To Penta or not to Penta??

Hello i am seriously considering buying a 24' skippy with a " under 400 hrs on a volvo penta 350 fresh water cooled motor and 600 hrs on a rebuilt volvo penta 280 duo prop oitdrive". I have heard good and bad things about volvo pentas. The seller says that he has just replaced all exhaust manifolds and rebuilt the carb. the engine looks clean and well taken care of. So my questions are:
Are parts really that hard to find?
What external "red flags" should i look for without tearing apart the engine?

Re: To Penta or not to Penta??

I'm on my third project boat, this boat has a VP drive, the others had Merc and OMC. To this point I feel the VP drive has the best build quality of components. The present boat is a 1986, I've had no problems finding drive parts on-line and the GM engine maint. parts right from NAPA or the local parts store.

Re: To Penta or not to Penta??

Depending on who you talk to, everyone is going to have their opinion. Especially when they have had 1 brand engine and their experience with it was good or bad. If you do some googling there are polls as to what most people prefer. I've seen that an overwhelming majority of people prefer VP over Merc or OMC based on ease of maintenance and build quality. Parts are not hard to find, iboats has teamed up with the volvo penta store so you can buy oem parts right here on this website as well as many aftermarket parts. There are several other websites I've used to order parts. Now local availability of parts might be a different story. But like rav said, NAPA carries many regular maintenance oem parts like plugs/wires/cap/rotors/filters.

I'd be checking the plugs, distributor cap, and oil to see if it was well-maintained. And of course checking for water or oil leaks during a trial run. Beyond that obvious stuff, I would do a compression check to make sure that 350 is nice and alive. Don't forget to scan the outdrive, check it's lube level, all that kind of stuff. Enjoy!

Re: To Penta or not to Penta??

Speaking strictly about outdrives, I've had one Merc and now a Volvo Penta for the last 22 years. I had problems with the Merc, the Volvo has been very reliable. I know years ago Merc had problems with their design so they licensed Volvo's design and made essentially the same design. I don't know anything recent. Volvo can be quite expensive for parts but I think I personally would only buy Volvo Penta.

Re: To Penta or not to Penta??

If you compare prices of VP outdrive components to Merc.,you will find VP outdrive parts from late 70's and 80' as a good bargain.
Older OMC parts are hard to find,so Volvo is best bet for people not afraid to get some grease on hands.

Re: To Penta or not to Penta??

diesel1960 said:

If you compare prices of VP outdrive components to Merc.,you will find VP outdrive parts from late 70's and 80' as a good bargain.
Older OMC parts are hard to find,so Volvo is best bet for people not afraid to get some grease on hands.

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Have a look on ebay in the boat parts section.
If you do a search for Mercruiser parts and another one for Volvo, on any given day, you'll usually find 3 TIMES more used and new Mercruiser parts vs for a Volvo. (just now, nearly 26,000 Merc vs 8400 VP)

When I was looking for the replacement engine and drive for my 1987 Four Winns Liberator (in my sig below), I also priced new similar engines and drives from Both Mercruiser and Volvo.

The prices were almost identical. In fact, the dealers would match each other.

When I looked for used engine and drive combinations in the NW (Puget Sound area) , I found SEVERAL Big-block & small block Mercruiser engines and drives etc. and in the few years after, I found several more different Mercruiser engines/drives but I never did find a complete Volvo Penta engine and drive.

I chose the 1997 454 Mercruiser/Bravo from a wind damaged boat.

There's nothing wrong with late model Volvo drives (the engines are all the "same" for the most part)

DO NOT BUY ANY BOAT WITH OMC in the AD anyplace!

Speaking strictly about outdrives, I've had one Merc and now a Volvo Penta for the last 22 years. I had problems with the Merc, the Volvo has been very reliable. I know years ago Merc had problems with their design so they licensed Volvo's design and made essentially the same design. I don't know anything recent. Volvo can be quite expensive for parts but I think I personally would only buy Volvo Penta.

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They're all reliable if you take care of them....

Oh, and if you really want to know who "invented" the sterndrive, read the following. http://www.rbbi.com/folders/pat/isd.htm It's not really a "chicken/egg" thing!

Cheers,


Rick