge one day, water pressure sensors went bad shortly after purchase, IAC valves, etc). Now that I use it regularly, and get the maintenance done regularly, it's great. Some things to ask about and consider:
Water pumps, on mine, in 2018, so 11 years old (original), they started leaking and spraying salt water everywhere, that was an expensive fix. Have they been replaced? The newer ones have a serviceable wear plate, and so will no longer have this issue.
What other items have been replaced?
Does it have V-drive or Stern drives? The latter is fine for fresh water, but would require out of the water storage for salt water and some extra care to flush the drives after each trip. V-drives can be less maintenance, but you have to take care of the rudder seals/dripless shaft seals/etc at some point.
Either way, these are great boats, and I love mine!

 

[VR1200GSA]

Thank you for the info! Ill put that on my list to check.
This one is V-drive, it was in a brackish waters for the last 5 years, not sure about before... It was stored inside for the winter during these years. Water heater does not work per the owner - any Idea how much is it to fix? Guessing replacing the unit.
So, are these motors raw water cooled? The broker says it is freshwater/closed cooling system... I don't see it on the picture though, the coolant tanks...

 

[VR1200GSA]

Also, what other then engine components can take a hit with high hours?

 

[Todd320]

Look for the heat exchangers. On the stern side of the engine. That’s the tell, the coolant tanks are hidden, but you can see the tube running to the coolant overflow tank in the top left of the picture below.
The water heater could be fine, there is a safety trip, so you open up the front panel and push the red reset button. I have done this once already, need to do it again. You can’t see the button, all by feel though. If you turn the water heater on without first running water through it, it can overheat and trip. OR, if you have it on and then run out of water and forget to turn it off. However, when you run your engines it heats up the water,
like we will run them for an hour on the way back to the Marina, I will still have hot water in the morning if I did not take two showers the night before.

The standard advice is to have a mechanic inspect the engines and have them do a compression test. If the compression is good, or even okay, you are good. Mine was okay, not great, but engines have been fine so far. Of course, I have a 6 hour trip tomorrow, so I am jinxing myself!! My recommendation is to replace as much stuff as you can afford, IACs yearly, water pressure sensors (and buy backups), and fuel pump relays (and backups). Replace water pumps if original. Expensive, alternative is to just keep an eye out for leaking.

 

[VR1200GSA]

View attachment 104192

Thank you Very Much!!

 

[Todd320]

6 hour trip was about 7 hours total time, and only about 30 minutes of that was stopping for fuel, the rest was at 23 knots or 4 knots, depending on speed zone... No issues what so ever on Sunday, all good, drove the boat over 100 miles, no issues! KNOCK ON WOOD...