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Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board
Re: Several newbie questions.
Posted By: Joef In Response To: Re: Several newbie questions. (Vic Roy)
Date: Wednesday, 26 January 2005, at 10:06 a.m.
UV is right on with the engine advice - at 210HP those engines will out live just about every recreational boater out there. but i'd recommend the oil analysis test anyway - Its worth the $...its cheap - probably less than $100 to test oil from both engines and trannies. I get my oil tested each year - 5 years ago (with my old Vulvas) i found water in the oil - small amount, undectectable by looking at the oil, but turns out it was sea water - and i found there was a small leak in the inner seawater pump seal. Rebuilt the pump - problem fixed (was about $250) to rebuild pump, vs "god knows what" if the problem persisted. 2 years ago, i had some Cat 3208T's surveyed by a very experienced CAT dealer - everything was cool -(almost exactly as UV described)...but an oil test found traces of anti-freeze in the oil - again, nothing i'd have ever seen with bare eyes. Did some digging and found there was a repair to an exhaust manifold gasket (probably a $3 item)...the repair was not done properly (although it seemed to be holding up at the time of our sea trial). I got $1000 off the price of the boat and fixed the problem myself for the cost of skinned knuckles, 6 gallons of new antifreeze, a saturday spend in the bilge wrestling the manifold and 3 advil later that night (i guess about $200 all in). But again, we found something with that oil test that could have been a real disaster. Of course, taking these test regularly, over the long run, may help you spot other long term wear issues - but again, on these engines, I'd bet you 5 bucks and a cheesesteak that you'll never truly "wear" them out.
Good luck
Joe
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