Want Speed

sounds good jayhawk...I personally dont have a credit card though...

my email tho is [email protected]

jayhawk261

I'm pretty sure nobody's worried about your credit card number You'll find a wealth of knowledge on here and everybody very much willing to share it. As far as being reachable, most people use the PM function to discuss pricing of parts and such rather than air a negotiation. All I was saying was that if you're actively looking for parts and prices, you should make yourself available via PM. Anything payment wise beyond that is up to you and whoever you're working with.

As far as rebuilding the 7.4, all the parts are available to do what you want. I'm not sure, money wise, if you'd be better off buying a used/reman 502 or rebuilding the stock 454. It really depends on what you can buy a new short block for. I would guess you can get a stock reman 502 mag short block in the $3500.00 range from a reputable builder. To have yours re-done with new crank, rods, pistons and the like might be a little cheaper, but probably not a huge difference. If it were me, I'd probably go with a reman 502 short, and have my heads reworked and choose a good cam.

kennyo

If you are going to swap everything, it's actually cheaper to bore and stroke it than find stock forged parts.

jtmiller02

I've been on several 496 boats with high hours, the one I ran last summer had over 1,000 hours. I ran 2 in the virgin islands that i can think of off the top of my head, one had about 2,400 hours the other had over 3,200.

These engines were typically kept under 4,000rpm but were constantly run with heavy loads. (12 people loaded on the bow of a boat and a huge 37ft parasail dragging behind it) The biggest thing about the VI boats was year round use/maintenance. They weren't allowed to sit and corrode, and they had a captain and mechanic working to keep them in top shape.

Often higher hours can be better than lower hours if properly cared for. Hardest thing for a boat is to sit, get the crap run out of it, then sit some more. Most people do this routine several times a year without doing pre-run checks, checking hose clamps, fluids, etc etc.

One other thing, when you run a boat every day, the smallest change in sound/power etc will be very quickly noticed, if you run a boat once a month its much harder to notice small changes that could indicate problems starting to develop.

satisfactionII

Of course the hours matter. It is a very nice looking Donzi, but you know he didn't just idle around for 400 hours. It most likely is a great boat and you could use it right away, but you should expect to work on the engines and drives in the very near future. Best of luck.

GLH

Nice rig.

400 hours on a 454 would not scare me after it passed a leakdown test

oldandtired

That's exactly what I did with my '98 22zx. I bought the boat knowing that it had engine issues for way cheap. It turned out that the block, while pretty from the topside, was crusty enough to be a bear to disassemble. I kept my ear to the ground and got a great deal on a 502.

To answer your original question, I don't believe in hours as a measure of condition. If I was looking at that boat, took it out and had it run well, the hours wouldn't mean much. One of my friends can't get 200 hours on his 496 without blowing it up. My 502 has unknown hours (estimated between 400-500) and I don't think twice about running the hell out of it. Go test drive the boat, see what kind of speed it gets (should run around 62-64) and check to see what kind of work has been done on it. Use the hours to negotiate price, but don't worry about them that much.

REBEL4845

Is that boat in St Joseph MI. If not they have one that looks alot like it. I bought a cruiser with 500 hrs on it over another one with just 45 hrs on it. I would prefer having something that was used more consistent than just looked at. A leakdown test will tell it all. Great looking boat. Good luck.