looking at 390/40 MY

[George C Wygant]

Hi All,
Moving from a carver 325 aft cabin to a (hopefully) 40 MY, I am in the Hudson valley in New York. There are a few of them in the northeast that I am looking at, they range from a 2003 390MY to a 2006 40 MY. I prefer to stay with the diesel motors and have read a lot of threads on this forum (thank you for the info I didn't even know I needed) including the water leak in the aft cabin, one of my top picks has this issue. as far as the motors is there one that as owners you prefer the QSB 425 or the 480 either the CE or the older Diamond. I will have a complete engine survey no matter what I pick but is the tsb on the CE heads something most have had or was it an if you found out it got done, and is Cummins paying for any of it? What would you say is a high-end limit on hours you would feel comfortable buying? one has 2000 hours and another has 1100?
Next dilemma is my top pick has extremely low hours but is a one owner boat and has been in salt water all its life ( I am waiting for owner to send me maint records) and almost all the rest are salt water also except 2 one is a 2006 w/425's in NC and I would probably need to transport, the other is in lake Champlain with turbo 466's 877 hours but the price is way high compared to the rest. what are the downfalls to the extremely low hours in salt water?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
George

 

[ManteoMike]

I just finished the Great Loop in a 2005 390 MY with 480CE cummins engines. It is a great boat in my opinion.

For 480CE engines think you want to verify upgraded heads were installed. On my boat prior owner had them replaced. Not going to be covered by warranty on boat of this age, so Cummins will not contribute.

Would not be concerned with 1100 or 2000 hours on diesel engines. Extremely low hours is not necessarily a plus. Our boat has about 1700 hours. About 600 are from last year doing great loop.

After cabin water leak may have several causes. For us it was screws in sliding window on port side in cockpit. Creeping crack filler took care of it. Before it was fixed, it was only an issue for very rough seas going into wind. In other words took thousands of gallons of water on window before leak would show up.

We are in NC in brackish water. I flush engines with fresh water if I know will not use them for an extended period.

Taking boat from NC to Hudson is a nice trip. We did it last year as part of the loop.

.mBottom line for us is we have been very happy with our 390MY. It is our 4th diesel boat and best one we have owned.

Not sure if above info is helpful or not.
Good luck,
Mike

 

[George C Wygant]

Thank you and yes very helpful. The leak on the one we are looking was there when we went to look at it as it sat on the dock but it was a very wet summer in the northeast, not sure which one we will pick but we have fallen in love with this boat and will end up with one of them in the next month