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I just went into contract to purchase a 2008 – 50 ft Sea Ray with Cummins QSC 8.3 engines with 500 hours. The boat is in San Diego – Shelter Island. I’m looking for a reputable mechanic in the area to check out the engines and generator very thoroughly. Need to get this done in the next 2 weeks. You guys are the experts and I’d love to get one of you out to do it but if not, can you recommend someone that is trustworthy? Thanks and appreciate everything you guys post here. I’ve leaned more about these engines in the past 6 moths than most lifetime brokers out there know. Kinda sad how little they know really.
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Some things to look at……….
Jeff,
Forgive me if you know all of this already……….
Is this a 2008 48 Sundancer? If so, I have had my eye on that model for a couple of years. A couple of things you will want to seriously look at when you have the boat and engines surveyed and do the sea trial.
#1 I have seen “those wet elbows” for mixers on the exhaust pretty consistently on this model Sundancer. Tony describes those as “Doomed to Fail”. Even if they are installed so that they are mixing and blowing down they are on a clock. Pay close attention to the orientation and condition of the exhaust. That might be a bargaining chip…
#2 This boat comes from the factory over propped. I am basing this on the data reported by a few different seatrials I have seen and comparing those results to the Cummins curve. That vintage 48 Sundancer should have the QSC 540. For good measure I have attached the performance report to this post but you can also find it on this site. Pay close attention to the level of discoloration on the turbo and the aftercoolers. This will be a good indication as to how hard previous owner(s) have run the boat. When you are doing the seatrial pay VERY CLOSE attention to the fuel burn in the 2000-2300 rpm range. That will be your cruising RPM range as this is a 2600rpm engine. Since it has not been used that much on a yearly basis(~500hrs), Marine Age is going to be a factor that needs to be explored………
Here is what you should not compromise on…….
Insist on seeing the maintenance records. Ask specifically and verify in the records if possible, when the aftercoolers were removed, disassembled, cleaned, pressure tested, lubed, reassembled etc…. This should have been done 3-4 times ideally as this boat is ~11 years old. Ask specifically when the heat exchanger was serviced in a similar manner to the aftercoolers. Ask how often the seawater pump impellers have been changed. Have the pumps themselves been replaced? Is there a fresh water flush system installed and used?Any chance you can post some pictures of the engine room of this boat? You will get some good solid advice from this forum based on what is seen in the pictures and then you can instruct your surveyor accordingly. That is unless Seaboard ends up being your surveyor, in which case you are in superb hands!
Cheers!
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