Old Hats and Detroit Diesels

[CptJenna]

We've been looking for boats for a while and finally found one through Yacht World we really loved. It's beautiful and seemingly extremely well maintained.

We cancelled the survey due to less than positive findings on removing airboxes and scoping cylinders on 12V92s rated for 1040hp. These engines have low ours since major overhaul, but that overhaul was more than 20 years ago. Issues found on scoping the cylinders included no or little cross hatching, heat spots, lack of tinning, and scoring. Our engine surveyor recommended compression testing of all cylinders with a full borescope (this requires removing injectors, and is no small or quick task).

Owners finally produced the service records we had been requesting after we shared the findings from our engine surveyor. Service records from not long after the current owners purchased the boat in 2018 included: "crank shaft leaking, owner not going to repair" as well as "# 5R top ring bad. Owner not going to repair ring at this time". All agreed to start the mains to see if they smoked (they do and not just on start). Thankfully they shared this service record. Needless to say the owners could not produce records showing these costly repairs have been made. We're sure they run, and likely could for a while, they are 2 stroke Detroits after all but better to find out before making their problem, our problem.

Buyer beware, what looks great isn't always. This boat is still out there for sale and may need full main engines overhauled. All overhauls aren't equal, and all parts aren't equal. Hire GOOD surveyors. Your hull surveyor should KNOW older boats and your engine surveyor should KNOW engines being surveyed.

[brettportzer]

Have to agree.

Our boat is great, but, the survey was a joke, and it was done by a very experienced surveyor.

30 pages of prefilled irrelevant or wrong information...

But, I see lots of posts where people are getting 40+ yr old boats "surveyed" with their fingers crossed that everything is good, and there is little chance of that in most cases.

Hopefully people avoid the type of thing you are mentioning, and glad you did.

[rsmith]

I love watching these surveyors. They always have the trimmed white beard and the half glasses on a lanyard around their neck. Button down Oxford weave shirt and pressed cargo pants. Oh yeah the $150 topsiders too. How exactly do you survey a boat and don’t get a spec of dirt and gease on you.

[CptJenna]

I didn’t realize I posted this in tech talk. Moving to the general forum.

[Pascal]

Buying a boat is always a gamble, it’s not even about detroits. When you see red flags like you did, it’s time to back out unless the deal is really really really good, good enough to allow a full rebuild or repower.

Low hours since rebuilt over 20 years ago is one of these red flag. Boat sits in a corrosive environment and it takes its toll.

Lack of maintenance records is another. Especially when it comes to hours since the last oil change. If that is unknown or unproven then the oil analysis will be pretty much meaningless.

DDs are not killer but they are getting there due to the age and part / technician availability. Although in all fairness part availability is becoming a problem across the board.

[Tricia II]

We bought an old 1966 Hatteras with good running 853's, the generator and the boat had the issues. We knew we had to paint the outside and replace the 2 cyl Onan generator that had been in the boat since 1976. The inside work will be done a little at a time.
We wanted a boat that had flat walking surfaces inside and out and had room for us to be very comfortable inside and out.
The owner died and we got it at a decent deal on it, and his wife let us keep the boat in their boathouse for $150/month, in freshwater, power and water included, as long as we kept the boat in her name. It was a hard deal to pass up.
My wife loves the boat. My only issue is it has twin bunks, not a full or queen bunk.