One man’s thoughts…….
JK,
If you do a little reading about QSM’s on this site you will find that the base engine is about as solid as you can get. The issues are the Exhaust Manifold and Turbo. They are not cooled. My advice has always been if you really like the boat and can make a deal on the purchase price to help offset the cost and tolerate the repairs then go ahead. Only you can answer the “Walk away” question.
Based on these last three pictures, this boat is a Sea Ray so I can guarantee that it has been over propped since it was built. You need to move the fuel burn at 1900 up to 2100 so you are looking at 2 or more inches of pitch to remove. That will get the fuel burn in check but you still have manifold and turbo work to do. For the manifolds there is a fair amount of labor since the aftercooler and heat exchanger need to come off in order to access it. Since they are off the engine you can have those serviced. And if that is a 50/52 Sundancer, one engine will be relatively easy access and the other will be a royal PITA….. translation is more labor on one engine because of the restricted access.
If the current leak is not too bad then you probably can prop down, limit your time on plane and just keep an overall eye on the amount of soot that gets deposited until you can get the parts and repairs. You can add a couple of steps to your daily engine checks. Use a white rag and wipe the soot off behind the aftercooler and if you see a big change in the amount of soot that gets deposited on the engine, then I would slow down to hull speed until you can get things replaced.
This is almost a 20year old boat and 9 years have passed since the major repairs you mentioned so there are going to be costs involved now. You have to answer the question for yourself. Can you tolerate the cost and time it will take for the repairs? I was in the same situation a year ago but different engines with different quirks. 480CE’s in a 2005 460 Sundancer. We had the entire cooling circuit serviced and did a couple of other things to the tune of $15K when we bought the boat Spring of 2021. We are having the cylinder heads done before we launch this Spring. That is going to be expensive as well. We also had the navigation electronics updated. That is complete and expensive. So All in we spent A LOT of money on this boat but we knew it going in and have tolerated a few delays with not too much angst. We were looking at the newer updated design of the 2006 – 2008 48 Sundancer. But those boats were much more money from a purchase perspective. We chose to buy the older less expensive version and fix it up and save ~half the difference in purchase price. That was a deliberate choice. So far, not too bad.
If you absolutely love the boat and must have it then you have some work to do. If you think that you can not tolerate the situation and the cost then move along to another boat.
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