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.

the 525 Sc's where actually a very long living engine, i would go thru them , but dont think they need a full rebuild .

And yes, what 38 is it ?

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

It appears that the starboard engine either has water flow issues or is running lean, due to hot spots on the exhaust ?!!!!!!

other then that they look very clean and if the price is right u should have no problem . IMO

They might have, but I'm yet to see a gas blower engine that's truely worked in a HP boat go 1200+ hrs w/o getting in to it.

The top ends and the blowers need to be gone through ASAP.

Eddie,
At a seat of the pants guess, do you think a roller cam, lifters, rockers, springs, and a blower rebuild would go over 10k for both motors? Or would I be better off leaving the cam and replacing the lifters, rockers and springs. I don't think these motors were a full roller set up when they were built were they.
I did kind of feel that I'd get the responses you guys gave me.
I was just wishfully hoping that I'd see 600+ hours prior to a major investment on the valvetrain and the blower.
I always thought these blowers didn't produce boost until over 4000rpm and you could expect a reasonably long service life from the factory setup. I certainly didn't expect 1200 hours but thought 700 might be within reach.
I'm really on the edge here, the boat is truly priced right, very clean, and I do like the idea of having some better performance in the higher RPM's.
But, I've also found that patience is everything. For every boat that I've thought was the one initially, after further research and passing, another excellent unit has came on the market within several weeks to a month later.

Thanks for all of y'alls insight.

See ya,
Kelly

Yes, you can certainly do it under 10k. You are right that it's not a roller engine. It is also a 454, not a 502.
The blowers were a hit and miss. Some lasted forever, and others did not. The blower rebuild is just preventative maintenance. The best thing to do for the blower is to service it religiously.
If you are going to change the cam, then I would absolutely go with a hyd. roller. The flat tappets of today are having some issues. There are a bunch of cheap lifters from oversees combined with the lack of zinc in oil. Sure, you can use additives to replace the zinc, but why bother. Put in a hyd. roller and be done with it.
Give me a shout if I can help in any way.
Eddie

They look to be intercooled. That might suggest the engines were setup for more power at some point. It would be interesting to see the pulley diameters.

Take a look at my friends' 380 Powerquest with fresh 600's and SSM V's! $52k! www.clintonmarine.com

Just noticed that. They are intercooled. You can see it in the second pic on page 1. Wonder if the pulleys were changed.
Eddie

I just noticed the chillers also.

The stock pulley diameter is 3.5" upper and 7" lower. The stock boost is 5.5#. They will start making boost in the 3500rpm range.
They are not roller cam engines but do have roller rockers. A good off the shelf roller cam is a Crane 168731 and its an easy conversion, but will cost you about an extra $1200 per engine to do. That is the cam I put in my 525SC. I was also running about 7.5# of boost without a chiller.
Be advised that you need 92 octane fuel and the 525SC's are very thristy.