[Dave&Kathi]

Hello Mariah Enthusiasts!
We are new to the Mariah Owners Club. We purchased a nice-looking 1995 Mariah Shabah Z202 in Ohio from a member of this club. We took it out for a trial run and it ran really bad. It wouldn't hardly even get on plane. Our mistake was not having it checked out before we bought it. We finally were able to get it into a shop (the good boat shops are really backed up as we all know) and it has a cracked block, so it's completely trashed. Very sad indeed, especially since we paid a premium price ($15,000.00) for the boat. We are looking for a good replacement engine. The bad engine is a 5.7 Mercruiser 350 Magnum. We want to find a similar engine, but a good one is hard to find. If anyone knows of a good source for another engine, please let us know. Thank you!

[Sparks&Stripes]

Welcome! Did you have water coming in and mixing in your oil? I have a cracked block as well on my 350mag but it is only on the outside and has been welded so I guess what I am saying is there is a chance that a cracked block can be saved and may not be the reason why a motor is running poor. In your case it may be cracked internal. Facebook seems to have a lot of motors for sale lately. Join the mariah owners pages on there (there are two) and both are used a lot more than this website. Also, powerboat swap shop and passion for powerboats are two good pages to join people are always posting turn key motors for sale. About ten years ago I purchased a boat with a bad motor so I bought another boat, swapped motors and sold everything else off and broke even on the second boat. Lots of options! Hope this helps!

[GregT]

Wow, really sorry someone did that to you, especially from this group. I hope you are able to fix the situation without to much extra effort and cost.

Have a good mechanic look at the block and see if repair is possible. Hoping you get some good news on it.

[Dave&Kathi]

Thanks for your reply, Greg. We do have the boat at a great shop. The shop says the crack is major and internal between cylinders 3 & 5, so unfortunately not repairable. The shop told us the reason for the crack is that the engine majorly overheated at some point. The gasket is also burned away between 3 & 5 and other components of the engine show evidence of high heat damage. So far the guy who sold us the boat hasn't responded to our calls/texts. He's an avid Mariah fan and knows a lot of other Mariah boat owners, so we're hoping he will do right and refund part of the $ we paid him for the boat.

[Dave&Kathi]

Hi Sparks & Stripes/Dan, thanks very much for the leads on where to find another engine. Please see our response to Greg in this thread about what the shop found with our engine. Unfortunately pretty bad. The block is trash.