[greencanuck]

I am looking at Mariah with a 6.2 that has close to 750hrs on the motor. Seller claimed a lot of that was idling over the years. Who knows? I have a 95 Davanti with the 5.7 two lunger and it has to have 400 or 500 hrs on it by now and still runs great. Should I be worried? Other than a compression, visual, and audio tests is there anything else I should check? It has a Bravo III behind it also. The boat is mint so it looks as though it has not been abused.

How many hours should one expect on a motor and drive under normal wear and tear? I am thinking 1000hrs would translate into 100000 km or 60000 miles on a vehicle.

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for any advice.

[mikeyt]

hi Greencanuck

1000 hrs on a well maintained & not abused V8 marine gas motor would be considered normal but its not unheard of that they can go much more than that without needing work. I think you've covered what you need to look at...colour of engine oil, any repair invoices, compression test, check colour & condition of spark plugs & see if you can find out where it was normally serviced.

[Z 202]

I would think the overall condition of the boat would also say a lot about how it was maintained.

As noted a compression test and a good look at the oil pressure during a sea trial would go a long way towards telling the story of how hard the engine has been run.

[ShabahZ250]

Sounds like everybody's got the right ideas. Also, I believe a Mercruiser mechanic can plug in via the diagnostic port and read the actual run hours off the engine itself. That might be worth looking into. A lot of things will be evident with a sea trial, and I wouldn't sign the deal until you've had one. Is the seller's asking price taking the high hours into consideration?

Also, what size and model boat is this? We can all help you judge if the asking price is fair or not. Do you have any pics you could post for us? You can use the "manage attachments" button and attach them to this post!

[Z275]

Are you sure that's 750hrs on the engine or is it just showing that on the hour meter in the dash? On a lot of boats the hour meter continues to rack up hours when just the ignition is on, the engine does not need to be running.
When I bought mine they had the radio wired to only work when the ignition was on so it was counting hours anytime they were listening to the radio docked or anchored. I've fixed that now!
A marine mechanic once told me that on more modern inboards 1000hrs was like 100k miles on a car. It's common to see some lowering of compression at that point.

[Z 202]

Good point. Mine does that as well: chocks up hours when the radio is on. It even says that in the Mariah Manual.

If the motor has had regular maintenance and proper oil changes the compression at 1000 hours will be down, but shouldn't be significant. More important is that is roughly the same across all cylinders.

[WetWilly]

I agree with everyone here, the hours are relative, it's all about how it was treated and maintaned and don't forget to have the sterndrive looked at as well! Believe it or not, the sterndrive gets more wear and tear than the motor.

If everything checks out, I wouldn't hesitate in buying it!

WetWilly

[greencanuck]

Thanks for all the great info. Someone asked for the model,,, it is a 2001 245 Z Jubilee. They are asking in the high twenties. I have not negotiated a final price yet. No trailer also. The NADA with all the goodies added in states around 28,000K on the high end. It was babied and I will check the hour meter thing as that makes more sense for the look of the boat.

Thanks Again

[Z 202]

In that case it's likely an FI motor, and as Chris noted a merc mechanic can pull the engine hours from the computer.