I hope teh marine surveyor will check that out...right? thanks for the heads up tho... Here are some pics of her:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...a-foredeck.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...toverview1.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1.../s_a-cuddy.jpg

Someone could have left the ignition key and run the hour meter. Boat may not have that many hours on it.

That happened on an old outboard boat I had. I am assuming the hour meter still works off of the key on newer boats.

yeah that is what i was thinking as well...my buddy did that to his boat over a week or so when he was on vaca...the battery ended up dying, and his hour metter had a BUNCH of hours on it...He ended up getting a new one, setting it to the Title and then using it from then on...

But form thos epics does that boat look like it has 412 hours!?

If you have it properly checked out they will be able to tell you how many hours are really on it with a scanner, hour meters are always inacurate.

Words of experience my friend? :):drink:

You might want to talk to Johno about changing out from the 7.4. The year he bought the boat, it ran every single time he put it in the water, but he has the need for speed, and it was a lot of trouble, and a lot of bucks. He currently runs an outboard.

Instead of tying to hop up the 7.4, you'd be much ahead to find a low hour 502 mag, 496 or something of that nature. Just be sure it says Mercruiser on the engine. There are too many horror stories on here about non Merc engines. I found why Merc engines cost so much.............because they are worth it!

so what you mean find a used Merc 502 and swap it out?...

Something of this nature?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MERCR...QQcmdZViewItem

I think it would be more cost effective for me to just rebuild the 454 with forged internals and put a procharger on it...total of about 5k-6k for 500hp (85+mph boat) whihc is all i am looking for...

does anyone sell Forged 454 Rebuild kits (pistons, rods, cranks, bushings, bearings, ect...)?

If you want someone to talk to you about getting parts, you may want to join so they can PM you, or give out an e-mail address. Most parts pricing and things like that are usually conducted that way here. It is more of a courtesy to everybody here in case you are able to negotiate better pricing and what not.