BajaFresh

I know boating and ethics may be an oxymoron but I need some feedback on my situation.

I bought a boat from a friend 3 years ago. I had run this boat before and liked it. The seller said there were no issues with it and in fact, just had a bunch of work done on it. Now I know that I should have had a survey done or at least sea trialed it but I was trusting this guy as I thought he was a stand up guy.

The boat sat for a year while I was remodeling my house because I just didn't have time to use it. Then I retired and moved so it sat another couple years while I moved everything and built a big garage. A few months ago I finally get time to devote to it but by now started thinking about selling because I no longer lived near the ocean and as a retired guy, I could use the money.

Got the motors fired and they sounded great! After running them for a while though I saw water leaking out of the exhaust manifolds so had to replace all four. Figured the previous owner probably didn't flush the salt water out good enough and well, my fault for letting it sit so long that they corroded through. That cost me about $5K.

After that, cleaned it all up and ready to hit the water. It ran great and pulled hard so was thinking that maybe I'd just keep it. Then the port engine lost oil pressure. No clattering, didn't get hot or anything as the alarm went off and then we shut it down. I was (wishfully) thinking it might just be the sending unit. Picked one up on the way home and swapped it out, fired it up and oil pressure was back to normal. Great, she's good to go again.

Then a friend of a friend wanted to buy the boat. We made a deal and I went home (I live about 400 miles from where the boat was stored at my buddy's place). The first time he took it out oil pressure goes to zero after 15 minutes or so of run time. I arrange to have him take it to the shop that did my manifolds. Shop hooks up a mechanical gauge and it shows low oil pressure so he yanks the motor, pulls the pan and finds sludge in the oil pan, crank bearings are bad and crank is scored (see photos below). Looks like the oil had never been changed and motor needs to be replaced.

I contact the guy I got it from to ask about maintenance history. He had the boat for 10 years, put 150 hours on it (325 hours on it now)
and had oil changed every season. While he had it he had a well known shop raise the X, installed full dual ram hydraulic steering, big tabs and a bunch of other stuff. He is currently re building another really nice boat. He certainly doesn't seen like the type that would neglect maintenance. Plus why would someone spend all that money making improvements and not bother with oil changes?

So maybe it was the guy he bought it from that didn't change the oil? What else could cause sludge build up like this in an engine? Anyway, I'm now out the cost of an engine replacement (7.4 Mag Motor) which is going to be about $8K including labor which is a pretty big hit for me. And also concerned about the starboard engine. Is it going to have the same issues?

Now I could be a dick and tell the new buyer, "tough luck" but I can't do that. So the question is, does the guy I bought it from and any obligation to help me out? I know legally that answer is probably no, but morally and ethically? Or is this just going to be a very expensive lesson for not having it checked out and then letting it sit too long?

Alwhite00

thirdchildhood

iTrader: (6)

I agree. After 3 years? No.

Jupiter Sunsation

The boat sat for a year while I was remodeling my house because I just didn't have time to use it. Then I retired and moved so it sat another couple years while I moved everything and built a big garage

Did you change the oil in those 3 years? I'd think the sitting probably didn't help it much.

underpsi68

Sorry for your troubles but previous owner is not responsible.

Good luck with everything.

BUP

iTrader: (9)

3 years of sitting requires of alot of work to make a boat and possible the trailer turn key lake ready. Just saying no offense

BajaFresh

Okay, thanks for the replies. I guess I'm an idiot and it's going to cost me.

I've had cars sit for way longer than that though and the oil didn't turn to sludge. Plus, the oil that came out of the engines looked like new. The shop says the sludge is from running oil without changing it, not from going bad because of sitting.

Anyway, lesson learned: always get a survey no matter who you buy a boat from!

SB

iTrader: (1)

Or race oil with no detergents. Some water / water vapor in it for years won't help either. Maybe contaminated from the bad exhaust manifolds.

Wally

iTrader: (1)

that or the previous owner just trusted the marina/shop to actually change the oil and they didn't do it right and he never bothered checking....
My dad used to get his 1984 caddy serviced by the corner gas station shell that had a repair garage....it was a company car so he had tune ups done every other year and oil changes like clockwork.......when i got into high-school and started taking autos class i wanted to work on the family cars so dad let me start on his caddy since he knew if anything goes wrong he just takes it over to the shop and let them fix it Anyway first thing i get to do is an oil change.....the filter on the block was FACTORY original and the car was like 6yrs old at this time!!! the guys at the station couldnt get it off so they left it alone!!! I spent a good hour chiseling it off...needles to say dad was not happy...but what really took the cake was when i went to change spark plugs....the plug on the passenger side nearest the firewall was also NEVER changed...it was so covered in crud there was no way the thing was firing off! It was more time consuming cause you had to take off the tire and the inner fender well to get at it and the were obviously too lazy to do it. Needless to say he went down and all hell broke loose with the owner of the station. But on the flip side the car never ran so good afterwards! lol

f_inscreenname

Tell you a quick story that just happened a couple weeks ago. This Spring I decided to spend some money and do some upgrades to the fuel system in my old race boat. After installing fuel pressure regulators that cost $120 each I learn that my Carter competition fuel pumps are not putting out the pressure they were supposed to. Now I would have just thought one was bad or something but I found both only put out about 3.25lbs each. Now one doing it is one thing, both doing the exact same thing...well.... So I jump on-line and see if this is an issue and how to fix. Come to find out Carter has been misrepresenting the fuel pressure with the pumps for years and instead of the 6lbs they just a few weeks before issues a notice that the real pressure was between 2.5 and 3.5lbs. You can still today go on places like Jegs (Summit just changed theirs) and see it still listed as 6lbs. I contact Jegs where I bought my pumps and tell them I just added new F/P regulators and discovered the low F/P and after research I found Carter changed their listing and Jegs still had not, proving that they misrepresented the pumps in the first place. Jegs said because I had the pumps for 3 years I get nothing. Not even a 10% discount on my next order. Now I have talked to some people that know a little about the law and they say I would win a lawsuit but the cost and time would out weigh anything I would receive in damages. Basically I was screwed and Jegs just lost a customer.