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1993 Sea Ray 330 repower

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c-caron

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Has anyone had experience putting brand new engines in an older boat?

I'm looking at putting remanufactured Mercruiser 357 Horizons engines in a 1993 Sea Ray 330. I know I won't recover the total cost in added value, but I'm keeping the boat and use it a lot all year. The engines will definitely get lots of hours and save fuel too.

$30k reman vs $15-20k to rebuild what I have or long block. The boat with new engines will be in like new condition, what is the max value of the boat and what is going overboard? I am also considering Crusader, Marine Power, and a Michigan Motorz partial package, but they are rare on the Pacific Coast.

The Mercs will be an exact fit with what I already have and should drop right in (after reversing one of my transmissions to standard rotation)

I can't find any other Sundancer's with brand new engines to comapre with. I think that $60,000 for a 33' cruiser with all new/updated systems is not entirely crazy???

Any thoughts?
 
I'm also trying to find a NADA or similar guide to get boat value with new engines, but nothing appears to exist for that.
 
I doubt that you will find what you are looking for....the BUC book is the marine equivalent for NADA.....and it may give you some insight...as far as what its worth, not what you'll put into it, at least from a purely economic point of view....I'd suggest, since you are planning on keeping the boat, that you view it from your position and ignore the 'market aspects'. Since your baseline is almost 25 years old, a turnkey replacement package will probably be easiest and quickest. If you are capable of doing the work and don't mind doing the running around, reconditioning what you have may save you a little of the out of pocket costs but there's a lot of variables. The big item, as you noted, is going to be one of the gears - unless you already have a full power reverse capable gear, you'll have to change one (if the replacement engines are both LH[std rotation]). Just my two cents...good luck
 
Per my signature, I own a 1969 23 ft ChrisCraft Lancer deep V. We purchased it in spring of 2007 and it still had its original 1969 185HP 289CID raw water cooled engine. Boat had been used all its life in salt water, but previous owner installed a fresh water flush system and routinely flushed his engine. Manifolds and elbows were not original.
As planned, we ran the boat as is without any issues during the 2007 season, but during the winter had the engine replaced. After much research and soul searching, I decided on a factory new 5.7LMIE , a 260HP Merc with fresh water cooling kit. This is a 2BBL carbed engine with the TKS system. I most specifically told the mechanic that I did not want a FI engine as I believe that a simple carb is more reliable ( and in military reliablity terms, a more "survivable system") than any commercially available FI system today. It's the old KISS system.

The only issues we had was that our area went over to ethanol adulterated gas the year after we did the swap and 39 years of accumulated crap got cleaned out of the also original fuel tank and ended up in the carb. At the cost of a gasket kit and several hours work ( and many a muttered epitath) , I was able to fix thison my own.

The boat is a classic and we have no plans on selling it in the forseeable future. Wanted the least problimatic (install and life cycle) solution to the new engine problem. The larger displacement and somewhat higher HP and more efficient new engine is giving us about 6 to 7 gal per hour vs the original 10 at cruise.


At best, a boat is an investment in the opportunity for pleasure ( fortunately I like to solve problems and tinker, so I'm in a win-win situation :) ) not a financial one. Any ROI calculation on a boat includes an entry in the "good will (times)" line.
 
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