ye, knew the engines I got had issues when a buddy had them built, he sold boat, new buyer didn't have issues but also never really ran boat much or for sure not hard, I figured all was ok, I got them and n=been having issues since, I got heads all good last year, this Aug I spit a rod, I am now completely redoing both shortblocks and when I tore down I found some very bad things... if you cannot see the bearings use best judgement, I bought a boat for parts last year, had HP500's I was selling, I knew the history of the boat, I ran it for a weekend myself and had videos of it running and all gauges, I also have a good name for selling parts and sold both engines 4500 each, no issues both buyers happy...

I think it is the seller's best interest to make sure the engines are sound at the point of sale and have documentation of this. Who wants to have their name drug through the mud? I am in the process of trading my boat with Eddie Young engines. I would have ended up better parting it out but dreaded having to deal with the transaction. I thought about as part of the deal I would include the cost of Eddie doing an inspection and leakdown and retune in the buyers boat. This would be a lot of good faith insurance from both the buyer and seller. My engines are in great shape and someone is going to get a lot of top shelf equipment for pennies on the dollar.
Personally, if I couldn't run performance engines, I would not buy them unless they were pulled apart.........I know from experience. Take time to do this.
With all the problems associated with buying and selling performance engines, I think it can be a good value for the buyer and seller.

I bought a takeout 525 from a very reliable dealer up north who says the engine came from a customer they sold the boat to new.- that they knew the boat well and it only has about 50 hours on it. Put the 525 in my Advantage and after about 120 hours it develops a nasty ticking. Take it to Eddy Young and it's a stick lifter and couple of broken rockers. I got lucky in that it hadn't caused any damage to the lower end but it needed pretty much a whole upper end rebuild. No biggie - Eddie fixed me up. Cost me about $4k for the upper rebuild but Eddie put better parts back in it and now I should be good to go for 300+ hours.

I bought a set of used Ilmor 710's back in 2010. Had them run at a shop before I paid for them and they sounded and ran fine. Put them in my 38 Fountain and had no issues with them. Sold the Fountain hull after the 2011 season but kept the 710's to put in my Donzi ZRC project. I was on the fence about buying something with blowers in the 800+ hp range to put in the Donzi but never really found anything -otherwise I would have put the 710's on the market and sold them in good faith without a bit of doubt (having just ran them in the Fountain without issue).

This Donzi project drags out 2 + years as the rigger suffered an illness and I ultimately decided to have the boat painted. The engines had sat a good while by this winter so I figured it prudent to have them dynoed before installation in the boat again. Turns out they were down on power a bit. I ship them to Ilmor for inspection and Oh boy -they were a complete mess. Leaky headers on both engines had caused water reversion requiring pretty much a total rebuild on both engines. They were at Ilmor all summer being rebuilt. Sucks for me but had I sold them to someone else what a mess it would have created for both the buyer and myself.

In the future I won't buy anything without having a trusted builder go through the engine/s. In fact, earlier this summer I had my eyes on a set of 950 Zuls that had sat for years but were reportedly back up engines and had test time only on them. I asked the seller if it would be possible to have have them dynoed and inspected before I paid, but he said no. He would only allow my mechanic to visually inspect them and take a flash light and look down inside the valve covers. I passed.

Lesson is sometimes you can get screwed buying a set of engines even when they are being sold in good faith.

OK.....When someone is buying a used boat...They have it surveyed and the engines checked. They obviously wouldn't pull them for a dyno run. I assume it is acceptable to run them, inspect oil, take temp and oil pressure readings see how the engine responds under load and rebounds from a run.. If the compression and leak down check out it would seem to be good to go..Yes? /No?

Heck,....A new unproven engine can let go on the dyno. seems like there is some value in a proven assembly. just thoughts...

It would seem a more secure purchase if you found a running package and wanted to buy the power out of it than purchasing an engine on a stand.

True in most cases, the rest... All luck!!

SkiDoC didnt you put SCXs on that boat? Dont you want to sell them to me before you trade it in?????

Looks like the deal is pretty well sealed. Yes Scx with new imco boxes and gimbles quad ram steering, new tie bar. Losing my butt on it. 100g in engines, 45 g in transoms.

I agree. I sold two engines. One still in the boat and one pulled.

When I sold the one in the boat, I took the guy for a ride and he did a compression check and then we pulled the engine. The other the guy was in the area, came and inspected it and left a deposit. He then wanted his mechanic to run it and do a leak down. He wired the money into an escrow account and picked the engine up. Once his mechanic gave the thumbs up he released the money.

I also bought two engines. Both sight unseen. One was a newer stock Volvo engine and I trusted my gut to trust him. I sent all money upfront. The second I had him drop it at a shop and they ran it and did a leak down. I sent him a deposit and he trusted me that I would pay once received.

These were both several years ago. Not sure I would have that much trust with the money now!

I would rather the engine still be in the boat so we can go run it.

I bet you are, sucks the way the market is. If deal falls through and your intrested let me know. I have cash and a pair of almost new fresh XRs in the shop. Good luck with the deal.

True.. I bought my Cig off the recommendation of my mechanic (Dave at MDG Performance). He is how I found out about the boat and he was who did all the work.. I keep it at his marina as well.. This forum recommended him to me when I picked up my AT 4 years ago and I've been a loyal customer since. I got lucky and able to know the history of the boat, motors, drives etc so it gave me that confidence of a good buy.