I NEED HELP

C

CAPTINMB

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exMember
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
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25306
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248
Hi All
I need som advice please..

I bought my boat at the end of last year. 1990 32 foot chaparral laser. i got it from a broker on long island real nice guy...

Make a long story short... I had a surveyor come and take a look and he said both motors we in perfect condition .
This boat was well maintained and was hydro hoysted out of the water in when not in use...

i had the boat for about two weeks when one of the motors blew .... and i had to replace it with a referb jasper motor....no big deal the broker was nice enough to pick up some of the cost for this one....no more than two or three weeks later the other one went and i took my boat on one motor to my marina and said well look at it in the spring. I found out yesterday that the same thing happend with this motor..
My surveyor never did a comprestion test on either of these motors.
Now i have to pay for a referb out of my own pocket.

is there any thing i can do... should i call my attorney and seek legal matters... i dont want to screw anyone buti feel im the one who got screwed here.. shouldnt he be liable for something...

Please Help

Thanks
Mike
 
most surveyors do not do engine surveys that is a special skill and extra cost. If both motors were working it is surprising that they both "blew" boat motors rarely blow. What actually failed?
 
Most surveyors are not mechanics and most mechanics are not surveyors. You should have had a good mechanic go over the engines as well as the boat getting surveyed.
Yes, hindsight is great, sorry for your problems. Now, you will have 2 rebuilt Jaspers that you should have confidence in, unless you did something foolish that caused both engines to blow meaning your rebuilt engines are looking at the same fate.
 
why did the engine blow ? how can you be asking for advice when you don't even tell us the whole story...

engine usually "blow" because of something failing... not just wear and tear which is what a compression check usually indicates. i'm not saying a compression check will not warn you of impeding failure but there are many other reasons for an engine to blow. starting with risers and manifolds for instance...

about the compression check, some surveyors do them on gas engines, others dont'. this is something that should have been discussed with the surveyor before the survey... if you ordered a hull survey, that's what you got. it will include a simple operational check of the engines but nothing beyond that.

but again, what caused the engines to "blow" ???
 
A survey is an document of what it is on the day of the survey, not a guarantee. I personally don't do compression checks or oil analysis. I leave that up to an engine surveyor. By the way an engine surveyor doesn't guarantee the engine either. Have a mechanic inspect the blown engine to find out the cause.

Gary Washienko SAMS AMS
Sound Marine Survey
 
Yeah, what they said. When I bought our "new" boat, I paid extra for an engine survey, which is not included in a standard survey. Satndard survey will say if the engines started and ran without issue or not, but that is basically it.
 
When i survey a vessel, i offer oil analysis and live data testing with a scope at an extra cost to the client. You only have one chance to do it all right on a Pre-purchase survey. We still need to know why these engines failed to be able to help you. Please give us more information..
 
Im not sure why the motors blew.... there were metal shavings in the oil.... i didnt run the boat hard...this is all i know...
Its common sense to me that if you pay someone to come and look at a boat,car,house...they should explain to you the details of what they are doing for the money... people dont pay for a guy to come and say.... this boat will float or the motors sound good.. Heck give me the money and ill go and do that... there should be some responsibility on there part. lets face it we spend alot of money on Boats and im sure when anyone of us gos to buy something that was chcked out by a certied person and has told you everything is up to par ...and then BOTH motors go in less than two months it cant be all bad luck

as far as what type of survey i had basic or not im not sure.. what dose 5 hours and $550 dollars get you.... it got me someone who guess everthing is ok and two blown motors... give me a break
 
I agree with all of the above and would like to hear more specifics. If you don't mind, tell us what surveyor you used.

You said "I had a surveyor come and take a look and he said both motors we in perfect condition ."

Did you pay for a complete survey and is the motor condition stated in the survey. If no oil analysis or compression check were done, what was this based on.

Or, did you get a survey of the hull and then ask "what do you think about the motors?" and the surveyor answer "they look like they are in perfect condidtion."

Whatever the case it's an unfortunate situation, as someone said above, at least you now you'll have 2 good engines.

Good luck with it.
 
As much as I feel for the money you lost, it seems to me that a lot of this falls on your shoulders. A boat is a big purchase; you might have done more to find out what you need to get surveyed. Did the broker offer any advice at all?

Look at the survey you received. What was checked on the engine? If he claimed to do a complete engine analysis, then you might have some gripe with the surveyor. Even then a complete engien surevy is no guarantee, unless something very obvious was overlooked or not done.

Why don't you know why the engines failed? You are spending a lot of money on new engines - I would think you would want to know why.

Wish you all the best with the new engines.

Capt Tom
 
I hate to chime in with the same advice, but you really need to determine what caused each engine to fail. I'd say it would be very unusual for two engines to BLOW within months of each other from wear. It sounds as if something caused the engines to fail .... perhaps clogged strainers resulting in overheat, low oil or lubrication system failure. Engines don't just blow for no reason.

With regards to the survey, I think it is your responsibility to know what you were purchasing. As others have said, hull surveyors don't normally examine engines. An engine mechanic will do tests and give you his best opinion on the condition of the engines, but even he will not guarantee that an engine won't fail.
 
