Fountain 38 lightening 525s engine rebuild time
#41
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Sarasota FL
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Barry good luck with your refresh or rebuild which ever way you choose to go with it. That's a very nice looking Fountain you have by the way. Its sounds like you are in great hands as far as a mechanic. Just remember you get what you pay for in this game. I learned early on that if pricing is going to sway your decision on any kind of mechanic work you had better sway towards the more expensive one. LOL. Right this minute my thread is three under yours right on this forum. Its titled 500 EFIs being built by Potter Performance. Check it out and you will see what 400 hours of wear looks like on some of it. Like I said a lot of mine was due to water getting inside my motors due to my manifold's leaking. I had no idea they were leaking at all. It wasn't enough to see water in the oil. My mechanics said the water I was getting was being passed as condensation. But if you look at the tear down pictures of my motors you can clearly see that the water took a big toll on my intakes and my heads. Best of luck to you. Enjoy that Fountain. I know Im about to get back to enjoying mine again in just two or three week's now.
Thanks
Norm.
Thanks
Norm.
#42
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Barry good luck with your refresh or rebuild which ever way you choose to go with it. That's a very nice looking Fountain you have by the way. Its sounds like you are in great hands as far as a mechanic. Just remember you get what you pay for in this game. I learned early on that if pricing is going to sway your decision on any kind of mechanic work you had better sway towards the more expensive one. LOL. Right this minute my thread is three under yours right on this forum. Its titled 500 EFIs being built by Potter Performance. Check it out and you will see what 400 hours of wear looks like on some of it. Like I said a lot of mine was due to water getting inside my motors due to my manifold's leaking. I had no idea they were leaking at all. It wasn't enough to see water in the oil. My mechanics said the water I was getting was being passed as condensation. But if you look at the tear down pictures of my motors you can clearly see that the water took a big toll on my intakes and my heads. Best of luck to you. Enjoy that Fountain. I know Im about to get back to enjoying mine again in just two or three week's now.
Thanks
Norm.
Thanks
Norm.
As for my boat, thanks for the comment. It is a beautiful boat and in absolute pristine condition. I just spent $2700 touching up some blemishes and redid the decals to freshen things up. Last year my boat was in the water and when I pulled it out at the end of the season to acid wash it, some paint just blew off with the pressure washer (blue paint, rear of the boat below water line). Apparently this is normal if you leave these puppies in the water too long......had no idea! Anyways had that repaired, a few other little marks that you couldn't see unless you were a foot away but I'm a perfectionist so hell, had it all done to look like new. Its in now to get the entire top buffed back to brilliant white from the friggin acid rain marks that were on it when I purchased it. I polished about a foot of the boat last year and was amazed how beautiful it turned out so sent it in to get the entire surface professionally done. I purchased a custom cover to cover the entire boat over and above the cockpit cover so more bird **** or acid rain for me.
I plan to install clear vinyl tot he paint that sits below the water line to prevent any bubbling of paint this season but also bout a new F250 Super Duty Lariat and installed air bags so I can pull this puppy out every few weeks to clean the hull. Should be a nice summer and hopefully no more learning curves......ya right! lol
Ok, heading over to review you string, chat soon and thanks again for everything!
Barry
#43
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Sorry about that, both for that $. Have a conversation with your mechanic, maybe just do the top ends depending on the history of idle time versus WOT? If your like me I like the peace of mind knowing everything is better than new at all times. The headers and valve springs are the most important right now for you followed by the lifters.
A guy from the shop is telling me they can pull the data but he wasn't sure about the details. I wanted to educate myself before I speak with the owner of the shop. They charge $100 per hou per man.....I'm guessing they would need 2 guys to do this unless I head out with the mechanic and for $100 per hour WTF not be the guy burning my fuel lol
Anyways question 2 is: should I have them run a full on water diagnostic with the DDT to get a clear picture of the health of my motors? I'm guessing for 2 maybe $300 it would be worth it.
Thx in advance
#44
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Hey Rob, Quick question withrepsect to the DDT report. Obvously the boat would have to bein the water to run number of tests however to get the data or history of idle time vs WOT, does the boat need to be on the water?
A guy from the shop is telling me they can pull the data but he wasn't sure about the details. I wanted to educate myself before I speak with the owner of the shop. They charge $100 per hou per man.....I'm guessing they would need 2 guys to do this unless I head out with the mechanic and for $100 per hour WTF not be the guy burning my fuel lol
Anyways question 2 is: should I have them run a full on water diagnostic with the DDT to get a clear picture of the health of my motors? I'm guessing for 2 maybe $300 it would be worth it.
