4000 Hr Engine

[GreggRuch]

I am considering a boat with a Universal 50Hp engine. It has 4000+ engine hrs. I been advised that an engine with that many hours is not likely to be long for this world and will need to be replaced in the near future. Input? What about rebuilding? Does the engine have to come out of the boat to be rebuilt? These are issues I have never had to deal with. Boat (and engine) are 1983 (21 years old - hey it''s legal to drink).

[PaulBl]

A properly cared for engine would easily last this long and much much longer. A rebuild would require pulling the engine.

You might pull it and do all new seals and perhaps some bearings. It would be a partial rebuild. Not uncommon for an engine to go 6,000 hours without a rebuild.

I recently saw a boat that was from 1979 and it''s engine was pulled just a year or so ago and did not need a rebuild and as it turns out it didn''t even need to be pulled. The problem was easily fixed once it was in the shop of a skilled mechanic and could have been done on the boat. Since it was pulled already they redid seals on everything just because it was easy.

Get the best person you can find to look at it and do some testing before you pull it.

OTOH, if the engine had half the hours and was abused it might be worthless at this point.

[DirtManly]

Hello Gregg,
No matter how you look at it that engine has a lot of time on it. An engine hour is based on six miles. So you take 4000 hour and multiply that by 60 and thats how many mile would be equivilant.
Some diesel engine that are used every day can easily go 400k + miles before a rebuild IF properly cared for. Our fleet seems to average around 325k.
Personaly I think 4000 hours on a motor that is used occasionally is pretty rare. It has been my experience that once they have that many hours they don''t sit around very well and quickly get to the point that every time you go to use them there will be something wrong with them.
Very best of luck
Dirt

[hamiam]

You may be able to squeeze another season or two out of the engine depending on how well it was cared for in the past. Diesels are quite hardy but with that number of hours you are tempting fate. Just for kicks you might want to price up a rebuild before you bid on that boat. I made the mistake of pouring money into my engine for 2 seasons before I bit the bullet, yanked the engine, and replaced it with new.