Any quick advice on purchase of 1999 VP 3.0 GS engine with VP SX outdrive?

Hi Good Folks,
Still shopping for good deal on a 17' runabout. $2800 Glasply w/ VP145 got away from me, now looking at $3000 1979 Glasply repowered with 1999 VP3.0 GS engine w/ heat exchanger cooling, and 1999 VP SX outdrive. Not knowing anything about these units, can anyone suggest particular things to check, besides compression, trim, and shifting? Is this potentially a good deal? I really appreciate your willingness to help me!!

Hire a Marine Surveyor and do a Sea Trial.
It will be money well spent!

In some cases, the seller may be willing to split the cost of the survey.

If you found/hired the surveyor, and if you pass on this boat, the seller keeps the non-bios survey for use with the next potential buyer.

Be careful that is an OLD boat...learn about wood rot in fiberglass boat cores and how to check for it....
and as far as the Volvo stuff...its good if maintained like any I/O power system, but they are all high maintenance and the last thing you want...is a neglected I/O boat...so be careful! At least check the motor oil, coolant condition (closed cooled?) and gear oil in the drive. Then do a water test make sure it runs like it should.

Thank you Sir!

louc said:

Be careful that is an OLD boat...learn about wood rot in fiberglass boat cores and how to check for it....
and as far as the Volvo stuff...its good if maintained like any I/O power system, but they are all high maintenance and the last thing you want...is a neglected I/O boat...so be careful! At least check the motor oil, coolant condition (closed cooled?) and gear oil in the drive. Then do a water test make sure it runs like it should.

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Post #2: Hire a Marine Surveyor and do a Sea Trial. It will be money well spent!

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Mike, in all honesty, and since you are willing to look at older boats........ you'll have a better stern drive if you stay with an AQ series system.
The AQ series ran into the 90s up to 1996, and ran right along side of the SX/DP-S styles.
The C and C-1 drives are among the best! No Gimbal suspension system!

Hi Ricardo,
Man, I really appreciate your help here! Hats off to you! I understand from what you've just posted that the SX drive is inferior to the AQ and C and C-1 drives. Can you explain what the issue is with the SX drives? How big a problem is it? And the absence of a gimbal suspension system on the C drives is a good thing, I gather. This must be a problematic component. Do you have a moment to comment?

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MIke Dempster said:

Hi Ricardo,
Man, I really appreciate your help here! Hats off to you! I understand from what you've just posted that the SX drive is inferior to the AQ and C and C-1 drives.
In my opinion, yes!!
The AQ series is main suspension fork and pivot tube geometry..... hands down, a better system!
No gimbal bearing, no gimbal bell and no gimbal ring
No annual drive coupler alignment check
No rubber hubbed drive coupler in lieu of an all steel Borg Warner drive coupler
No failures that the rubber hubbed couplers are prone to.
Fixed geometry with PDS to couple the engine to the stern drive... once installed and initially aligned, no further adjustment is required.

Can you explain what the issue is with the SX drives? How big a problem is it?
No real serious issues..... but these are gimbal suspension drives.
bla bla bla and so on!

And the absence of a gimbal suspension system on the C drives is a good thing, I gather.
In my opinion, yes! (see above)

This must be a problematic component. Do you have a moment to comment?
In my opinion, we have more issues with gimbal suspension stern drives V/P, Merc and OMC) than we do with the AQ series.

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Well, I checked out the17' 1979 GlasPly with the 1999 VolvoPenta 3.0GS engine and SX outdrive. I'd love your thoughts, anyone with experience, on what I found.

The boat sat in a garage for the last year and a half. Visually the engine and stern drive looked pretty good. Stern drive was elevated, and would not respond to the trim control. Troubleshooting, we bypassed the trim limiter box (approximate name...little thing on the transom near the trim pump, with a handful of LED lights on it) and got the outdrive to go up and down just fine. Might as well leave that little unit out of the loop permanently.

As soon as the drive went down, clean gear oil dripped from the forward side of the prop. Removed the gear oil fill plug, an the oil that came out was light mocha colored. LIght brown. Dipstick at the top of the drive showed totally clean oil up there. Confused about how the oil dripping from the prop shaft (seal?) could be so clean, while the milky stuff came out of the plug at the bottom of the drive, and clear oil was at the top at the dipstick. ???

We got the engine running without too much difficulty, considering how long it's sat. Oil looked clean. Sounded really good, idled well, jumped to life with the throttle. (Had the hose ears attached.) Did a compression test, got 137, 135, 142, and 118. #4 was more than 10% out. We wonder how terrible that is. We took it out for a sea trial. It ran and shifted beautifully, and I was amazed at its power.

Boy, I would sure love to hear from some of you experienced folk out there about whether to lean into this thing or walk away. Only $3000!

Thanks!