Still shopping as you can tell. Came across a Fountain that I might be interested in pursuing. Has a ProCharger from what the as says.

Thoughts on this engine? About 200hrs since rebuild. Will search out the full documentation of the rebuild.

200hrs on a procharged HP500 probably is ready to have a top end refresh done on the engine. It better have a good outdrive on it to standup to the HP...700ish???

Do you have the knowledge to fix and maintain it?? Or do you have someone else that can do it??

Finding someone to insure it should also be another concern.

blow through carb procharger on a budget buy is a really bad idea...sorry. That also appears to have the fountain exhaust tips that lead to rotten transoms. Id bet it has black plastic beauty rings on the other side....the stainless pipe "tip" is held by the hose clamps on the rubber hose and nothing else. The wood in the transom was left completely untreated in that section and immediately got wet.

Here is the boat I am talking about. Owner has had it for 4 years with zero issues.

https://www.boattrader.com/boat/1997...fever-9071186/

Buy it if problems go with stock MerCruiser rebuild or new power! Now price will be major decision maker? As for the anti-Fountain expert noticed all his [posts have anti Fountain posts indirectly. Get a few comps and pull the trigger no fortune tellers on here! PS have owned many Fountains only had 1 wet transom! Carry on
[img]https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.offshoreonly.com-vbulletin/2000x1504/20230427_135336_97109dac5fee324a806f1da1753cf9fef2 53eb95.jpg

105 - that post ^^^ is one of the most incoherent I’ve seen in a while…..

BUT, I can provide cliff notes - FOUNTAINS ROCK and the OP should definitely take a flyer on an older used boat that might have unreliable power with several hundred hours on it…..

The bilge in the pictured boat is filthy, that alone would be a hard pass for me on that boat. And while Fountains are built well, ANYTHING can be wrong with a boat of that vintage. The Fountain guys on here have given some good advice. Good luck with your search.

fountains DO rock and are 100% worth fixing. BUT, these are facts. Not a hater at all, just don't want to see a guy's first HP boating experience be an awful one. Carry on, what do I know?

You have four different threads going on basically the same subject, boat search. Try consolidating them.

Griff, SeaNile,

Depends on the ProCharger model, right? The M1 on a 496HO is ADVERTISED at ~615HP, and several here on OSO have knocked that claim, suggesting it's more likely to be ~500HP or so. Who knows... But you are looking at a 29' boat with a 28P prop. That's what I've got on my PQ280 with the 496HO/M1ProCharger combo. You might be getting more HP out of a 500HP/ProCharger combo than I am out of my 496, depending on which ProCharger it's got, but the prop ain't showing it, IMHO. Something to chew on.

Fountains and wet transoms/stringers go together like peanut butter and jelly. Get a survey done. Maybe two.

Thanks. Brad.