Official 1998 Sea Ray Sundancer 290 Thread

[Strecker25]

View attachment 86906 Quick question: What does everyone use to reach the front windshield to clean it?

I scrubbed the crap out of my boat yesterday..... My dock mates probably thought it was abandoned.

one of those car windshield cleaner thingys with a microfiber attached. You can get to the Inside of the vent glass while it’s open from the bow top

 

[GregCamp]

I have a 2001 Sea Ray 290 bowrider. I am scratching my head on this one. I start her up... Everything works great! and about 10-15 mins into driving along the Panel will freeze up and here is the super weird part. on the port panel the engine room lift, the blower, the bilge pump, trim tabs stop working on the port side panel, but the fwd acc button does work.... the starboard side the bilge light button doesn't work, but the rest do work. If I shut everything down and put her away for 4+ hours everything seems to reset and work again. I have called 3-4 places to try and get someone to help and no one seems to want to call back. Please help! The way that i know the "error" or whatever it is happening, is the bilge pump light will light up and stay on. You cant turn it off it is frozen. Thank you for ANY advice. I have tried to throw all the breaker switches on and of. even waited a few mins with them off. it take around 4 hours to reset.

 

[Strecker25]

I have a 2001 Sea Ray 290 bowrider. I am scratching my head on this one. I start her up... Everything works great! and about 10-15 mins into driving along the Panel will freeze up and here is the super weird part. on the port panel the engine room lift, the blower, the bilge pump, trim tabs stop working on the port side panel, but the fwd acc button does work.... the starboard side the bilge light button doesn't work, but the rest do work. If I shut everything down and put her away for 4+ hours everything seems to reset and work again. I have called 3-4 places to try and get someone to help and no one seems to want to call back. Please help! The way that i know the "error" or whatever it is happening, is the bilge pump light will light up and stay on. You cant turn it off it is frozen. Thank you for ANY advice. I have tried to throw all the breaker switches on and of. even waited a few mins with them off. it take around 4 hours to reset.

just a heads up, this is a 290 Sundancer thread so not specific to your boat. Youll get a couple responses here but I’d suggest making the same post in one of the general repair sections.

anyways, sounds like an electrical gremlin to me. That’s usually a result of a bad ground or loose connection. Check your battery connections, engine positive and ground leads, and pull the gauge panel back to tighhen all the connections to each gauge. Stuff bounces around and eventually gets loose

 

[Jeff Delbuono]

I normally just shuffle up on my back and do it. I also use rainex at the begginin of season. It helps with the water spots

 

[GregCamp]

just a heads up, this is a 290 Sundancer thread so not specific to your boat. Youll get a couple responses here but I’d suggest making the same post in one of the general repair sections.

anyways, sounds like an electrical gremlin to me. That’s usually a result of a bad ground or loose connection. Check your battery connections, engine positive and ground leads, and pull the gauge panel back to tighhen all the connections to each gauge. Stuff bounces around and eventually gets loose

I was on there for a few hours today trying to located the issue with my father in law. I noticed the power inverter was acting up and i think somehow it was tied into the EIM. I ordered a new one and will install it tomorrow. Will let you know if it solves my issues. Fingers crossed.

 

[Herrickjde]

Looking to buy a 1998 Sea Ray 290 Sundancer. ..... The Boat has no A/C. & Heat and it only has a 4.3 L engine... Have 2 Questions.....How Expensive is it going to be to put an A/C in there, later ? And is the 4.3 L engine kind of small for such a big boat ?. Should I look for one with larger engines ? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

I bought a 290 last year with the 4.3L engines and please learn from my mistake here that the 4.3L is absolutely not enough power. I would not purchase a 290 with less than 300 hp per engine and I am getting 27 gallons per hour at 27/28 mph with this new engines (5.7 V8 EFI). My AC is fine, but in Florida you really need it. PS top end is around 40 mph, but really burning the fuel .

 

[Strecker25]

I bought a 290 last year with the 4.3L engines and please learn from my mistake here that the 4.3L is absolutely not enough power. I would not purchase a 290 with less than 300 hp per engine and I am getting 27 gallons per hour at 27/28 mph with this new engines (5.7 V8 EFI). My AC is fine, but in Florida you really need it. PS top end is around 40 mph, but really burning the fuel .
View attachment 86960

agree the 4.3s are probably low on power but with those motors you should be going faster and burning less fuel than you are. What props are on?

I have 5.7EFIs with 260hp each and 3400 rpm is 28mph top speed is around 48mph. Alphas with stock 19” ss vengeance. Burns 21GPH total at that speed

 

[Herrickjde]

agree the 4.3s are probably low on power but with those motors you should be going faster and burning less fuel than you are. What props are on?

I have 5.7EFIs with 260hp each and 3400 rpm is 28mph top speed is around 48mph. Alphas with stock 19” ss vengeance. Burns 21GPH total at that speed

4 Blade SS 17 pitch / 1:41 ratio drives as spec'd by sea ray with new engines

 

[Strecker25]

4 Blade SS 17 pitch / 1:41 ratio drives as spec'd by sea ray with new engines

that makes sense, I have a pair of 4 blades that bring us down to 41mph top end.

They must hold you on plane nice and low, we’re steady around 17mph comfortable cruise with them on.

 

[steveziv]

I normally just shuffle up on my back and do it. I also use rainex at the begginin of season. It helps with the water spots

Yep, on your back, arms out, sweat dripping, curses flying.

