[bikeman59]

Greetings and thank you for allowing me to be a part of this great club. I've recently purchased a 1994 Talari Z220. I grew up on a lake in the PNW, left that area in 1980, but find myself wanting to get back on the water now. I've done a lot of research on a lot of boats over the last year and my decision came down to a Sea Ray or a Mariah. Obviously I chose the Mariah and I am very pleased. It has a fresh motor, a fairly fresh out drive and has been wintered undercover all it's life.

We've been out on it 3 times since purchasing it in early September, plan on getting out a few more times before the weather turns bad. We've got a few bugs to work out, but all in all it's in great shape and a hell of a lot of fun.

I've already learned a ton from this site and plan on learning more as I move through this adventure. If I have anything useful to post, I will do that.

[Scottie1961]

Nice looking rig Bikeman! What motor have you got? Welcome to the Forum.

[bikeman59]

Thanks Scottie. It has a 454, freshly rebuilt. Seems pretty stock, has a ton of power. I'm a Chevy guy from way back, so this engine is very familiar to me. I may upgrade a few things, like the carb, HEI distributer and such, but not a lot. I want it more reliable without hot rodding it too much.

I'm open to any tips or tricks.

[Scottie1961]

That's a lot of motor. There's a lot of cool stuff you can do to your boat. I'm adding new Edelbrock intake and new carb along with electric fuel pump. My 5.7 has good power but I just can't leave stuff alone. Probably the easiest and coolest mod I've done is swapped all lights to LEDs.

[bikeman59]

Tell me about the LED's. I'm interested in doing the same thing. What brand did you use? Did you use colored bulbs? Do you have dock lights and if so, did you upgrade those?

[Scottie1961]

bikeman, I used blue T10 Led bulbs for the courtesy lights (on Amazon). They look pretty cool and match the external LED plug light I installed. I replaced the nav lights but can't remember the type/number. I have a wake tower so used led bulb on the tower light not the stern light. I do have docking lights but haven't tackled those yet. I'll probably add some more led lights to the engine compartment in addition to the two that are already there. The T10's are pretty long so I had trouble getting the covers on. Probably need to fix that at some point. There's a great article about converting to LED's in the How To's section. Not sure if you have to be a contributing member to see those articles but it would be worth the money if you're not. Especially if you plan on doing projects on your boat. Good luck!

[markgaines]

Hey Bikeman! I'm new here too! Also just bought a 94 z220. Not near as nice as yours but I don't mind a fixer upper. I'm trying to figure out if I got a good deal on it. If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for yours? You can just ballpark it to me if you don't feel comfortable giving me an exact amount.

[bikeman59]

I paid $8,500, including the trailer. I felt it was a good price. It was more than I had intended to pay for a boat, but I didn't want a project - already have too many of those! Did you get a good deal?

[bikeman59]

Thanks Scottie. I'll add that to my project list for this winter.