Carver 28 - 1/2 rebuilt engines?

[Coeus]

I have fallen in love with the 81-92 Carver 28 Voyager/Mariner. I really do not want I/O's, so that is why I am focusing only on those years. It seems to be the perfect compromise for me right now.

Anyway, in looking at a boat this past weekend, the current owner had both engines pulled out and only rebuilt the top ends including carburetors (Crusaders with Rochester carbs). Why did he do that? Shouldn't he have replaced/rebuilt the engines as a whole after going through the expense of removing them completely? Why not rebuild the transmissions then too?

It just seemed like the perfect opportunity to give the boat a major overhaul and made me a bit weary. Also, there was a fair amount of oily residue in the bilge, which was explained away as an extremely minor transmission leak, fixed by tightening all the housing bolts to spec.

The oily bilge also bugged me, as again, with engines out, at least repainting/cleaning the bilge seems like the thing to do.

Am I being too paranoid?

The engines have 1100 hours each with about 200 after the 1/2 rebuild job.

 

[Unknown]

Some thoughts:

(1) Not sure what you mean about Carvers outside of 1982-'92 only having I/Os. Perhaps you are talking about the post-1992 "280" model which was an express cruiser, much smaller than the Mariner/Voyager (which by that time had migrated to a 30 and later a 32 by extending the hull and adding a built in swim platform)... Also, my older 1980 Mariner is twin inboard-powered...

(2) Often an engine may have only the upper end done if the valve stems/guides/seats are worn. It would be interesting as to why the engines would have been REMOVED to do that - you can do that work with them still in the boat. Are you sure they were removed???

(3) As for the oil leak, I share your concern - tightening a few screws isn't going to solve an engine oil leak, although it likely would solve a transmission line leak. So be sure exactly what type of fluid is in that bilge...

This boat sounds like an excellent candidate for a survey by an accredited Marine professional...

 

[glenncal1]

Coeus-another area of concern, ofter when the top of an engine is redone it will accelerate wear on the bottom end with better compression etc. I second Pete's recommendation to really have those engines checked out. A good mechanic with a stethoscope can listen for wear in the bottom end and an oil analysis may help determine if the is bearing wear. I personally would price the boat as if it had 1100 hour engines with basically no credit for the valve job.

 

[Coeus]

I thought that model more or less remained unchanged during those years. I am also hesitant to go older thinking of resale down the road and possible issues with more owners making questionable changes over the years, etc.

Most models of that size that are newer seem to come with I/Os. Maybe I just haven't spent enough time looking at other manufacturers. I would also like to stay around or below 40K.

I am positive both engines were completely removed. That's why I became concerned that other things weren't done at the same time. Like I said, at least cleaning and maybe painting the bilge area would have been a nice touch.

I would definitely engage a marine surveyor when it came time to seriously pursue this, but right now I just got cold feet in talking to the owner. I cannot quite put my finger on it, but somehow I got a bad vibe.

Maybe I am dreaming, but my hope is to find one where someone has already gone through the time and expense to replace the engines. Something with a few hundred hours is more enticing than something cheaper, but close to the grave.

It was a difficult sell to go down this road versus buying a 2000-2003 26 foot express for roughly the same price. I won based on the amount of useful space on the Carver and the fact that the head was so tight on the express...woohoo!

If we buy a Carver and it needs engines in a month, it will likely result in my divorce...

I do appreciate the comments and will definitely engage a surveyor and mechanic before buying.