Adventures in boat shopping

You guys are right. A lot invested so far and this is a nice boat, except for the bridge electronics. Even the wife said, so what’s the big deal. You would have replaced it all anyway. .

So as long as oil analysis comes back clean, we will go to close. I’m hoping the broker can at least get the depth sounder working, otherwise I’m relying on navionics charts for depth.

Seems to me to be wiring issues, and if it were at my dock and I wasn’t looking at a 10 day run home, I’d just tear out the rats nest and rewire it all. It’s all original to the boat so old enough that it’s not worth investing much money to keep it all alive.

No, engine sync worked perfectly. Cruise control is a feature on QSC engines. It is a two position switch on the dash. Position 1 limits RPM to 1200 and position 2 limits RPM to 2000. That's per the Sea Ray manual. On this boat position 1 limits port to 2000 and stbd to 2350. Stbd was 2350 in both positions. Stbd ECM was replaced 500 hours ago and the tech said that cruise was not programmed in the ECM when installed. My broker called it the deal killer switch. Seller knew about it because when he bought the boat, it failed engine survey for the same reason so his seller spend a couple grand having a diesel shop go through the engine electronics before they figured out that it was a "feature".

The plan currently is to let the selling broker get his electronics guy on it. I've seen it all work. It's just very intermittent. I think it has something to do with the seatalk hub. If the hub goes down everything goes down. Max Marine has those hubs for $50. AP parts aren't expensive either. It would be worth putting $1000 in what's there to get me another year or 2. Beyond that and I'd rather just put towards new stuff. Either way, it's not going to be a deal breaker.

I have Navionics and AquaMaps and that will my primary nav. While I'd like to have everything there functional, the only thing I need is depth sounder. Don't really want to trust the charts for depth.

You guys are the best. I'm hoping the broker will take care of it. He said he would and so far he has not given me a reason to doubt him. Seems like crappy wiring and grounds to me. 2 components that might be dead are the Seatalk hub and the SmartPilot control head.

I really appreciate the offer and might take you up on it.

Just waiting on oil analysis and final survey reports, them we'll go to closing.

My thoughts exactly.

I think sync has to be on in order for it to work. During our sea trial, cruise was accidentally on but we were not in sync mode. That could account for the difference in port and stbd RPM while in cruise. Also read on the Sea Ray forum that the RPM +- button is used to adjust the RPM for the selected cruise setting, either 1 or 2. And when engines are shut down those RPM's are saved in the ECM.

Upgrading the current smartcraft display might also do away with the entire C-Cruise panel. Seaboard has an upgrade that plugs into the existing smartcraft junction box at the helm that might retain C-Cruise.

https://www.sbmar.com/product/smartcraft-to-smx-digital-display-upgrade-kit/

Basically uses the existing harness up to the bridge and replaces the display, so I would think that C-Cruise would not be affected.

https://www.sbmar.com/product/smx-seaview-j1939-digital-display-kit/

This one replaces the harness all the way from the engine to the bridge and may eliminate C-Cruise. These kits are Seaboards offering to replace smartcraft.

Got engine survey back. Slight leak at stbd exhaust elbow. He said that over time the fiberglass elbows can delaminate. about $3500 to replace. Some corrosion and slight leakage at raw water pumps. Overboost condition on stbd. Here are the test run numbers.

TRIAL RUN AT SLOW CRUISE

PORT ENGINE STARBOARD ENGINE

RPM 2000 2000

FUEL PRESSURE (RAIL) 23,068 22,642

FUEL RATE (GPH) 16 16

BOOST PRESSURE 22 35

TRIAL RUN AT CRUISE

PORT ENGINE STARBOARD ENGINE

RPM 2250 2250

FUEL PRESSURE (RAIL) 23,402 23,572

FUEL RATE (GPH) 18 20

BOOST PRESSURE 28 43

ENGINE LOAD 68 70

TRIAL RUN AT FULL LOAD

PORT ENGINE STARBOARD ENGINE

RPM 2676 2675

FUEL PRESSURE (RAIL) 22,994 23,505

FUEL RATE (GPH) 23 27

BOOST PRESSURE 30 45

ENGINE LOAD 90 99


Turbos and aftercoolers were replaced last year. less than 100 hours since replacement. How serious is the boost thing? They reworked the stbd prop the day before survey to address a vibration. Both RPM's are on the money at WOT. If the prop shop pitched the prop wrong wouldn't we see a drop in RPM along with the higher boost, fuel burn and percent load?

Stbd prop was reworked. So at WOT the stbd running 99% load, 27GPH and 45PSI (above spec). Port is 90%, 23GPH and 30PSI. Assuming stbd is correct at 99%, the fuel rate and boost are higher than they should be.

If fuel rate and boost are more in line on port, then load is low. I sent an email to the surveyor to have him expand on these number a bit.

No prop spares.

Don't these QSC's have EGT sensors? I'll ask surveyor if he has this data.