I have a 22' wellcraft and last year I installed a re-manufactured mercruiser 5.7 and we used it all summer and really enjoyed it. However, at the end of the season my wife and I were out with another couple, going across the lake maybe 4300rpm, I was standing and driving not looking at the gauges. The oil drain plug somehow fell out. Im not sure how long it ran without oil, as soon as the engine sound changed i looked down and saw no oil pressure and immediately shut it off. I assume the change in sound was when the lifters lost oil and began to collapse. We got towed back in and headed home. That night I found the drain plug, tightened it (not stripped), and refilled the oil. I fired it up and it was noisy until the lifters pumped back up. It ran on the hose for probably 30 mins and sounded normal so I swapped a fresh oil filter in and cut the old one open to check for bearing material, it looked good. The next day we went to another local lake to test it out. We ran it hard all day tubing and going fast. At one point i held it WOT for probably 15 mins. It seemed fine. The next week I had surgery and was done boating so the boat was put away for the winter. I just pulled it out of storage a couple days ago and havent started it up yet. I have no idea if the engine will last or if it might blow up the first time out this year... What are your thoughts? The engine probably has less than 50 hours on it total. Should I buy a new engine and keep it on hand? Pull this one, flip it upside down and check all the bearings?
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