Very Lightly Used Engines

[davefromoregon]

This is a pre-survey question. On a 5 year old boat with very few hours, are there things I need to,be aware of? The engine started well and sounded good. It was also,very clean.

[nes]

I would ask to see maintenance records. How often was the oil changed, air filter, check the raw water strainer, see if the previous owner knows where it is and how to clean it. Perhaps get an oil sample and get it analyzed, not sure where to go to get that done, but it has been mentioned here before.
Look for water leaks, anywhere the hoses run, it may have a hot water heater that is heated by the engine heat. So the hoses have to run there. Also, look at the inverted U pipe on the exhaust system. My understanding is that they are only good for about 5 years or so (which means it is time for me to replace mine). This may only be applicable to a Yanmar, not sure if other engines have this design, or issue.


On a side note, I bought my boat in 2008 it is a 2002 Hunter 326, it had 275 hours on it when I got it. Motor very clean, except it badly needed an oil change. About a year later, (2009) we had sailed out to Catalina from San Diego, the batteries died (my fault, overuse, and not charging them), we called boatUS and got a jump start, planning to motor around to charge batteries. Just as we got to the mouth of the Avalon the motor banged a few times and stopped. Too make a long story shorter, we had dropped a push rod into the pan, we got towed to Oceanside (about 60 miles) and when it was put back together the mechanic said that it was probably loose from the factory. Based on the number of engine hours, etc. No damage done, and we now have about 700 hours on that same engine no other problems or complaints. (It is a Yanmar 2GM20F).

NOTE: The push rod issue was not the fault of the previous owner(s), nor was it something that would have been found by a routine survey (we had one, very thorough, did not find any problem with engine), might have been found by a REALLY good mechanic.