Repair or Replace 1988 230-Mercruiser Engines

[jhrobins]

We have a good condition 1988 28' Voyager with twin Merc 230 engines. After the winter neither will start and both have 16000 hours on them. Should we repair or replace with rebuilt units costing $2K each? What do you all recommend? Is 16000 hours near the end of life of these engines? How about the transmissions and V-drives too? We want to keep the boat, make it reliable, not sell it. Help?

Jim

[waybomb]

Both engines don't start?
Were they running ok at the end of last year?
1600 is allot of hours but if they were running fine and now not, that would not indicate a need for rebuild; probably something simple like anti siphon valves stuck, gas gone bad, etc.

[Viper]

Welcome aboard Jim.

While 1600 hours is a lot for a gasser, hours don't really concern me as much as how they were maintained and run for those hours. If they were properly maintained with regularly scheduled oil changes using a good quality oil, tuned properly, and didn't have the heck run out of them, then they may be worth saving. Only a maintenance history will tell you that though, or an oil analysis, or tear down. I suspect they are fresh water cooled (engine coolant in block) as I suspect you're in salt water but if they are raw water cooled in salt water then I would go with a different set of rebuilds. Either way, if the exhaust manifolds are raw water cooled and haven't been replaced in over 5-7 years, they should be replaced with new ones.

Same deal with the transmissions and V-Drives. The condition of the oil is pretty telling for what's going on inside. Hopefully the oil hasn't been changed recently so you get a good picture of their condition by inspecting the oil. It should be clear and not smell burnt or have any solids in it. Also look for shaft creeping in neutral. While that's not too uncommon in older units with many hours, and is not too critical unless it's really bad, it is a sign that clutches in the tranny need servicing. Look for seal leaks in both units.

As Fred mentioned, your symptoms can be caused by several things and only some diagnosis will reveal what's causing the problem. Before you start throwing money at them though, do a compression test to see if their current condition is worth it. If you get good readings, get them running and do a vacuum test then decide how you want to proceed but remember that 1600 hours is pushing it if they haven't been maintained properly.

[bud37]

Welcome to the forum, that is a nice model.....almost sounds like you are already leaning towards engine changes....now if you really have 16000 hours you are going in the record book with the guy with the million mile Volvo....im kidding......while 1600 is getting up there seems odd that both engines won't start , maybe something trivial and at 100 hour a year you will be looking at 4 more years to get to 2000 hours.So here is the other side, when you get to 2000 hours the boat may be difficult to sell for decent money, so I guess you could consider the cost now and reliability that would go with and a higher resale value later. Just my opinion, good luck man.

[tomschauer]

If they ran when you but them to bed in the fall they should at least start now. I would dig in a bit deeper before replacing.
Years ago I had a marina winterize my engines and they used so much fogging oil or just plain oil, my motors wouldnt start in the spring. I removed the plugs, cranked a few times and saw an oily mist come out of the cylinders. I then replaced all the spark plugs with new and they fired right up.