Saltwater boat, what to look for?

[hotjava66]

I looked at a boat that spent most of its time in saltwater, im a freshwater guy, and have heard lots of horror stories from people that bought saltwater boats. This particular boat looked ok but you see a lot of scaling and corrosion you dont normallly see on a boat up here. Not excessive, just not used to seeing it everywhere. What specifically should someone look for, where are the trouble spots? Seems to me it would also affect switches, electrical system, anything metal. Even being lift kept there is a lot of salt in the air that gets into everything.

 

[Chris]

Alot of it you just can't see. The salt rots things like uncoated aluminum heads and exhaust manifolds from the inside. The mating surfaces inside the outdrives are particularly susceptible as well. Sometimes you just don't know until you start disassembling- or until something springs a leak.

 

[Quinlan]

Pull the thermostat housing. That told me ALOT on my 575s. Then when the manifolds came off that was REAL ugly! Of course that was after i bought it.

 

[hotjava66]

Pull the thermostat housing. That told me ALOT on my 575s. Then when the manifolds came off that was REAL ugly! Of course that was after i bought it.

how many hours on them, this one has been repowered, low hours, but a lots of time sitting on the lift, like 3 years

 

[Quinlan]

400 was told 250 get the survey

 

[Seafordguy]

Salt Air will create surface rust on things like Brake rotors, and other truely BARE metals, but it won't systematically destroy everything in sight. I wouldn't worry 2 seconds about stuff like switches, etc.... remember that alot of us live in areas where salt water is a way of life. We wouldn't boat if we had to completely re-rig the boat every couple years.

I did a science project when I was in high school where I took bare metals and cultivated rust on them. The one that rusted the fastest was the washer that was dipped in salt water and then brought UP to air periodically, not the one that sat in salt water consistently. My point is that NOTHING could be worse than running it in salt, and then putting it on the lift exposed to air and NOT flushing it.

At the same time there are a lot of us that run the boat, pull it out, and immediately hit it with Salt-Away, and the insides probably look almost as good as a freshwater boat. It's all in maintenance....

 

[BillR]

At the same time there are a lot of us that run the boat, pull it out, and immediately hit it with Salt-Away, and the insides probably look almost as good as a freshwater boat. It's all in maintenance....

Bingo - my motors look like fresh water motors inside.


Look for paint bubbling on metal surfaces, pull thermostat, see if wire crimps are green or have white powder on them.
You'll know it when you see it.
If a salt water boat was cared for, you won;t be able to tell difference from fresh water boat.