Thx in advance
A guy from the shop is telling me they can pull the data but he wasn't sure about the details. I wanted to educate myself before I speak with the owner of the shop. They charge $100 per hou per man.....I'm guessing they would need 2 guys to do this unless I head out with the mechanic and for $100 per hour WTF not be the guy burning my fuel lol
Anyways question 2 is: should I have them run a full on water diagnostic with the DDT to get a clear picture of the health of my motors? I'm guessing for 2 maybe $300 it would be worth it.
Thx in advance
#45
Well thank you, it's a real pleasure meeting so many peope willng to give a hand and or so much great advice! Its funny, these things burn so much oil and according to Merc, its normal so you have to ask yourself the question.....why would one need to ever change the oil lol.....he answer is obvoius but man these 525's love oil.
Question, what engine coolant do you use? I use the orangs one I think its by Merc but not the diuted product, its the heavy or dark orange one....just curious, never asked that before.
As for salt water runs, My boat has never seen salt and since none of that exists near me, I'm safe however if I ever pull it to salt water, rest assured, boat and trailer would get a serious rince. Nothing worse than salt water and trailer brakes....i've read many expesive mistakes about that one!
I believe 25W 40 it the viscosity I use...have to doube check but it sounds right.
We shall chat soon buddy ave a super weekend!
Question, what engine coolant do you use? I use the orangs one I think its by Merc but not the diuted product, its the heavy or dark orange one....just curious, never asked that before.
As for salt water runs, My boat has never seen salt and since none of that exists near me, I'm safe however if I ever pull it to salt water, rest assured, boat and trailer would get a serious rince. Nothing worse than salt water and trailer brakes....i've read many expesive mistakes about that one!
I believe 25W 40 it the viscosity I use...have to doube check but it sounds right.
We shall chat soon buddy ave a super weekend!
Thanks, Andy
#47
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Hey Barry, I use Dexcool but have completely drained what came from the factory and refilled with the improved version. There was some trouble with the first several batches of Dexcool I think mostly with cars but boats as well and although I never had any problems I changed mine anyway about 3 years ago. Did you get your engine data readings yet? Sounds like you are lucky to be near a good mechanic and I'm curious to see what he says on 525s with 400 hrs.
Thanks, Andy
Thanks, Andy
I'll get back to you with the results as soon as there in hand
Have a super afternoon.
Barry
#48
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Alright guys here are the numbers from the DDT report:
Note both sides read the same and we added up the hours to ensure nothing was reset since apparently info can be reset.
Total hours: 398
RPM Range
0-1999 = 190
2000 - 2499 = 4.6 hrs
2500 - 3499 = 93.7 hrs
3500 - 4199 = 45.5 hrs
4200 - 4699 = 15.6 hrs
4700 - 4999 = 4.7 hrs
5000 - 5199 = 2.3 hrs
5200 - 5299 = .08 hrs
5300 + = .04
Also note that it was confirmed that no refresh was done at 250 hrs.
I ran WOT before storage and both engines ran at 5200 RPM evenly
Also note: it was confirmed that a rebuild would cost $10K each and new motors in the crate assembled top and bottom end with a 1 year Merc factory warranty will run me $14k each.
My mechanic said he will buy my old ones for 2500 each. That said rebuilds for $20K or brand new for $23k
No contest, new hands down.
I look forward to your comments on the RPM range results and BTW thank you for that DDT info, that was a sweet piece of info.....and comment on new vs rebuilds
Cheers all, have a super weekend!
Barry
Note both sides read the same and we added up the hours to ensure nothing was reset since apparently info can be reset.
Total hours: 398
RPM Range
0-1999 = 190
2000 - 2499 = 4.6 hrs
2500 - 3499 = 93.7 hrs
3500 - 4199 = 45.5 hrs
4200 - 4699 = 15.6 hrs
4700 - 4999 = 4.7 hrs
5000 - 5199 = 2.3 hrs
5200 - 5299 = .08 hrs
5300 + = .04
Also note that it was confirmed that no refresh was done at 250 hrs.
I ran WOT before storage and both engines ran at 5200 RPM evenly
Also note: it was confirmed that a rebuild would cost $10K each and new motors in the crate assembled top and bottom end with a 1 year Merc factory warranty will run me $14k each.
My mechanic said he will buy my old ones for 2500 each. That said rebuilds for $20K or brand new for $23k
No contest, new hands down.
I look forward to your comments on the RPM range results and BTW thank you for that DDT info, that was a sweet piece of info.....and comment on new vs rebuilds
Cheers all, have a super weekend!
Barry
#50
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I would do top ends at best. It isn't ran hard at all. All but 25 total hours below 4200. Babied. Those bottoms ends should be in great shape barring water ingestion or lack of oil changes. Your call but I'd do compression and leak down and o through heads regardless. But I bet those bottoms ends are fine.