Is it worth saving

I recently bought a 1984 18ft Tempest with a 3.8 for less than the price of the trailer and knew going in that the transom seal bellows had a 3 inch gash in it. The PO told me the water hadn't gotten very deep in the bilge.
When I tried to get it to turn over it wouldn't budge with the starter and was very tight trying by hand. I pulled the plugs and lo and behold water started running out of the spark plug holes.
It will turn over fine now, blowing water and oil out of the holes like old faithful.
My next step is to suck out the oil and re-fill (probably a few times) change the filters and plugs to see if it will fire.
As I mentioned, I don't have much into this package and will be able to re-coup my money on the trailer alone, with money from parts being a bonus.
The boat is in good shape with nice interior and fiberglass floors and the transom that feel pretty solid.
I would love to be able to save this boat without sinking loads of money into it.

Please let me hear your thoughts and suggestions to help me determine which direction to go with this.
Thanks in advance

Re: Is it worth saving

get a hole saw, cut some exploratory holes under the seat bases to inspect floatation foam. Poke at the transom to see if it's dry rotted.
I gave this one away because the transom was shot.

But if the engine or drive is seized, then no, it isn't worth saving. You will spend more $ trying to make it go reliably than you ever would just buying a water-testable boat.
Parting it out the best plan.
Water out the plug holes means either the entire boat sunk, or the exhaust manifolds have failed (budget about $1300 for new OSCO replacements)
If it sat for more than a few hours with water in the cylinders the engine is probably toast.

Re: Is it worth saving

Thanks for your reply, the only reason I was wondering, was on another boat I owned, a Grew, would fill with water every time I stored it tarped in the winter, and as long as I drained the oil a couple times it would run just fine. The Grew had no drain plug in the back and no matter how well I tarped it, it would always fill up anyways.
I am going to invest a little bit of money on plugs, oil and filters and hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst.
The engine and outdrive don't seem to be siezed but only time will tell.

Re: Is it worth saving

middlewick said:

Tanother boat I owned, a Grew, would fill with water every time I stored it tarped in the winter, and as long as I drained the oil a couple times it would run just fine.

Click to expand...

water in the combustion chambers is a completely different issue, but fun to mess with it - you might get lucky on this Fri the 13th

Re: Is it worth saving

Well I got the old girl started today after evacuating all the oil and water out of the engine, adding new oil and filter, new plugs and rinsing the fuel filter out.
1 question I do have is, should I fill the fuel filter with fresh gas before re-installing.
It seems to be starving for fuel and wont stay running for more than 15 secs before running out of fuel.
Tomorrow I will be doing a compression test and flushing the oil again.