Carver Owners Forum

Looking at a 1989 44 Aft Cabin with 1200 hours. 502 XLi
Thoughts or concerns?
Life span in hours for a well-maintained fresh water gas engine?

Thank you in advance!

Welcome....... Hard to put definitive numbers on that, a lot depends on the maintenance and how they were run. That is a big heavy boat for gas. Anyway a question, do you know if that is a repower ?

Good luck with your search.

Not a re-power. 1 owner Lake of the Ozarks.

Welcome aboard.

The hours are up there and at a point where a rebuild should be budgeted for and considered before there is a catastrophic failure that toasts the engine which can end up costing more. Having said that, as bud said, there are a lot of variables here. How the engines were run and maintained, and the products used play a huge role in longevity. You could have high hours and still have a long life ahead or few hours and have a major failure. You may want to have a mechanical check done including at least a compression test and I'd put a vacuum gauge on them too.

I agree that's a lot of boat for gassers, especially an aft cabin.

Good luck and keep us posted.

You can certainly check out these engines for condition. If well maintained and used reasonably, these can go to 2000 hours. Most engines fail due to lack of simple maintenance. Gotta lift them floorboards!

Best is to use an engine surveyor.

But if you intend to check them out yourself:

I would recommend the following, if possible, for any used gassers:

Location: Fresh, salt or brackish?
FWC or raw water cooled? Test antifreeze; when last change?
Good pressure cap (if FWC)?
Change oil, filters, water separators if possible, before sea trial
Was oil milky?
Any hard or cracked hoses or plug wires?
Condition of belts?
Boat bottom clean?
ANY faint gasoline odors? If so DO NOT RUN until fixed
Water flowing out of exhaust?
At 3400 max continuous rpm: temperature; Oil pressure (160-170; 40-50 good)
Any rapping, tapping or squealing noises? Any oil leakage?
Temperatures of manifolds; risers; elbows; exhaust hoses (all below 120 F except manifolds at engine temp) IR gun
Any steam from exhaust outlets/
Last time impellers changed?
Last time anodes changed?
Gear oil not milky/
If all above are satisfactory - WOT rpm (very short time!)? 4200 is very good.

In fall, change all fluids and filters and water sep's again, change impellers, inspect anodes (FW: magnesium; salt: aluminum)
Store with full fuel tanks,plenty of stabilizer, run carbs dry and fog
Compression check is always good info

Phil Little