Repower recomendations

[belliswood]

Repowering both engines 7.4 MPI/EFI in my 1996 370 SunDancer. Recommendations on where to purchase remanufactured engines. Good warranty / cost?

TIA

 

[hottoddie]

Jasper or Michigan Motors are 2 good sources. However what is wrong with your existing engines? Are you a DIY kind of person?

 

[WV 320 Dancer]

Tons of questions... how many hours on the 7.4’s? Entire life livid in salt water? How long are you going to keep the boat? What was the result from the survey on the condition of the engines?

 

[belliswood]

Thank You all... The engines have 1200 hrs on them. The port engine Compression is little low at 125 -130 while the starboard engine is 150 - 155. I am preparing the do the Great Loop in 2020. So I am updating systems and repowering for the trip.

 

[douglee25]

Do a leak down and see what comes back. May just need a head refresh.

 

[Scott06]

I'd second Michigan motorz as well, they have new base engines, rebuilds, partial/extended base depending on needs.

My experince with them was very positive. I bought a new partial engine, they were one of the few that would give warranty for a home installer, which I ultimately didn't need anyways...

 

[JVM225]

I bought two new motors from Michigan Motorz for my old boat back in 2011/2012. The owner was fantastic to deal with and really gave me some good info. He handed me off to a salesman as soon as I decided on what I wanted and had my shopping list ready.
Things went south from there pretty quickly. Delayed shipping, missing items, or wrong items sent. Really caused me some grief in trying to schedule everything. It all worked out in the end, but there was some headaches involved.
Honestly, I think the salesman was a bit clueless and really bad about returning calls. Finally got the owner in the phone again and he straightened it all out.
I did save a little money over getting everything locally, but not sure if I would do it that way again if given the choice.
Probably would have been better off renting a truck and picking everything up from the more local guy.

 

[Brite Idea]

If the engines are FWC have them rebuilt if not go for Mercruiser bobtail packages. The cost is there initially but in the long run you'll save money and have less headaches.

 

[PlayDate]

Thank You all... The engines have 1200 hrs on them. The port engine Compression is little low at 125 -130 while the starboard engine is 150 - 155. I am preparing the do the Great Loop in 2020. So I am updating systems and repowering for the trip.

Those are decent numbers for the hours you have. Do you have a baseline survey when you bought the boat to compare them to? The reason why is that compression tests give you more of an estimate than a precise result. If the engine is cold, you will get one answer.....if it is hot or warm....you will get another. The assembled tolerances can also account for gross pressure differences between two engines.

What is important on a compression test is the difference of a cylinder to another cylinder on the same engine. In your case ....they look pretty good.

It may be worthwhile (as Douglee25 mentioned) to do a leak down test just to confirm the current state of each engine.

I'm not trying to talk you out of re-powering but I don't see a case (as it stands) for well-maintained gas engines at 1,200 hours to be replaced. That could change with a leak down test and an oil analysis for each engine. Given the trip you are planning.... I would replace the heat exchangers (raw water, oil and transmission coolers) at a minimum (if you haven't already done so).

I have not done the Loop but I have a few friends that have. For what it is worth:

The loop is approx 5,300 miles, your average day will be 40 miles due to no wake, manatee zones, locks, bridges and the fact that no one cruises the loop at night.

Average time for the loop is 130 cruising days.

Your boat is going to burn about 5 GPH at idle. If you can average 7 mph at 5 GPH, that's 1.4mpg. 5300mi at 7mph is 757hrs x 5gph=3,785 gallons.

Putting another 800 hours on the engines and transmissions should not be a problem if most of your journey is slow travel. You will easily spend $12-15K in gas alone.