I recently purchased a 1998 Baja 232 Islander with a Mer Cruiser 454. The hour meter shows 78 hours. My mechanic also stated that it shows 78 hours after looking at the engine. Have you ever heard of being able to change the hour meter on the boat meter like they do odometer rollbacks on a car. I purchased the boat and hope that I did not get ripped off. The motor looks clean but I am a rookie in the boating experience. Any experience with this hour meter being changed.

Pretty hard to do on a ECM, if the mechanic did a merc scan tool on it. If its a carb, pretty easy. 78 Hours is very low but possible depending on the area and who owned it. I mean if you purchased it from a 70yr who only took his grand kids tubing its probably accurate. If you purchased from someone who lived on a lake and you know people witnessed the boat out every weekend for tha past 10 years probably wrong.

A rule of thumb less than 100 hours the boat whould be in very good condition.

is it a efi engine? if it is the ecm can be scanned to check run time which is not affected by key on time this will be the most accurate way to tell true engine hours unless the ecm has been replaced.

As PastDue stated- if its efi- check the ecm, its the only way to know for sure... yes, you can disconnect, or replace hour meters.

I had my ecm hr reset on 1 of my motors to match the actual hrs when I had to replace the ecm, so anything is possible.
However, it cost a few $100 for this to be done. Your regular marina won't be able to it. They can scan the ecm, but they can't reprogram it.
If the boat looks clean, may very well be the actual hrs.

All you need to do to change an actual hour meter is put 12 volts to it or unplug it. As said, if it is an efi, then the ecm can be scanned for the actual hours. The ECM will be accurate as long as it has not been replaced or reprogrammed.

What are the odds a 1998 boat has 78 hours? It must look like new if it does. Meters can run in reverese hooked up to 12v backwards. Or replaced. Meters mean very little to me. Condition is everything. Compression check the engine or better yet do a leakdown test which will tell you a lot more than hours.

Thank You..I will find out what type of engine I have. It was a one owner so that makes me feel a little bit better. He just left the boat out in the weather with no cover.

from my understanding 98 model mercruiser ecm's did not record hours. it started with 99 model years

Hour meters can be unplugged, very very easily! What about older mercruiser carbed engines? I imagine they didnt have a hour meter in the engine itself?