Caravelle 186 question

[Leif]

Friend of mine is looking at a caravelle 186. Boat was used in salt water. Wants to use it in fresh. Should he be concerned about the use in salt?

Any recommendations on where to get it checked out?

Thanks,

Leif

[Gerry Zagorski]

Pretty sure Caravelle is an I/O set up with engine and stern drive. If so and it was used in the salt water, you want to make sure the engine was set up with fresh water cooling rather then raw/salt water cooling. An easy way to tell if it's fresh water cooled is look for a small plastic tank on the outside of the engine containing antifreeze, just like you have in your car. The reason you want a fresh water cooling system is to have fresh and not raw/salt water cooling the internal engine block because salt water will eat metal and corrode faster then fresh water so fresh water cooled engines tend to last longer.

If it's not fresh water cooled I would probably move on from this boat.

If it is fresh water cooled, before going through the expense of having a mechanic look at it, there are some initial tests you can do on your own to see if things are working as they should.

First thing I would do would be to inspect the drive gear oil. You simply take a screw driver, remove the bottom plug and make sure the fluid that comes out does not have any water in it. It should be a black/brown color. If it's milky you have water in the gear oil and you have issues. If you take just a little out you should be fine, if a lot, you want to replace it.

If it passes that test I would reccomend you sea trial it. You want to do this to make sure the engine get's up to the reccomended Wide Open Throttle RPM for the particular engine make and model. If it does not then there is an issue either with the engine or the boat is not propped correctly. If it does get up to the reccomended RPM then you can be pretty certain the engine is sound, has good compression and is worth going to the next step.

My next step, especially if it's an older boat would be to take it to a good mechanic and have him inspect the manifolds, elbows and risers. These items are usually the first thing to fail on a boat engine and usually last 5 or 6 years... If they fail and are not caught in time you could be looking at replacing the whole motor. For this reason most people rather then take a risk replace them every 5 or six years.

Hope this helps and maybe some people closer to you in the Point/Belmar area can reccomend a good mechanic.

[Leif]

Gerry,
Many thanks for taking the time to put this response together. I know this is not really a fishing boat and I appreciate your help. I will pass this on and I assure you the person is very grateful.

Thanks again,

Leif

[Gerry Zagorski]

Glad I could help Leif.

[Leif]

Thanks again! I hear the boat is in Tuckerton....Know any mechanics in that area?

Thanks again,

Leif

[Gerry Zagorski]

I don't

[Leif]

NP.

Thanks again,

Leif