40 sedan bridge forum

Hello All. I am new to the forum and also new to the Sea Ray. I am looking at a 97 Sedan bridge 40 with twin 3116 Caterpillars. The boat has over 1500 hours and is in good shape. What should I be looking or when inspecting the engines? What will be the top speed that I can expect from this boat? I have took the boat for a sea trial and it seemed under powered, but I am not sure. Everything else on the boat seemed okay.

Any advice is appreciated.
Keith
 
The crime scene said:
Hello All. I am new to the forum and also new to the Sea Ray. I am looking at a 97 Sedan bridge 40 with twin 3116 Caterpillars. The boat has over 1500 hours and is in good shape. What should I be looking or when inspecting the engines? What will be the top speed that I can expect from this boat? I have took the boat for a sea trial and it seemed under powered, but I am not sure. Everything else on the boat seemed okay.

Any advice is appreciated.
Keith
Click to expand...
There were two Caterpillar 3116 engines available. 292HP version or 340HP version. Which one is in the boat? By the way, I sea trailed a 1999 with the 292HP version and its cruising speed was about 15 knots at 2300rpm. I found it underpowered for long range cruising.
 
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The crime scene said:
The VIN plates say they are the 300 HP versions.
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That's them. I think Sea Ray put 292HP in their literature, using their HP measurement at the props. Also, I went back and checked my survey data and we were at 18.9 knots at wide open throttle. But, the boat was over propped at 24 pitch and thus only reached 2500rpm at WOT rather than the specified 2800rpm.
 
The crime scene said:
Hello All. I am new to the forum and also new to the Sea Ray. I am looking at a 97 Sedan bridge 40 with twin 3116 Caterpillars. The boat has over 1500 hours and is in good shape. What should I be looking or when inspecting the engines? What will be the top speed that I can expect from this boat? I have took the boat for a sea trial and it seemed under powered, but I am not sure. Everything else on the boat seemed okay.

Any advice is appreciated.
Keith
Click to expand...

When you ran the sea trial, what was the cruise rpm and speed? Did the engines make the rated wot rpm? This is a great boat, and really feels nice at faster speeds. At 23kts the boat really performs well, and rides on top of the water vs plowing.

I've done some long range running with friends in unfavorable seas (5-6') running at 17kts. The boat takes the waves fine, but found it hard staying on plane. Kicking the speed up a bit helped a lot. IMO, 400HP+ is the right power option
 
I got 2500rpm. It showed 14.8 knots running up stream. Coming back was the same performance. It just did not feel like the boat was up and on plane. With that being said, this is the biggest boat I have ever driven. There was a decent head wind that day and I thought I would get more coming back down wind. My hand held gps said we were running 18 knots......which I believe was more accurate than the dash mounted speed sensor.
 
I have the 350 hp cats. On a good day wide open I can do 25kts. Our normal cruise speed is 18 kts @ 2300 rpm. That's pretty much full load also (water, fuel, people). The one you are looking seems underpowerd.
 
A question for the pros. How long should the house batteries last with just the fridge on? With the 4 battery configuration, is the house battery separate from the starter battery? Once you get below 9 volts, how long do you have to run the genny for?:huh:
 
mjmason1 said:
A question for the pros. How long should the house batteries last with just the fridge on? With the 4 battery configuration, is the house battery separate from the starter battery? Once you get below 9 volts, how long do you have to run the genny for?:huh:
Click to expand...
On the configuration part, the batteries are set up with two banks of two batteries wired in parallel. The port bank starts the port engine and provides power to all the stuff on the left side of your battery switch panel. The starboard bank starts the starboard engine and provides power to all the stuff on the right side of the battery switch panel. Since "cabin main" is on the right side of the panel, all the 12V stuff in the cabin will draw its power from the starboard pair of batteries.
 
ZZ13 said:
About 27 gallons per hour across both engines. Your WOT rpm looks good to me. That's about what I see. Although some here have found ways to get WOT to about 2700rpm (I haven't been able to do that). Your speed at WOT looks a couple mph lower than mine. But you said you have 23 pitch props, correct? The factory put 24 pitch on mine so that would explain that difference
Click to expand...

Yes, my are: Props: "22Lx23". L Cup"



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Fernando DaCosta
 
Hi, bill
I am in the process to install the Infinity carpet, I am making the templates, watching at your cockpit picture I notice you did a great job installing the carpet, doing the cockpit template is very tricky and takes a lot of time.

