- Every sterndrive that lives in the water
has to be removed at least once a year
to check the core components.
(upbeat music)
I see a lot of videos about physically,
what to check when buying a boat,
but what's more important
is understanding the service history.
It's not always clear what should and shouldn't be done,
and you can have boat that has just been serviced,
or been serviced on a regular basis,
but may be missing some of the core components.
Before you even consider putting an offer on a boat,
or booking a survey, you need to research
what should and shouldn't be done and at what intervals,
as there's a number of things that
can't necessarily be picked up on survey,
but relate to the service history,
and can be found before you've even got to that stage.
I'm gonna break this video up into five parts.
I'm gonna start with sterndrives,
then talk about shaftdrives, talk about petrols, diesels,
and then, antifouling and anode requirements.
Let's start with sterndrives.
Every sterndrive that lives in the water has to be removed
at least once a year to check the core components.
If you don't follow these guidelines,
you can risk having your universals full of water,
and a gimbal bearing ready to fail.
What you need to do is you need to look at
the last time the sterndrive was removed.
Often, you'll see in service history receipts
that they've done a sterndrive service
where they've changed the oil
and they've replaced the anodes.
But, this isn't an adequate sterndrive service.
What needs to happen is, the sterndrive needs to come off,
these core areas inspected,
and then it all put back together with new gaskets.
If this hasn't been done at least once a year,
you need to factor it in to being done straight away,
and expect that there can be more issues found
when the sterndrive gets pulled off.
Another thing to look out for
is when the bellows were last changed.
As a general rule of thumb
for a boat that lives in the water,
two to three years is the most
you're gonna get out of your bellows.
Another area to look at is the transom assemblies.
If they're nearing 10 years old,
you've gotta assume that they're near
the end of their life cycle.
Additional issues can be found when you go
to do a transom assembly,
such as exhaust horn corrosion,
which can't be assessed until
the engine comes out of the boat.
Usually, these issues arise when you've have had something
that's been leaking for a long period of time.
Moving onto shaftdrives.
Thankfully, they're less maintenance,
but the two core components I'd be looking at
would be shaft seals and rudder seals.
I've seen them last for up to 10 years,
but if you have a shaft seal fail,
or a shaft cooling line fail,
the risk of what can happen is not worth taking.
A lot of the time I see shaft seals leaking,
and this can be partnered up to a previous accident
where an owner's hit the bottom.
What about petrol engines?
Probably already heard this one,
but manifolds and risers,
if they haven't been done in the last five years,
and they're not shown on the service history,
you've gotta automatically assume
that they're gonna need to be done.
If you've gotta do manifolds, risers, and exhaust tail base
on a twin-engine sterndrive,
you could be looking at upwards of seven grand,
just to start with.
Another thing to look out for on petrol engines is
if you go with a closed cooling system
and there's a heat exchanger.
If you've got a heat exchanger that's nearing five,
even 10 years old,
you're likely gonna have to change it in
the short-term or get it repaired.
Lastly, the C pumps on petrol engines,
they're a sort of five year item, if you're lucky,
and if there's nothing in the service history about them,
again, the boat's more than 10 years old,
assume you're gonna be doing them shortly.
What about diesel engines?
I always see people so smug
that they're buying a shaft diesel
and there's gonna be less maintenance.
But, nobody says anything about the saltwater service.
If you're buying a diesel,
the manufacturer of that engine will dictate
when the cooling system has to be serviced.
Some are as low as two years,
and others are four or five years,
but it's well worth finding out when it was last done.
If there's absolutely nothing in that history
in the last five years,
you've gotta automatically assume that you need to do it.
I also see people ask this question and they get faced with,
"Oh yeah, I gave the system a Barnacle Buster flush."
This does not substitute a saltwater service.
A saltwater service is removing the heat exchanger,
the aftercooler, the oil cooler, and any fuel coolers,
completely stripping them down,
replacing all the seals, pressure testing them,
and putting it all back together.
If someone's just done a Barnacle Buster,
what you'll find is they haven't pulled it apart,
and their can be internal corrosion,
or even worse, there can be a leaking aftercooler,
leaking water back into your engine.
You'll often see boats listed as just been serviced,
but they didn't say that the cooling system
has just been serviced.
They're specifically talking about the engines,
and maybe even the generator,
so you need to really be specific
with that question when you ask it.
The last thing on diesels is turbos.
If the turbos haven't been removed and inspected
in the last five years,
you can have leaking exhaust elbows,
with water going back into the turbo.
If you get to these before the elbow leaks,
you can save the turbo.
If you've gotta do a turbo and an elbow,
you're gonna be out for thousands.
The last thing is antifoul and anodes.
Much like a sterndrive that needs
to be pulled off every year,
antifoul and anodes need to be done every year.
If you've got a boat that hasn't been done
for three, four years, you risk the potential
of anodes not being on that boat,
and corrosion happening underneath the water.
You also risk the barnacle growth,
which you're gonna have to,
one, get it off the bottom of the boat,
and two, antifoul it straight away
before you can start using it.
Any boat that doesn't have a history of antifouling
and anodes in the last couple years, is a high-risk item,
because there's gonna be hidden defects due to this neglect.
One of the other things people get confused with
when talking about the service history is,
every hundred hours, or one year,
so it doesn't matter if you haven't done a hundred hours,
if your boat hits that extra year of age,
you've still gotta do that service
as dictated by the manufacturer.
You could have a cooling system that isn't overheating,
but due to the age of it, it could have an internal leak,
or some corrosion that nobody can see
until it gets pulled apart,
and that's why it's so important
that these things are done on time, rather than hours.
To summarize, if any of these things
in the service history aren't apparent,
you've gotta automatically assume
that they're gonna need to be done,
and there may be extra problems found along the way,
and extra costs.
So the best way going forward
is to find a boat that's got good service history,
or to request that it's done before you buy the boat.
If you enjoyed this video,
don't forget to like and subscribe.
If you've got any questions with the service history,
I know it can be quite confusing,
feel free to shoot me an email below,
and I'd be happy to help you out.