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Hello All –
I am new to this forum and asked Tony for his advice, and he told to me to come here. So… here is am.
I’ve made an offer a very nice 2003 35 Carolina Classic on the East Coast with Cummins 480CE’s and your article(s) have made me, well, nervous. The engines have 1700’ish hours, and its sounds like the mechanic who has been maintaining the motors is very familiar with the “potential” valve issue. So, as “preventive maintenance”, the mechanic replaced the heads 100 or so hours ago. The owner replaced the turbo’s, ECM updates and water pumps. He also did custom exhaust risers (I guess the Carolina’s are known to have short exhaust risers from the factory).
Anyways, the boat also has all new running gear, so I wanted to ask if anyone has any numbers I should look for on the Sea Trial? GPH, Max RPM, etc. He said the boat does 26 knots at 2200 RPM’s and thinks about 13gph, but couldn’t say for certain. My surveyor will confirm numbers, but I wanted to ask you all for any extra information to look for. Its a daunting task purchasing a boat from California sight unseen, so any help would be greatly appreciated. It sounds like a great boat – but you just never know.
I believe aftercoolers and heat exchangers are original. Based on hours and years, I’d assume both must be replaced?
Thank you so much in advance for the help! It is very much appreciated.
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I recently purchased a boat with these engines and have spent a ton of time researching them and getting familiar with mine. I’m no expert but I would urge the following considerations based on my experience:
-Make sure your surveyor knows you need to see engine load and/or GPH at 2000 RPM, 2200 RPM, and WOT (should be 2670) so you can compare various points to the fuel burn graphs Tony posted. Ideally you’d get those data plus boost pressure, temps, etc at various RPMs. I thought I had made this clear to my surveyor, but he did not save the data. Since the electronic displays were not functional (common for this vintage of engine), it took me forever to get my fuel burn/engine loading figured out and I’m still wrestling with one engine burning more fuel than the other. Having the data from the get-go would have saved me a whole lot of stress. If the numbers you get are higher than you’d like to see, it doesn’t necessarily mean the engines are shot. You could prop down right away and since the heads were recently re-done (valves too?) you could get lucky and not have an issue.
-In my research I’ve seen a whole lot of postings about Carolina Classics with these engines where water got in the turbos due to the exhaust design. Since the turbos were replaced (when?), seems like it could have been a possibility here as well. The question is when they re-did the exhaust did they do it “right?” I’d make sure you get lots of photos of the exhaust set up so you can verify. Post the pics here and people will help take a look, and make sure you read Tony’s articles about exhaust design. I had to read them several times, look at pictures, and eventually get down in the engine room and climb around until I really understood it. Also get your surveyor to take pics looking into the turbos.
-I’d urge to do all of your due diligence but ultimately not stress over it too much either. If you really like the boat/engine combo, the best thing you can do is be as informed as possible and negotiate the best deal you can. If you are buying engines with 1700 hours on them you can do all the due diligence in the world and still have a major problem that drives a rebuild, piston/cylinder kit, etc. Or you could get five or ten more years of good service out of them with not much more than preventive maintenance. That’s just life when you are buying a used boat with 10-15 year old engines.
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