Dad's Boat
by Mary Tashkin
I don't know much about boats, but I inherited my dad's boat last year and I want to keep it running for as long as possible. We took it out once last year and once this year. During this year's outing, we were pulling people on a tube, so we were going fast the whole time. After about 2 hours of this, we started to lose power. Not the engine shutting off, but just less power. Also, there was a knocking noise coming from the engine. I had a shop look at it and they said that a rod came loose and in order to fix it they would have to take the whole engine apart. They said it would be best to just replace it since it is so old. It is a Mercruiser 470, I think an '85, 3.7 L, 175 hp rating. It is an in/outboard on a 19' Fourwinns. Is replacing the engine the best option? If so, is it better to go with a new one or rebuilt? Where do you get rebuilds? What about switching it to an outboard? Thanks in advance, Mary |