"Its common sense to me that if you pay someone to come and look at a boat,car,house...they should explain to you the details of what they are doing for the money..."

"as far as what type of survey i had basic or not im not sure.. what dose 5 hours and $550 dollars get you...."

it's common sense to me that before paying for any type of inspection, one does some research and finds out what they're getting. surveyors are very careful people and usually include in writing the exact scope of they're work, what they do and what they don't.

multiples "i don't know" and "I'm not sure" tells me that you probably didn't read the whole survey report and didn't realize that a detailed engine survey wasn't included.

anyway, you dont'even know why the engines failed and you're ready to blame the surveyor ??? you do know that engine need oil and cooling water, right ?
 
Lets see, the 2nd motor blew 2-3 wks after the first blew and that was two weeks after the sale. You let it sit all winter and now you wonder if you have legal recourse? I think you got lucky with the broker offsetting your first loss a bit but now it's months later. Certainly, the broker doesn't owe you anything more. As far as surveys, did you specify and pay for an engine survey which would include compression testing? Did you just have a general condition survey done which does not include any engine analysis or seatrial? When I bought my last 3 boats used from a dealer, the guarantee was in the water running. Once I motored off, I was on my own. Buyer Beware!
 
pascal
this is not a debate this is an open fourm im asking for advice not to get wise A$$ answers from people like you... he did do an engine check to see if water was in the oil and things like that i am not a mechanic thats what i thought i paied him for.. dont make me out as a fool im just asking if there is anything i can do.... i had him come down... i paid him for what i thought was a full survey ( HE DID CHECK THE ENGINES)witch he said was "well maintaind good working condition" im looking for advice not wise a$$ answers... thanks to the others who gave me good advice... as far as you are concern your probaly the guy who looked at my boat and now is covering your A$$
 
OK, let's get back to basics. What does your Written survey say about the engines? What did he do in his inspection?
Did you follow the guy around as he did his survey, or just get his report afterwards?

Pascal's comments are valid. Other than the water and oil comment(which is a valid point), they are not wise ass remarks. Engines just don't blow up. Something tells me there are more details that you are not sharing with us.

As far as suing someone over this, good luck. Don't waste your money.
 
By the way, what brand and HP motors are we talking about? Also, how many hours are on them, are they FWC or RWC? Since you are on Long Island, I assume you use the boat in salt water, right?
 
sorry if you don't like the answers...

does it even occur to you that these engines are 17 years old (assuming they're original?) how old are the manifold and risers ? are the engines Fresh Water cooled ? how many hours ?were they rinsed after each use ? lifting the boat out of the water but leaving salt water inside is useless...
 
I'm sorry, we're supposed to be nice to new members, but I just don't understand why when somebody new comes and explains they were screwed, they won't explain all of the details.

Why??? What is the point.

It is a simple question what happened to the motors...the motors blew, the motors blew.....all we get.

My five year old daughter can give a better answer than that.

"I was running the boat and a rod came out of the crankcase, I stopped the boat quick tried to start it and there were water in the cylinders, it wouldn't turn over, it siezed, it started blowing smoke and had no power, I heard a huge bang and it stopped running"

You're saying you got screwed because the motors were bad!!!! DA#$IT explain how they were bad otherwise I assume you are lying about how they "blew" for some reason.
 
Captainmb,

with what you've posted, there isn't much folks can say. You talked to the surveyor. You paid the bill. You need to tell us what you got for your $550. if all you got was "the surveyor said"...shame on you for paying. Did you get a written report? What does it say? Did the report include an indemnity or dispute resolution clause? If so what does it say? Was this an acredited marine surveyor AND engine surveyor for your brand of engines? Only you can answer these things and anyone that tells you "yes- you should have some recourse" with only what you've posted, is untrustworthy.

I know you feel screwed but think about it... how hard would it be for a seller to make 2 bad engines sound and perfrom great for your survey and sea trial and then have them crap out in 2 weeks. I don't think you could engineer that. Of course not knowing what the failure mode was, any answer is a guess.
 
"i took my boat on one motor to my marina and said well look at it in the spring. I found out yesterday that the same thing happend with this motor.."

Why won't you explain what that "thing" is??? Nobody spends $$thousands without knowing what that "thing" is.

You are out a bunch of money and therefore want to get some back from anybody (obviously asked the broker who paid up rather than listen to you, and I'm sure the surveyor)

So you want us to believe the surveyor was a mechanic as well as a surveyor and somehow knew the motors were bad and didn't tell you. Take this thread to the surveyor as proof...

Ok....that is one possibility. Problem is you can't be objective on this (you want money), and I've never had a surveyor do anything with the engines other than say the run at WOT and they aren't overheating.

Here is another possiblity:

The survey said "the engines look good and run good, and the oil is clean, they are seventeen years old and there is no way to know any of the internals, especially the condition of the manifolds and risers."

You ran the boat and the mainifolds and risers failed and the engine "blew" (technically injested water causing some sort of upper end failure).

The mechanic said: the mainifolds and the risers failed you need a whole new engine. You know if the one engines manifolds and risers failed the others can't be far away....you said: two grand to replace them??? No way.

If I'm a betting man, and I am, I take senario number two ten to one.
 
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