Sea Ray 205 - Advice required for storing in salt water marina

[actros]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum and considering getting my first boat which is a 2009 Sea-Ray 205 with V8 Mercruiser 5.0.

I want to keep the boat in a saltwater marina and am concerned with the problems which may occur if I cannot flush the engine. The thing is I cannot find exact information regarding if there is a possibility to flush these engines in the water (I have heard of fresh water flush kits you can get?) Do these work? I see many other boats which are birthed in the marina and I assume they don't all have problems.
Another issue is that I believe the 5.0L is raw water cooled rather than having it's own seperate cooling system like the 4.2 so hence should be flushed every time?

Any advice / help greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Daniel

 

[Struc]

Re: Sea Ray 205 - Advice required for storing in salt water marina

Don't have any advice, as I'm up in WI in freshwater land, but this question would probably be better answered in the Mercruiser forum instead. I'm sure you'll get a lot more attention to it there.

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Sea Ray 205 - Advice required for storing in salt water marina

I answered your post on the Mercruiser section. Anodes are the key to success.

 

[edsmax]

Re: Sea Ray 205 - Advice required for storing in salt water marina

You dont have to flush your engine after each use. They are meant to be run in salt water. Make sure you put on fresh anodes on your drive at the beginning of each year, paint/scrape your drive yearly, change your impellor every other year and you will be fine. One major drawback to running in salt water is that your exhaust manifolds will probably only last 5-7 years vs double that in fresh water. Just keep and eye on them.

Also, the 5.0 Mercuiser comes in both raw water and fresh water cooled. The fresh water "closed" cooling it is an optional feature. You can tell what you have by just looking at your engine.