 

[Herrickjde]

that makes sense, I have a pair of 4 blades that bring us down to 41mph top end.

They must hold you on plane nice and low, we’re steady around 17 mph comfortable cruise with them on.

So I have 3 sets of props The 4 blade SS 17's and 3 blade SS 19's vengeance and they came with the boat. When I was having problems with the 4.3's I purchased a pair of Turning-point 4 blade aluminum 15's, but they really turned up the RPM a bit too much. Sad as I used the turning-point wizard and even with the 5.7's it came back 4 blade 15's. On the 17's I am only turning up a max of 4,200 rpm's and the engines should top out at 5,400.

 

[Shark]

Anyone happen to have a source for a replacement shower curtain? In the meantime, I'm trying to think of some local shop that might be able to make something up...

 

[Strecker25]

So I have 3 sets of props The 4 blade SS 17's and 3 blade SS 19's vengeance and they came with the boat. When I was having problems with the 4.3's I purchased a pair of Turning-point 4 blade aluminum 15's, but they really turned up the RPM a bit too much. Sad as I used the turning-point wizard and even with the 5.7's it came back 4 blade 15's. On the 17's I am only turning up a max of 4,200 rpm's and the engines should top out at 5,400.

Haha like us with the Props, ive had 4 sets myself

my 4 blades are the 20” diamond4 aluminum. They turn up to 4600 no issues and I think it’s because they’re flexing. No way our motors would spin 20” 4 blade SS that high

 

[Tacoma290]

Wow, the props this group has had. My 290 with 5.0s had stainless 4-blade 19" x 20p props. Felt like a great setup. Never felt underpowered.

 

[Tacoma290]

Anyone happen to have a source for a replacement shower curtain? In the meantime, I'm trying to think of some local shop that might be able to make something up...

Shark, expensive way is a boat top shop. Less expensive way is to ask a family member who can sew. Should be simple to duplicate.

 

[Little Ducky]

Question for the group.

My barge is being pulled for bottom paint and at least one transom replacement.... if not both.

So my question. The drives are beat up, eaten up, most of one cavitation plate is gone and the outsides are so rough they ate up a green scotch bright pad when I tried to clean today. So should I just suck it up and replace them when I'm having everything else worked on..... or should I just service them and run them until they actually have a mechanical failure?

Running wise they run great, shift good and have no leaks but going by looks they are on borrowed time.

 

[Strecker25]

Question for the group.

My barge is being pulled for bottom paint and at least one transom replacement.... if not both.

So my question. The drives are beat up, eaten up, most of one cavitation plate is gone and the outsides are so rough they ate up a green scotch bright pad when I tried to clean today. So should I just suck it up and replace them when I'm having everything else worked on..... or should I just service them and run them until they actually have a mechanical failure?

Running wise they run great, shift good and have no leaks but going by looks they are on borrowed time.

my thought process on these things is always to weigh the “cost” of downtime versus proactive R&R. We have a very short season, so I generally err on the side of replace versus not. In your case you boat all year, right?

If they test out and work ok, I’d clean them up the best I could and run them. Two full replacements are not inexpensive, and if you do them I’d go OEM and not SEI. I have SEI lowers and had a bunch of issues early on. Our boats are really heavy for alphas and while I couldn’t say for sure, two for two failures on mine tell me the SEI isn’t as robust as OEM

 

[Jeff Delbuono]

Question to the 98 290 group. Does anybody have the wireing diagram for the radio system. I just installed a new fusion radio with several wireless remotes. Works awesome but when i took out the old system there is a yellow wire with a sticker on it that has #500 on it. Not sure what it controles. Have radio diagram that gives speakers #'s but not sure what #500 is too. When ya look at radio diagram it says to see wire diagram for further but i do not have

 

[Little Ducky]

my thought process on these things is always to weigh the “cost” of downtime versus proactive R&R. We have a very short season, so I generally err on the side of replace versus not. In your case you boat all year, right?

If they test out and work ok, I’d clean them up the best I could and run them. Two full replacements are not inexpensive, and if you do them I’d go OEM and not SEI. I have SEI lowers and had a bunch of issues early on. Our boats are really heavy for alphas and while I couldn’t say for sure, two for two failures on mine tell me the SEI isn’t as robust as OEM

I'll have to see how much everything is going to be once the boat is out and they have a chance to see what's needed to repair the current issues....... I might not have a choice but to run the old drives but I'll see here in a few days.

 

[Garintheair]

I'll have to see how much everything is going to be once the boat is out and they have a chance to see what's needed to repair the current issues....... I might not have a choice but to run the old drives but I'll see here in a few days.

I have a 1995 290 with Alpha 1 Gen 2's. This was originally a salt water boat-a dock queen with neglected anodes- and the outdrives were punky, to say the least; one where you could push your finger right through the water chamber on the lower casing. I just replaced the engine on the disintegrating out drive. Despite appearances both out drives are sealed tight and operate perfectly. I did put a used one on the one with the holes through the casing but only because I picked up a low hours, fresh water standard rotation drive locally for $100.00. The counter rotation side, despite appearances, is still sound and I'm going to run it this way on Lake Ontario until it finally gives up the ghost. As I do run the length, and cross, the lake I would not take the chance if I didn't have at least some faith in the integrity of this drive overall.

If your drives still seal and the casings aren't crumbling apart like mine I would say run it until it won't any longer.