525 sc's
 

I'm very close to making a written offer on a really clean 38 w/525sc's.
The motors are in the mid 400 hour range, the engine's and the motor compartment are so clean you can eat off of it!!!
I'm curious as to what you guys feel the time left on them would be before a refreshening.
I'm thinking lifters, rockers, and springs in the next 150 to 250 hours. But I'm not clear on the blowers theirselves.
He's retired and has been a 10+ year owner, he got the boat with less than 70 hours when he purchased it.
Judging by the pic's it's the cleanest mid 90's unit that I've seen since starting my search.
I'm on my way out the door to a sales lead but will try to post pic's this evening.

See ya,
Kelly

38 what?

450 is a lot of hours for blower engines. I would expect needing full rebuilds of the engines and blowers fairly soon, regardless of how clean they are.

Just my opinion, but the few 525SCs' that I've worked with have been pretty easy maintenance.
The 525 SC that we installed in the OutlawCowgirl Baja had a little over 100 hours on it, (I think?) when they bought the engine. . We installed the engine late in the season with nothing more than a fresh filter/oilchange at installation. The next season we pulled the heads and sent them in for a full maintenance, (true surface, new exhaust valves, all new springs, etc). At that time I also changed the lube in the supercharger. That's been a few years ago, but they haven't put many hours on it the last couple of years. The only time the boat gets ran hard is for that 90 second WFO run during the Shootout.

First, compression check and a leak down....Over due for a top end freshen including valve springs. While your this far, rings and bearings cant hurt. Blower fluids supposed to be changed every 50 HRS. If the owner says he never changed it, I would ship them to The Blower Shop for a freshen.

If you are buying it this time of year I would consider having them freshened now. If you want to run a year you may be fine, but who really knows. I have 350 hrs on mine had the upper done at 230, Plus it is easy to add an extra 100 HP to this just doing the uppers, but had a valve seat go so anything can happen. With that many hours do a total just so you know if you want. I have to take my motor in and I am doing a total this time.

I do agree have the blowers sent to the blower shop, good people I have got to know them better then I wanted to, had both rebuilt when I did the upper part, but then had a bearing go out after 70 hours. I wish I would have painted them blue at that time but did not I will the next time though, it looks like the 575's then. I do agree do a compression test with a leak down, very important.

Good luck I love the way they sound.

What kind of boat?


Rich.

Here's some pic's of the unit.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28.../IMG_15421.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28.../IMG_15432.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28.../IMG_15402.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28.../IMG_15341.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28.../IMG_15311.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28.../IMG_15212.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28.../IMG_15202.jpg

The boat is a 38 Special by Baja.
It's priced very aggressively but it'll take a trailer purchase and a 6 day round trip drive just to get to it down here.
I'm hoping to see a total cost around 40 with survey, trailer, and fuel for the trip.
This will wax 80% of my budget, I was really hoping to come in less and have some reserve left before dropping more on my purchase. My understanding has always been that these are really low boost motors
and do well with simple PM. I'd like to think I could get a summer or two prior to dropping the kind of coin required to freshen up.
I'm probably pretty naive, my best bud has always told me that "boat' stands for bust out another thousand, LOL!!!

See ya,
Kelly

At a minimum, the top ends and the blowers should be done. The top ends are way overdue. The blowers were and issue and should be freshened, especially if they haven't been serviced on a regular basis. I would send them to DMPE instead of The Blower Shop. They do excellent work and are less than TBS.
Eddie

merc tested these too 1200 hrs