Hi! Looking at 2007 Sundancer 340

TikiTodd

New Member
Jul 22, 2022
16
Long Beach, CA
Boat Info
2002 380 DA Monaco edition with CAT 3126 engines
1972 Bell Boy 22’
Engines
2 Caterpillar 3126 ser#1ZJ02278 and 1ZJ02279
Hi everyone! I am graduating to a bigger boat. My wife and I are currently set on the Sundancer 340 and there are a couple for sale locally here in Southern California. Any thing to look out for when buying one of these beauties, positive or negative? The one that we are most interested is a 2005 with less than 200 hours on it. Any replies will be greatly appreciated, even a simple hello. Thanks!
 
Hi everyone! I am graduating to a bigger boat. My wife and I are currently set on the Sundancer 340 and there are a couple for sale locally here in Southern California. Any thing to look out for when buying one of these beauties, positive or negative? The one that we are most interested is a 2005 with less than 200 hours on it. Any replies will be greatly appreciated, even a simple hello. Thanks!

Welcome aboard! The 340 is a real popular boat and we have thoroughly enjoyed ours. You will naturally want to have it surveyed first, and that's not a lot of hours if the engines are original so have those checked as well especially if it is in salt water. Things do start wearing out on a boat this age - hvac, refrigerators, bilge pumps, etc., so be prepared to repair/replace. Good Luck!
 
Thanks! Survey is a must, especially in the salt water. Original engines. Low hours is good, barely broken in, and bad as the boats been sitting and doing nothing a lot with nasty salt water in it!
 
Todd, welcome to CSR. I had two 330's, the forerunner of the 340 and loved both of them. If you can, find a surveyor who is familiar with Sea Rays and go through the survey with him, but try to limit your questions to him so he can do the survey in a reasonable amount of time.

Fire away on here with your questions. Lots of 340 owners on here who can help you out.
 
We had a 340 da, I think it is one of the best boats sea ray ever built.

Definitely my preference is the 8.1 and v drive. The hours are low for the age of the boat, make sure you get an engine survey. The hours would not stop me from buying the boat, but I would approach with checking closely. I would expect problems with spark plugs and ignition wires, easily solved problems.
 
Hi everyone! I am graduating to a bigger boat. My wife and I are currently set on the Sundancer 340 and there are a couple for sale locally here in Southern California. Any thing to look out for when buying one of these beauties, positive or negative? The one that we are most interested is a 2005 with less than 200 hours on it. Any replies will be greatly appreciated, even a simple hello. Thanks!
The 340 with the 8.1s is a great boat. However be very wary of such a low hour boat in saltwater. The big blocks need to be run regularly and run hard. When theyre not, the salt laden air that inevitably works its way back through the exhaust, into the valves, cylinders, etc, gets to just sit in there doing irreversible damage over time.

When I bought my 340 in 19 it was a 2001, one owner boat with immaculate 7.4s that you could literally eat off of. They had only 180 hours. The insides were completely destroyed from years of underuse in a saltwater environment. Ended up throwing out both engines, but I bought the boat at a price that made economic sense to do so.

Detailed engine survey with compression checks, oil tests and riser removal to see what the inside of the manifolds look like would be a must in my opinion.

Bill Trenkle out of San Diego is a great surveyor. If you're in LA I'd have Carl Meenzen at Ccmarine survey the engines.
 
Here's what they looked like on the outside, but when we started pulling stuff apart, my God what a disaster. Everything was rust. Valves, cylinders, intake manifold, etc. It was cheaper to buy two brand new Mercury 8.2s, than attempt to salvage them.

upload_2022-7-23_9-17-23.png
 
yikes, that is a scary tale. Will definitely have the engines looked over thoroughly.
 
Any thing to look out for when buying one of these beauties, positive or negative?

Hire a marine surveyor and a mechanical surveyor and also perform a sea trial with the surveyors. They will tell you everything you need to know, good &/or bad.
 
We have had our 2006 340 since 2015. We love it. Has the 496mags (8.1s) with the Bravo 3 drives and bow thruster.
Bought it in Annapolis with 895 hours on the motors and 950 hours on the genny. We now have 1300 hours on the motors and 1390 hours on the genny. We moved up from a Maxum 2700. It is my wife, daughter and I usually on the boat including week+ long trips and there is plenty of room. It surveyed very well with only a few issues. The original owner took very good care of her. We have done several upgrades you may wat to consider down the road. New Garmin GPS, Autopilot and HD Radar. SeaStar Hydraulic Steering - those drives were a bear to move. Camper Canvas and bunch of other things. I went with the outdrives due to the creek I live on can get quite shallow. We also put in thru hulls to get better raw water flow and install strainers. You will love the 340, just remember it will have issues and you will need to do some things to make it exactly what you want. The 340 is great. Big enough to go where you need to in comport, but small enough to tool around town. Good Luck and Congrats.
 
I would go over the generator in great detail - the fuel module can be an issue in salt water and the catalytic converter design was changed after this year - salt crystals and sand could clog the ports in the catalytic converter. The same with the cool fuel modules in salt water on the engines. All fixable. But things to look for. Overall looks like a nice boat. Price is aggressive and really good. Dock neighbor just sold last fall a 2004 for $125k.
 
Thanks everyone! My list of things to check keeps getting longer :). Hoping the mechanical surveyor will know all this, but I plan on provided a laundry list for him!
 

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