Blue 500s hourly maintenance ???
 

I am literally days away from returning once again from a deployment and I would like to go from my 29 Fever to a 35 Ex or maybe a 38. There are three 35s that I will be going to look at. The1st boat has 200hrs on 500 EFIs. 2nd boat has 300hrs on 500 EFIs and the third has 360hrs on 500 Carbs. What are the maintenance concerns or issues with the hours on these engines? Can I get away with running the 200hr boat for a summer? Thanks[ATTACH=CONFIG]539849

From past experience 400 plus hours is the time for rebuilds. I am sure some would debate this however I boated with several friends for years and that seemed to be a good time line before desaster struck. That was running pretty consistently hard. On the flip side I know of some that would get up to 1k plus hours just doing routine maintenance and be fine however they didn't run near as hard as others.

First and foremost, thank you for your service!!! As a recent blue motor owner, I don't have all the knowledge needed, but have learned alot on this forum. If it was me, I would knock out the Carb engine without question. Again, just me, I'm sure I will get blasted, but believe the EFI is a more stable and steady offering. Of the two EFI's being considered, most will agree, it all depends on how those hours were spent. If you can get the run history report for both, look for where the hours were spent. I would prefer higher "easy" hours over lower "hard/WOT" hours. I hear 300 is the magic number for top end work on these Blues. Weak OEM springs being the culprit that can lead to other issues. So, that said, the 200 hrs boat, if not abused, likely would be first choice for a summer of fun. Well deserved and earned I will add!!! We Salute you!

Btw congrats on a safe return. Enjoy your time back on home turf.

Thumbs up!

Can't get anything but hours ran on the 500EFI's, the other data only became available with 525 EFI.

Just as a reference, I have 500EFI's did top ends around 250-280 hours.

We have ran them on the dyno, all looks good and my engine builder says run them to 500-600 hours. They are at 370-378 right now.

Once the boat is back togather I may start building long blocks and just have them ready to switch over to.

The 360 hr boat is last on my list and the 200 hr boat is 220 miles closer to me than the 300hr and they are almost identical in looks and trailer. 200hr boat is listed $4000 less.

sounds like a no brainer to me.....Go get the 200hr boat and bask in the fun and sun....some real R&R.......

I've heard and can verify 200 hrs is max on the valve springs. Mine were broke all to hell at 170 hours....

I did my top ends at 345 hours and missed it by a few. I had a lifter blow apart in the starboard motor and cost me an arm and a leg over what it should have been. I would say get the 200 hour one and after this summer do top ends spring's gaskets and clean up the valves if needed. Also have the drives completely gone throw to prevent failure. If you r paying to have it done it should run you around 5 to 7 k to do both top ends and about 2 or 3 k to have the drives completely gone throw. Doing all this sooner then later will save you money in the long run. With the broken parts I ended up with cost me a extra 10k . I also did new lifters on the port motor as well so both had all the same nuw parts except the cam witch only the one got replaced. Good luck to ya