Low Engine Genny Hours - issues?

[Mark P]

We plan to take a serious look at a boat that is a single engine diesel, with a genny, and built in 2010, and has been in a salt water southern environment. Nice looking boat, the catch is that is has about 140 hours on the engine, and less than that on the genny. What's the good, the bad, and the ugly about this?? Thanks,

 

[caltexflanc]

Only a good engine surveyor can tell you that for sure as a result of a thorough inspection. How well it was maintained is a key issue, are there detailed maintenance and running logs available? When was it last run, and for what journey? Why was the boat used so little?

 

[Mark P]

Thanks, we'll ask those questions - but one thing I noticed is that the broker "ordered aftercooler maintenance" and has it listed for both engines as part of the offer. My fear is that this boat may be a lot like my in-laws grandmother's 1964 Falcon with 2200 miles. In 1980, when she passed, my brother in law got the car as an inheritance, took it out of the garage, put a new battery in it, and then promptly blew the engine when it overheated.

 

[wwestman]

Get a good mechanic to look them over. When we bought our boat, the genset had low hours. Started and ran fine. Then one day it would not start just turned over. Come to find out there was an accumulation of carbon on the valves and associated parts. This was caused by starting and running for a short time. Valve job fixed it. But PO had started genset to make coffee then shut it off before it warmed up completely, leaving carbon issues. Low hours but running often can cause problems. Now if I start genset, it runs at least an hour.

 

[Shrew]

I know many folks that only go from their home marina to transient slips a their destination. To them a mooring is like 'camping' and an anchorage is like sleeping in a rest area on the side of a highway.

I know some folks that sit in their seasonal slip all season and only go out for a 1-2 week vacation.

 

[Russell Clifton]

Usually it is a bad thing when boats just sit. Not only bad on the engines/generator, but all of the pumps, electric motors, outboard motor for dingy(?)hot water tank, water maker(?), fuel in tanks, you name it. Make sure to tell the surveyor it has sat for 10 years

 

[Baker]

I bought my current boat in November of last year. It is a 2006 model. I did have a mechanical surveyor look it over as well as the main engines. It was also part of the oil analysis. The only note the surveyor made was the potential for "false numbers" or readings due to the extremely low hours on a 13yo vessel. It had 147 hours on it. It now has over 500 hours and is doing just fine.

 

[Ski in NC]

Low hours is not a "red flag". More like a "yellow flag". When I do an engine survey if boat has a lot of sitting time, I am extra vigilant and request extra test run time under way. Same with gennie, run it under load as much as I can.

Easiest ones to do are the boats that just finished the Great Loop, then went up for sale. If anything was near failure, it would have done it on that trip!!

 

[Dougcole]

Our boat, a 2005 which we bought in 2013, had very low hours on both the engines and the generator. I can't remember exactly, but it around 150 hours on the Gen and like 225 on the motors. It was a single owner boat, he bought it new, then pretty much let it sit, other than few trips here and there. The plastic wrap was still on the mattresses and the oven rack was still in cardboard. He was a wealthy guy who bought it as a toy that he didn't need. He was ready for a new boat when he sold it to us, and we bought it, as is, for about 20% under market.


There were a few issues early on, but not as many as I suspected. The key to me, with a boat like this, is to pay more attention to marine age and less to hours when it comes to maintenance.


Also, things other than mechanical suffer from sitting. The cushions in our boat were kept on the FB with the enclosure zipped up all the time. The heat ruined the foam in them. The bimini and enclosure were also a mess. It needed a buff and wax and a bottom job. Look close at through hulls.

 

[Woodland Hills]

What brand is it? If Onan, it may have issues, if Northern Lights with a Kubota block it might not. How many cylinders?

 

[PM]

I once bought an inboard ski boat with less than 100 hours on it. It was over ten years old, looked like new.

I contacted the previous owner and asked if all he ever did was wax it in his driveway? "Pretty Much" was his answer.

It was a gasser (454). It was well maintained and ran like a watch.

pete

 

[mvweebles]

Many moons ago, I worked in a vintage motorcycle shop, mostly BMWs, but many other brands too. My observation is that many low hour bikes never ran right from the beginning thus the low hours. My current bike - a 1967 BMW R69S, a barn find in the north Georgia mountains in 1986, is a good example. It was 20 years old and had under 10k miles when I bought it. Turns out the carburetor floats had ruptured along the way and been replaced with hand carved cork floats. Very difficult to start until the carbs were rebuilt, then ran like a champ. Contrast that to many, many similar vintage BMWs with well over 100k miles on them.

Usage is less of a problem than parking the dang things

Peter

 

[Mark P]

I never had a chance to get deeper into this boat - it went under contract about 2 days after listing - at nearly asking price. This boat happened to be an American Tug, Cummins with NL genny. If it does not close in a few weeks or does not get pulled from YW site, then maybe it may have had marine age issues like those mentioned above that show up on the survey. If that's the case, I'd like to see those discussions between buyer and seller - "are you kidding me - we have a contract at asking price, and now you want $30K off for survey issues?" Stuff like this makes boat buying fun!!

 

[dhays]

The engine is likely the QSB 5.9L? It likely does need the aftercooler maintenance done as it probably has some corrosion issues from just sitting for that long. No idea about the genset. Still, if a survey, sea trial, and oil analysis seem to not raise any red flags, I wouldn't worry about it. Of course, I don't worry much anyway....

 

[Dougcole]

The engine is likely the QSB 5.9L? It likely does need the aftercooler maintenance done as it probably has some corrosion issues from just sitting for that long. No idea about the genset. Still, if a survey, sea trial, and oil analysis seem to not raise any red flags, I wouldn't worry about it. Of course, I don't worry much anyway....

Yeah.


Two things that I looked closely at, and worried about, when we bought our low hour boat were the aftercoolers and the exhaust elbows. Two common "marine age" wear points. Surprisingly, the elbows lasted another 3 or so years before I had to replace them. I had the aftercoolers professionally serviced within a year, he said they were in good shape as well.