2008 Mercruiser 496 MAG

[egerrity]

Hello all
I am working on a deal on a boat that has a 2008 Merc 496 MAG bravo 3 drive. The boat has 219 hours on it. I have copies of current owners maintenance records that only are for one year.
It includes usual spring make ready stuff. In august of 2014 the gimbal, universals, o ring, carrier assem, and universal bellows were replaced because it started making noise.

I have visually inspected the engine in sept, and heard it run while in the water. All looks like new. I will be having the survey and mechanical inspection done for the sale.

I have heard about the issues with the cool fuel pump, and injectors for engines of this age..
Are there any other issues I should look out for other than the usual corrosion issues with the drive.

Any feedback on this engine would be great. The boat is a 2008 Formula 260 SS


Thanks

 

[Tonka Boater]

Hello all
I am working on a deal on a boat that has a 2008 Merc 496 MAG bravo 3 drive. The boat has 219 hours on it. I have copies of current owners maintenance records that only are for one year.
It includes usual spring make ready stuff. In august of 2014 the gimbal, universals, o ring, carrier assem, and universal bellows were replaced because it started making noise.

I have visually inspected the engine in sept, and heard it run while in the water. All looks like new. I will be having the survey and mechanical inspection done for the sale.

I have heard about the issues with the cool fuel pump, and injectors for engines of this age..
Are there any other issues I should look out for other than the usual corrosion issues with the drive.

Any feedback on this engine would be great. The boat is a 2008 Formula 260 SS


Thanks

My 2008 280 Sundancer had a single 496 MAG with a Bravo III and I never had an issue with it in the 4 seasons that I owned it. In my 3rd season I could hear a whistling sound while the engine idled and it turned out the riser gaskets needed to be replaced but otherwise it was routine maintenance....I would even file that under routine maintenance. Others can correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think the 2008 BIII's drives are as susceptible to the corrosion issues of the early models. I never had a hint of corrosion.

 

[egerrity]

thanks for that info.

 

[Henry Boyd]

The 496 is darn near bulletproof. The only things we had to do ours was replace the idler pulleys for the serpentine belt, and the aluminum raw water manifolds on the exhaust (This won't apply to yours as this feature" was taken out in later production). In terms of normal work we had the hoses replaced in 2013, as well as the starter motor. The engine was out of the boat to replace the transom assembly. I felt the hoses should be done just because they were 11 years old and changing them was a breeze with the engine out of the boat. The starter motor was working fine as well, but since the engine has to come out to remove the starter I didn't feel like tempting fate and with the engine out the cost of replacement was basically just for the starter.

Rather than the engine, I think you should be concerned with the drive. in the 7 going on 8 years we have had our 280 we have spent somewhere around $ 10K on drive related work; bellows, drive shafts, universals, gimbal and carrier replacement, trim senders, top steering pin and gimbal ring replacement, and finally replacement of the entire transom assembly. This is over and above lube changes, painting and zinc replacements.

Henry

 

[egerrity]

We finally did the sea trial on this boat on Saturday and it ran great. We did find a slight leak on the cool fuel module where the lower raw water hose hooks up and the trim gauge was not working. I know about the issues with the cool fuel module and I know the trim senders continue to be an issue for mercruiser. I have put the issues in the hands of the seller to see if he will adjust our agreed price or fix the issues. The raw water pump will need to replaced soon as well, but Im not that concerned about that. My concern is the $800 cool fuel and the water leak as well as the well documented flaking paint issue. thanks