looking to upgrade 420 88-92

[Saverio]

hi all

looking to move up to a 420 with Cats
are their any pros or cons in the different years???

thanks for help
Saverio

 

[fwebster]

Later is better than early ones and you should broaden your scope to include the pre-'95 440DA's.

 

[NorCal Boater]

I have the 375HP 3208 Cats in my 52'. They have been very reliable. However, I have heard that one should avoid the 425HP version of this motor as the reliability goes down substantially. That came from my Cat tech.

 

[bahamabreisus]

We went from a 390 to a 420, still think is was a great boat. The one thing I loved was the lack of bow rise when accelerating, Never had to stand up, like the 390. Plenty of engine room access. Oh, ours was a 1991 with 454s. Actually wish I still had it, but Admiral wanted 2 bathrooms, go figure. Good luck in the search, We found ours on a small lake in Georgia, Covered slip its entire life.

 

[Saverio]

I would like to increase my range and i know the only way is with diesels

in my 390 i learned that the early ones used a lot of wood in the seating and bases. is that the same with the 420???

 

[fwebster]

Not in the seat bases but in some of the cockpit interior panels. They are easy to remove and replace with Starboard, but the older 420's really seem dated to me. By the time you freshened one up, you could probably buy a 440DA for the same investment., which is the predecessor to the 450 which is one of Sea Ray's best efforts so far. By '94-'95 you get no wood in the cockpit walls and more modern colors, fabrics, carpeting, etc. Some 440's also came with 3116 Cats which is less smoky and easier to work on, although the 3208 is a great engine as long as you run them at the rated cruise and keep the temps in the proper range.

I've posted this before following the comments that the 435 hp 3208 is weak, but I have a friend in Florida that has a pair of 3208's in a 48 ft charter boat. He runs almost every day, keep t he power at about 75% and has 18,000 hours on his engines. He's replaced a fuel pump, a few injectors, 2 alternators and several seawater pumps, but he hasn't lost a day fishing in 20 years. it is all in how you load them and how you maintain them.

 

[JoeRomero]

Good day, Saverio'

My wife and I bought a 1990 440AC w/ twin 3208TA Cats in Dec. last year. It's a great boat for our needs and it has tons of storage space. We got really lucky, 2 owner boat, first owner had her for 21 yrs. and professionallay maintained. Interior is in fantastic shape. I think the hull is similar if not exactly the same as the DB model. I agree with Frank on the 3208's, will last forever if with normal oil changes, keep it at cruise rpm and watch the temp. Our hull is not cored but I've heard that some of the mid-90's cored hulls had issues. We cruised at 18k from Ft. Meyers Fl. to Galveston TX with no issues, handled 4-6's very well.

Good luck on the hunt!

Joe

 

[JoeRomero]

Typo! Same as DA, not DB!

 

[juggernaut1]

Used to have a 435hp 3208 powered commercial cray boat (rock lobster) with a Hamilton jet unit in partnership with my brother. Probably did near on 70 hours a week during the season. Never a problem during our years of ownership. But we did keep the revs down mainly to keep fuel consumption in check given the number of hours it was doing - cruise was around 20 knots. Self maintained with regular oil changes.