6464881d0cc85629f9ecd7c02fe90b8b.jpg


1) did you removed the cockpit seat before installing the Carpet, did you installed the carpet under the seat?

1-a) if you did, how do I remove that seat?

2) did you snap in the cockpit carpet or you use caulking or silicon?

3) How is holding the silicon on your carpet steps?

Thank You
Fernando



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Fernando DaCosta
 
FeLizDream said:
Hi, bill

1) did you removed the cockpit seat before installing the Carpet, did you installed the carpet under the seat?

1-a) if you did, how do I remove that seat?

2) did you snap in the cockpit carpet or you use caulking or silicon?

3) How is holding the silicon on your carpet steps?

Thank You
Fernando



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Fernando DaCosta
Click to expand...
I did remove the seat and put the carpet underneath. There are two brackets, one on each side of the seat. Just pull the pin out on each bracket and you can take the seat out. You may find the carpet raises the seat up too high to line up the two halves of the bracket. I was able to solve that by removing each bracket from the transom wall, flipping them over and mounting them to the other side of the bench seat. For some reason there was more room on the original bottom side of the bracket. So flipping it over put that extra room on the top side. Now, that said, I plan to cut out around the seat and no longer have the carpet under the seat. This is so I can quickly remove it if I need to. I found I can cut it so it goes a few inches under the seat and you can't really tell its cut out.

I simply "glued" the stairs down with a bead of OSI Quad Max caulk around the outer edge of the step, and a few dabs in the middle where you would put your foot on it when walking up the stairs. This is a great outdoor adhesive caulk and holds it perfectly. I have other users report to me that just using snaps didn't secure the steps as well as they would like - so I went with the adhesive caulk.

Notice I did not bind the edges. I didn't want that look on the steps and I also wanted as much of a wall-to-wall look as I could get so I ran the edges as close to the walls as I could. My wife wants me to bind the edges on the cockpit floor and bridge floor. She thinks it will look better and it will eliminate the possibility of the edges fraying over time. Although since this is PVC, you could seal off the edges with a contact heat source, such as a hot knife or soldering iron.

I did nothing to hold the carpet in place on the bridge and cockpit. Right now the bench seat is essentially holding the cockpit carpet from moving. I am experimenting to see how well it stays in place without any snaps. If I find I need to secure it down, I will add snaps. This one gets wet from rain and so I often have a film of water between the bottom of the padding and the deck (the weave is porous, so water flows through it into and through the padding). I am testing to see if that makes it more easy to move when walked on.

I also did nothing to hold the flooring in place on the bridge. I took out the pedestal seats and the table and laid the carpet wall to wall fully across the entire bridge. Then I cut out circles where those three bases are. So, essentially the three pedestal bases are keeping the carpet from moving around. So far so good there. It hasn't budged a bit. But it doesn't get wet (except sometimes a bit on the outer edge) due to the cockpit canvas. But if I ever want to remove it I will have to take the two pedestal seats out again (which isn't hard - six hex head socket screws on each).
 
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Bill,
thank you very much for sharing all the information with us, you gave me very good ideas, I really appreciated it.



FeLiz Dream
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FeLizDream said:
Bill,
thank you very much for sharing all the information with us, you gave me very good ideas, I really appreciated it.



FeLiz Dream
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Click to expand...
You are welcome. What Infinity pattern did you go with (there are so many to choose from)? Also, feel free to PM me if you get stuck anywhere along the install.
 
Wow! Five window windshield and blue hull (is that factory colored gelcoat or was it painted by an owner?). Looks really cool. I guess they tweaked things a bit after that first year in '96.
 
Black painted hull by PO. 5 window windshield? I guess I haven't paid attention to later models...


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ZZ13 said:
You are welcome. What Infinity pattern did you go with (there are so many to choose from)? Also, feel free to PM me if you get stuck anywhere along the install.
Click to expand...

After a family reunion, the infinity carpet color winner was:
Basket Weave 1415 HD, Color #1
I haven't received the delivery yet, but already have the templates ready, I went directly with infinity dealer in florida, I order 120 sf and the cost was $ 920, I am thinking of cutting it and go to a shop here in hialeah, miami, to to the border or binding



FeLiz Dream
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Prosideus said:
Black painted hull by PO. 5 window windshield? I guess I haven't paid attention to later models...


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Click to expand...

Looks nice, I love your windows, do you install a Limo window film or is it a window screen per window?
it looks very modern.



FeLiz Dream
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