PCM GT40 1700hrs

Hi,
I am looking to buy a ski nautique open bow, year 2000. The hull and the interior finish is in real good condition, but the engine (GT40 PCM) has 1700 hours. I am only worried for the engine. What do you think about it ?
Thanks

What is beyond healthy?

One concern on that model year is the infamously bad gauges, when replaced the hour meter starts from zero again. Does the boat have perfect pass? If so would see what the hours are on PP as a comparison.

My buds 351 didn't let go till over 3000 hours.
Your seasons are short, you got another 20 years to go.

Use it for leverage, then ski the sh!t out of it.

I think the best gauge is to drive the boat.    Don't get boat fever, go in with your eyes wide open.   I replaced a motor this season for about $2500.   While that's some cash for sure, if the boat is a good deal, I am not sure I would worry about high hours as much as condition.   My boat has 300 hours on it, but poor maintenance and no winterization sure will kill the motor a lot faster than use with proper maintenance.     Do the compression check, fell the acceleration, transmission vibration etc.   if you can, take someone that has boating knowledge and nothing to gain either way, and weigh their opinion heavily in your decision.

Is this boat from a private seller or dealer? Any pics or a link to an ad?

Link

M3Fan wrote: As a seller I'd be pretty annoyed by a compression check unless the motor exhibited obvious problems in a water test. If someone drove my 2000 and then wanted a compression test afterward I'd think they would need their head examined.

Kind of feel what you are saying, had a guy do that to my bronco before purchasing however how many times have I read posts where there was no noticeable issue yet a compression test showed otherwise?? Your boat(s) are an extreme example as they are well cared for, in this case you have a high hour boat with questionable gauges, this thing could have 2 or 3 times what the hour meter reads.

Btw, boat appears to be an open bow ski nautique

Then my question would be, Before doing a drive test, what are the parts I should inspect ? Lakes are frozen where I am.

Asking $14,800 USD, that is a lot of money for a boat you hope does not need a rebuild??

Looks like the gauges have been changed out so whatever hours displayed is what has been put on since that gauge was installed unless the owner took the time to hook that gauge up to a power source and run the hours up to what they were on the old gauge (doubtful). Get a copy of the perfect pass manual from their site, you will need the instructions to find the hours on the PP display. The number of hours PP displays is only going to reflect from when it was installed, so if not factory/new original, won't tell the whole story.

The Gelcoat looks very faded, boat is going to need some loving to get back it's shine.
The people who do those snap covers like that should have their knee caps drilled.

Just all the snaps drilled into the boat to mount the cover,just a lazy way to install rather than a draw string below the rubrail

Interesting link about how engines fail


Sure enough, not water-cooled boat engines, but the duty cycle can share a lot in common with our boat engines in terms of load. (Opinion)

If I remember correctly (it's been 38 years since my AP Powerplant classwork), oil analysis only really works if you can perform trend rather than a single point sample--and oil samples need to be taken at end of oil change interval that also has to be consistently performed. We did this for a major oil company when trying to extend oil change intervals in a pilot training environment using early generation synthetic oils which won over the FAA when hard data was presented. So long ago I didnt even have to shave every day.

Jim, if I may be so bold, seems like quite a stiff price to me- particularly for a boat with those hours. I'd sell you my 2000 air/Sport with 400 hrs and full maintenance records for less than that.....

1700 hours?
How well was the boat stored? How was the boat used? Was it utilized as a general weekend watersports boat. was it utilized with lots of added weight for wake boarding?
Is there a paper trail of service records? Unless there is significant information at 1700 hours it is a crap shoot. The Gt engine was last manufactured in 1997. Correct Craft utilized warehoused units until 2002. as of 2017 that makes the GT ford engine 20 years old and obsolete. replacement ECM's are NLA. the list just keeps on going as to why it becomes buyer beware unless the price is so good one cant pass it up!