Buying my Carver 32' and something looked strange...

[newbie3]

I am about to be the proud owner of a Carver 32' aft cabin 3207. Just had a look at it and... well, it shows the age but it seems pretty solid. My concern though is the engines... They look great! The bilge and engines are clean enough to eat off. However, the hours meter shows nearly 2,000 hours.

That's fishy. Something like that definitely makes me take a step back and say.. hold on.. what's going on here?

There is no documentation. Current owner is a dealer/broker.. previous owner never used it... What are the chances that the engines were rebuilt/replaced without changing the hours meters in the bridge? And this is just a great buy?

Or, what other signs should I look for that suggest the engine are at the end of the 1,500 hour expected lifespan for gasoline boat engines?

[bud37]

Welcome to the forum.....looks like used engines to me, why not just ask the seller one way or the other.....good luck with your purchase, will you be having some sort of survey, and mechanical check here ?

On a closer look, there is only one clamp on the exhaust hoses on the one engine, but the engine compartment looks to be orderly..

[waybomb]

I'd be going into this with the attitude you need two engines.
Once the sale is made and closed, then get a leakdown test performed.
You just might get lucky!

[newbie3]

Interesting - so you guys think these are the original 2,000 hour engines huh? I've never actually seen a bilge this clean on a 1980's boat. But maybe this isn't all that suspicious?

What do you guys think about the nearly 2,000 hours on the Mercruiser 5.0L's? Seems like anything over 1,500 hours needs a rebuild. That could mean the boat needs $10,000-$20,000 of work.

[Cooler]

I think you are right to be concerned. I am not a mechanic, but you are right about that 1500 hr milestone. I would absolutely want to talk to the previous owner. Ask the dealer for that previous owner contact, or fully expect you are going to have some major work needed. If not now, then very shortly. A friend of mine needed to replace 2 engines, Merc 5.7's, and spent more than 20K. Second clamp on those exhaust hoses are required by regulation. Remember the rule: if it looks too good to be true,...it is. er

[tomschauer]

The serial numbers on the blocks should let you trace at least the year of the blocks. They may be original, with 2000 hours, its not unheard of. Also, the PO may have done a lot of idling or low speed cruising, which would leave a lot of life left in them.
They are raw water cooled, so there is more than a fair chance that the manifolds have been replaced a couple times. Maybe they did rocker cover gaskets and cleaned the engine room when doing maintenance?
Good luck!

[newbie3]

Well *hopefully* nobody cleaned it up prior to sale just to make it look good despite problems.

I have no reason to suspect that.. but it's better to be skeptical

[Cooler]

I don't want to be a negative nellie but be careful. The previous owner never used it? Why? Was that the original owner? Probably not. Maybe, just maybe, there was just one owner and they putted up/down a river at idle or just above for those 2000 hours. Pull a couple of plugs on each engine. Their burn style may tell you something. The thing that gets to me is this: there are still thousands of hurricane boats out there that got repaired to get 'em sold. If this boat was maintained that nice, an owner like that would have kept every work order/receipt he paid. It would be very unusual for someone to be that picky, and then not keep records. Did the dealer show you a title? I would want to see that. If he is not willing to show you some history, then that fishy smell is going to get worse. I know we all like to think " I don't want to miss out on the find of a century", but there are a lot of boats out there that will not turn into night terrors! Looks like this is an I/O, remember those also have 2000 hrs on them. Are you mechanically inclined? Can you do some basic stuff? If not, qualified marine mechanics are $120 to $175 an hour. What are your expectations for cruising? Where are you located? er

[newbie3]

Located in the Seattle area. Somewhat mechanically capable but I'm not looking for a summer in the bilge!

I did get to see the title. It's in someone else's name at the moment but the signatures are there and so are the previous sales contracts.

It's certainly not in perfect condition outside the motors. The rubber seals around the windows have shrunk, pretty green and needs a wash, some water intrusion on the v-birth hatch. Mostly water tight and clean inside though. It's on the hard. No insurance for a sea trial. That can probably be sorted as a condition of sale.

I liked it but the hours on the engines was a shock.

Getting a mechanic involved may be good.. but man at almost 2k hours... There's little resale value. In 2-3 years nobody would want to buy it without new engines. So that's also weighing on my mind too

[newbie3]

Few more photos.

One other odd thing i saw was some sort of caulking running all the way around the cabin.. as pictured.