Carver Owners Forum

Looking at a 1986 4207. Owner claims he had the starboard engine rebuilt for about $12,000. Is that a reasonable price? Boat is in Seabrook/Kemah TX.
Thanks,
Bob

$12K doesn't sound unreasonable, but there's a lot of variables when folks say the word "rebuilt". That could just mean the top end, or it could mean a completely redone engine. If it was just the 'top end', then I think $12K is ridiculously high. Also depends on how much labor YOU might do to prep for the "rebuild" vs just a turn-key where the mechanic does everything - including having to take the boat apart to get to an engine, which can add a lot of labor hours.

Also depends on how much of the ancillary stuff was reused or replaced.

Also depends on how "hungry" the shop is for work. The last few years they've been slammed so there's been no real "deals" on work, especially heavy work.

Engine out of that boat is gonna cost a lot of money. Has to come up through the salon. Salon has to be taken apart and put back together.

I replaced the starboard engine about 5 years ago on my last boat (1988 Carver 3207) myself after bad spark plug wires caused cross-firing that melted down one of the pistons. I got a quote of around $11,000 for the whole job including rebuilding the engine, but it was the beginning of the boating season & was told I was done for the year.

I decided to do it myself, and I pulled it off without ever hauling the boat out of the water. I opted for a brand new marine engine at around $4K, and the whole thing took me about 5 full days from start to finish. Getting the old engine out, and the new one in through the salon was definitely the hardest part...but very doable. I used a harbor freight scaffolding, a steel I-beam, an I-beam trolley, and chain hoist to make it happen. I ended up re-building and selling my old engine for $2K. All-in-all, it cost about $3,800 total and about 50 man-hours to do this project myself...but the biggest bonus is that I only lost one weekend using the boat. Would I do it again...not sure. You can save a lot of $$$ if you are handy and resourceful, but not a profect for the faint of heart.

Before we bought our 1992 Carver 360 aft cabin, the owner replaced both engine long blocks ( Volvo 7.4’s) due to improper winterizing, and cracked both blocks. The price to replace both blocks was $26,000, so $12,000 for a rebuild doesn’t sound out of line.

MyPleasure wrote:Source of the post .....The price to replace both blocks was $26,000....

That's really cheap Al, it's only about $500 American!

Oh my how things have gone up over the years then again time flies as they say. I decided I wanted newer engines with smartcraft and EFI compared to my older 5.7LX Mercruisers I had in my previous boat. Pulled the twin 5.7s and installed 2 brand new turn key 383 magnums. Paid $12,000 US for both engines delivered. Like I said, turn key, only hook up fuel lines and electrical and thats it. Sold my 5.7s for $6000 cad locally so the total outlay was around $6,000 cad. To be fair though, this happened summer of 2007 when the Canadian dollar was pretty much on par with the US dollar.

Both engines were rebuilt while the boat was still in Lake Coeur d’Alene, near Spokane, Washington,so the $26,000 was in U S denomination. I was told by a marine mechanic, that a 6 cylinder Volvo diesel would cost $30,000 to $45,000 CDN to rebuild including the cost of removing, rebuilding the engine, and then reinstalling the engine.
When they rebuilt the Volvo 7.4 Volvo gas engines, they replaced one of the original Holley carburetors, but replaced one with a new Edelbrock carburetor. It’s been a while since I bought a carburetor, but to keep the engine configurations similar, I bought a matching Edelbrock for the other engine, costing about $800 CDN, and then replacing the fuel line from the fuel pump to the carburetor for another $100. The last time that I bought a new carburetor, it cost about $150!
The prices for engine components, even on gas engines, sure has gone up in the last few years!

It's unbelievable how much pricing has increased and how often. My estimates used to be valid for 30 days but I've had no choice but to decrease that to 7 days because of pricing volatility. If things don't change, I may have to go down to hours as some of the increases have been substantial. Having said that, some items believe it or not have started to come down in price since the Covid slow down. It may be a while before it's noticeable at the retail level since stock was purchased at much higher costs, so we may not see decreases until that inventory is turned over.