I have an interesting story about a Venom 200. I believe its a 98or99 model. I was looking at boats today and came across a 21 ft Nitro bass boat with a Venom 200. Both boat and motor very clean. I asked him to fire it up on the hose. He said its been running rough lately and probably needed tuning up. It indeed did run rough even being on the hose i could tell. A strange sound from under the cowling also. I pulled the cover and looked around and couldnt believe my eyes. A 2-3 inch hole in the front of the block with aluminum shavings all over the carbs. I was looking at the # 4 rod cap plain as day. still connected to the rod. The owner acted stunned. He was either a very good actor or was blind. He said he had run it this past weekend and it was running rough the whole time out. Needless to say i did not buy the boat. Has anyone ever seen this type of damage on an engine with fairly low hrs and so called well maintained. And still run.