Hello, I just sold my 27 Pachanga and am looking at my first formula. Found a 312 that has 700 hours on it but has bean used in salt water. Dealer says it has flush connections and has bean flushed and dry stacked after every use. What should I look for or inspect being a salt water boat. Thank you in advance

Take tools and put wrenches on any fastener you can get to.
See if they break loose.
If not, walk away.

Try the drive mount bolts. Any, all of them.
Any that don’t move, you’ll be paying someone else to torch them off and charge you for damage they do along way to repair/replace them.

Try fasteners around trim tabs too.
Same as above.

A broker telling you it has flush ports, means nothing.

Try the bolts around the exhaust manifolds.
Same as above.

If it’s on a trailer......., start again on it.

I lived in Fla for 9 yrs and loved it but have seen salt do things to stainless that had to be done by satan!

Worked on/repaired boats/motors there entire time so yes I am biased.

If the seller/broker flinches at any of this......, run!

Bit harsh ^^ but good advice.
Nothing wrong with salt water boats if they've always had double the maintenance that a fresh water equivalent has had.

Every single metal item on the boat, from inside the cabin, under the floor, cupboard hinges, fittings, gauges, electrical contacts, the entire engine bay and of course, all the hardware hanging out back needs constant maintenance.

Dont be scared, just be overcautious.

RR

i agree with all the advice about being catious . One nick through the paint on an oil pan can lead to a rust through in 2 seasons. Ive seen oil filters puke all tge oil into the bilge from rusting out after 1 year. Nothing can be overlooked or hidden from the salt.

Its what you cant see that might bite you, especially inside the engines, I bought a pair of 500 EFI's from salt use to rebuild and flip, ended up throwing away all this, 4 heads, 2 water pumps, 2 thermo housings, 1 lower intake, 2 cam's, so be careful.

Thanks everyone. I’ll be honest, I may just wait for a fresh water to come up for sale and spend a little extra. This boat is 13 hours away but under 30k with a trailer. I’m torn

I agree, a little overzealous but from the experience of doing freshwater for 10+ years and taking a boat that was on a fresh lake for 2 years to salt I noticed considerable aging of the fiberglass gloss and paint on drives. I always kept the engines sprayed down with penetrant on fresh and salt and there wasnt a huge difference. Internally, I have closed cooled and flushed often but not religiously and I didnt see any major issues.

In my opinion, if it was run in salt and looks close to new, the dude did a lot of maintenance to keep it that way. If the drives look shiny and new, the dude took care of his stuff. If not, start looking for issues.

Satire:

Look out for this......

”Still runs.....”

How The Fuhhhh?

Electrolysis. There was some poor dude with brand new outboards in a marina where someone upstream dropped a cord in the water or sumpthin sumpthin like that, but they looked similar at less than a month old.