Just got off the phone with the marina. It should have been my 1st move before posting on the board. Bottom line, the issues with my motors will be addressed and taken care of. As for the one mechanic who lied, I don't know. Bad judgement on his part.

I am editing my original post so as not to make the marina look bad for the actions of one. The owner was more than willing to correct the problem, and also concerned I did not speak to him 1st so he could take care of it, I agree.

Excellent!!!!
Its on hookers, booze AND boats.
Nice....Ill have to phone my lawyer friends :crazy:

I'm guessing that the basic problem is that several different people have worked on it. Each one not knowing what was done previously. I'm going through this right now.
I was asked to wire, set up ignitions, and install on a couple custom built supercharged 540.
I found problems with the fuel system, oil lines/coolers, trannys, mouts, etc. No one person was in charge to make sure EVERYTHING went together correctly.
I ended up with a list of 33 items that had to be changed or checked before the motors could be fired. Otherwise I would be getting blamed for problems that came up.
Go with stock merc power and save yourself the headaches.
Gary

greetings to all of you... i know how frustrating it is for pure energy to waste valuable and hard earned leisure time dealing with bad mechanics and dishonest marinas. and judging by replies he got to his post, having problems with engines seems to be the norm. some people understand that only stock, warrantied power can offer the peace of mind that pleasure boating requires. I stress the word "pleasure" because boating is only pleasurable when you can trust your engines. if i have to hope and pray that everything is going to hold together every second of my trip, forget it. as a matter of fact, i don't want to think about my engines at all, apart from when i am doing maintenance on them. and some people seem to share this point of view. this is why i am surprised that very few are talking about diesel engines. an engine like YANMAR is just over 1000lb and produces 440hp, soon to be 480hp. it is covered by a 5-year warranty and can go for 5000 hours without major overhaul. i know a diesel will never make a V8 sound and will never rev like one, but they are still fast. a hustler 388 with twin YANMARS does 83 mph while it will do 85 with twin HP500s. in terms of acceleration, YANMAR's 780 ft-lb of torque will easily take care of excess weight and will match a gas motor. Therefore, if you want to stay stock, why not try diesels. diesels cannot replace big blown V8s in terms of performance (not yet) but when you get in that territory, i think we are way ahead of today's technology anyway. Big-block V8s are essentially a 1950s design and have been designed to operate in cars and trucks which means that they run hotter than they should in 99% of marine applications. the basic engine design is too old to take 900hp and let's not even talk about 1300, 1400hp we're seeing today. A complete redesign of the block is necessary to withstand this kind of power: we need a V8 that does away with pushrods, has 4 valves per cylinder, has gear-driven accessories, has a heat exchanger with closed-circuit cooling... i short, which uses 21st century technologies. Then, I will mount them in my V-bottom and gladly run 120 or 130 mph. Until then, I will stick to diesels and run 80 mph all day, even in 4ft. seas because that is what the marketed technology reliably allows me to do. anything more is putting you in the position of a test engineer who is trying to push the envelope and in my opinion, this is not our job. our job is to enjoy our boating. think about it in relation to cars. nobody accepts unreliable cars anymore so why should we accept unrealible boats? unless of course you have a drag racer project but you do not take your family on a weekend with that, do you? and yet, some boats are just that: disguised race boats which are used for weekend family pleasure. and this is where the problem is: the boats i see and their use are often incompatible. if you want a boat that does anything above F2 speeds, accept the fact that it is basically a race boat and that you will have problems. if you want trouble-free boating, stick to stock power or go for diesels and accept the fact that you cannot go over 90 mph. just like you perfectly accept that even your weekend drop-top cannot top 300 mph in 5 seconds and cannot pull 3Gs in your favourite corner. This is just my opinion and I invite everybody to comment. I am still in awe and very much admire a Skater cat with big Sterlings when I see one, it is just that I think that people who then complain about reliability and bad mechanics when their engines blow up are seriously confused about the nature of merchandise they invested in.

Ken,
I knew they would step up and get you running. I'm sorry to hear all the problems you are having this year. I think Gary hit the nail on the head. Too many people worked on your boat. Hey, have you been out east this year? Let me know when you guys are out and we'll have to get together.

Ken,

Glad to see you got the lines of communication open. I'm sure they'll get it squared away for you. Let me know if there's anything I can do.

Sean

Sean, I knew they would have no problem taking care of me, I was/am frustrated that it happened in the 1st place.

super termoli, I would like nothing better than a pair of diesels. My truck is diesel and I will never run a gas one again!

you're exactly right. a diesel truck is better than a gas truck. the coincidence is, a marine engine also has a lot of weight to move just like a truck. torque moves heavy stuff, not big horsepower. in my opinion, anything over 15000lb needs an amount of torque that is available only in blown big blocks which in turn makes them unreliable. but as i said, a diesel will never roar like a V8. that's life, you just can't have it all!