advise on 2000 380, too many hours on engines?

J

jackw453

New Member
May 4, 2009
10
lake ozark missouri
Boat Info
300 Dancer 2006
Engines
6.2 liter/bravo III
I am looking at a 2000 380 with 650 hours on the engines. The engines are the 8.1 horizons. During the last three years the boat was not cared for very well. The engines had a total of 15 hours during the last three years with no oil change. Before this time frame the boat was cared for very well. What are anyones thoughts. Would a compression test and oil sample testing reveal most problems with the engines?

Thanks
 
The good thing is that you know the short term history. I am sure an oil sampling and compression test will tell you if there are any "immediate" problems however from what I have been told, oil testing is most helpful when used in a trending model with multiple tests done over time used to develop a baseline then you can track changes form there. That part will obviously not work in this situation unless you have past sample records to compare to.

I think the most important thing is to get a full hull and mechanical survey done. Sounds like you are already headed in the right direction towards that. If everything checks out OK, weigh the risk of poor maint over the last few years with the sale price and decide if it is worth it to you.
 
Is 650 hours to much for this boat? What have you seen for the life span of the 8.1's? I heard they were a more "heavy duty" engine. What would a approx cost for a rebuild be?
 
I think 650 hours on a 2000 boat could be considered normal and maybe a little low. I think most "regular" boaters average between 60-100 hours a year (at least based on what I have seen posted here in the past). The 8.1 is a great engine. I cannot tell you the average lifespan but as I recall from other postings, to me 1300-1500 hours seems to be about the norm for rebuild time on a well maintained gas engine. I have no idea what a rebuild would run.

It struck me as strange that you had found a 2000 with 8.1 engines so I checked the Sea Ray docs and it was only offered with 7.4L (454ci) or Diesel engines. The 7.4 is still a great engine but if it truly has 8.1s, you may need to dig a little more in to the history on the boat.
 
jason78 said:
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It struck me as strange that you had found a 2000 with 8.1 engines so I checked the Sea Ray docs and it was only offered with 7.4L (454ci) or Diesel engines. The 7.4 is still a great engine but if it truly has 8.1s, you may need to dig a little more in to the history on the boat.
Click to expand...

Good pick up! Sea Ray/Merc didn't start using the 8.1 till later 2001 model year... If these are 8.1's then they are not original to the boat. I would also have a scan tool put on the engines to at least check and confirm the engine hours.
 
Agree with determining actual engine hours and a break down of the % of time spent in each of the RPM ranges. A 380 is a heavy boat for gas engines, so, they may have spent an unusual portion of their lives in the higher RPM ranges which could lead to earlier demise of the engines. Any time over 3600 RPM equates to time above the 80% mark or worse (4400 - 4600 max), depending on what they actually max out at. Time above 80% creates increased wear at an ever increasing rate. Just something else to investigate.
 
Ditto on the 8.1s being great engines. If you read back through the various threads, the consensus seems to be that you can tear up an engine pretty quickly with poor or no maintenance, or it can purr for years when given some attention and that 1500 hours seems to be somewhere in the center of the life expectancy bellcurve. If they do need work, the 8.1's on a 380 are very accessible. Hampton had an interesting point on the speed/load relationship of the heavy boat to the engines. Our experience though has been that 2800-3200 is such a sweet spot for the boat that they lend themselves naturally to that part of the RPM band. (When we are pulling slalom skiers, of course its further up the range)
 
Can you run the serial numbers to see date of manufacture?
 
I will check the serial #'s. I must have had a brain fart, but I am sure they were the Horizon's which are the closed cooled system. Did they have 7.4 Horizon's. I guess my biggest question is how bad is it on an engine when it only has had 15 hours on it in the last 3 years with no oil change? Thanks for all the advise!
 
Not ideal, but hard to say. Ideally you would want the boat used and the oil changed.
 
Yes, there were Horizon 7.4s!

I'd do two consecutive oil changes to "cleanse" the system.
 
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jackw453 said:
.... During the last three years the boat was not cared for very well. The engines had a total of 15 hours during the last three years with no oil change. .....
Click to expand...

Just this statement alone says a lot. Without more details on what you mean by "boat was not cared for" I would assume that she looked bad, becides lacking mechanical attention. FWIW, IMO it's best to pass on boats like that, b/c quite often saving in the initial purchase may result in much more expense to fix problems that might come up very shortly.
 
You may be wise to have a full engine survey with oil analysis before getting into the full hull survey paying for haul out, survey, etc. If the engines check out, then move forward with the rest...
 
I have read that the 7.4 horizons have had problems with water intrusion. Has anyone seen this on the 2000 380 and up models? How do you test for this?
 
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I think the water intrusion issues were limited to certain models (I'm thinking 2000-2 340DAs), and it was may have had more to do w/muffler design. I could be wrong, but I don't think these problems were not confined to an engine but more so related to the boat the engine was in.
 
Water Intrusion was also an issue with some 310's in the 98 to 01 timeframe. Sea Ray fixed many of them but not all.
 
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