Just bought '97 400DA; advice?

Z-Worthy

Active Member
Jun 20, 2014
457
Sandusky, OH
Boat Info
2002 Sunseeker 44 Camargue
Engines
450hp Cat 3208s
New member here! My wife and I just pulled the trigger on a friend's 1997 400DA with 3116CATs. It's a freshwater boat; been in Lake Erie since new. We already know about a small oil leak in the starboard diesel (oil pan gasket needs replaced), and the generator seems a bit finicky (they're working on it), and the cockpit cushions need to be reupholstered or replaced.

But what can other owners tell me? Any advice on things to watch out for? Things to help make life a little easier over time? What rpm do other owners consider their "ideal" cruising range? Any advice is appreciated!
 
Z,

I welcomed you on the other post. I can't tell you what to look out for as each boat will have it's own issues. I would just tell you to check the systems while you are at the dock. It's much easier to address a problem on your time-table than learn about it will your on a run.

Case in point, I do systems checks regularly. One time on a routine check I found the Main Windlass relay had failed and I couldn't control the anchor unless I held the main switch in at the helm. So, if I needed to use the foot switches on the bow I wouldn't be able to.... So I ordered the part and replaced it myself without skipping a beat.

I would just tell you if you do run into a problem this is a great place to ask about it, as one of us has probably gone through it.

Good luck
 
You will receive no advice until we see pics!! LOL

ENJOY AND CONGRATS!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Welcome to CSR

Where are you keeping your boat in Sandusky? We have the same engines in our 400DB and found 2400rpm's pushes us at 19-21 knots burning around 22 gph. Your DA should be a little quicker at 2400 or you may run with less rpm's. Generators need ran on a regular basis. Make sure it has fresh oil and filter and new primary and secondary fuel filter along with a serviced cooling system and run it a lot under load. The more they run the better they run.
 
From the school of knocks:
Water System - Never overfill the water tank; it will crack and you will get water in the aft cabin. Fill until the full indicator starts to flash only. Sanitize the water system by adding two cups of Clorox or pool chlorine when filling the water tank to full then run all of the water system end items until a slight chlorine odor is noticed. Make sure to include the faucets in the anchor locker, aft locker and bilge and aft shower. Also include the hot water items. Allow to sit for six or eight hours then flush completely out with two tanks of water. I always fill my tank with city water as it has chlorination and run a lot of water through the system (ie I refill my tank at least once a week; but I use the boat a lot). I never use the water connection in the transom as really don’t trust leaving the system under pressure.
Engines and Gears – Baseline your drivetrain; get a qualified mechanic to go over the engines and gears. Take oil samples (you probably already did this during the survey) and keep for comparative analysis to future samples. Change all oil and filters. Use single viscosity oil only in the engines (30 or 40 weight depending upon your location). If the boat has the original ELC (engine coolant) it needs to be changed and engine flushed as it has a tendency to gel on the engine’s internal surfaces inhibiting heat transfer. Look closely at the Racor fuel filters for any signs of algae and take action as required. Always keep several changes of Racor filter elements on board. Change the impellers on the raw water pumps first thing. Change the engine belts and inspect the idler pulleys. Check rotation of the shafts; you should be able to rotate the shafts by hand from the hubs on the transmissions. Rotation should be smooth all the way around. Verify when the gears are shifted that the actuator on the transmission is fully engaged (very important). Don’t completely trust the Sea Ray helm instrumentation; evaluate the mechanic’s instruments against the boat’s instruments so you will know the faults or errors. Change the engine, gear and generator zinc's as a part of the baseline.
Thru-hulls and shaft packing – Look carefully at all hull penetrations below the water line. Make sure hoses are in good shape and all valves actuate smoothly. Look at the shaft and rudder logs and adjust / retrofit as required to ensure a dry environment.
Electrical – Go through all electrical connections and make sure they are clean and solid. The bonding system (all of the green wires) must have solid corrosion free connections and the hull zinc healthy. Verify the bonding system to less than 1 ohm across any connection. Actuate all of the breakers especially in the aft electrical panel; this panel has a tendency to be corroded. You might even want to pull it open and look behind it. Verify the batteries life cycle and you might want to replace as a component of your baselining process. Check out the charging systems and make sure the rated output is being met.
There is so much more but a start…
 
Last edited:
I would add to ttmotts excellent start that you should inspect the tubes in the heat exchangers for the transmission and engines for marine growth and silt/salt buildup.

Search 3116 on this site and boatdiesel.com and read and understand everything. They are great engines that will last forever if you treat them right, but you'll be out $20K real fast if you don't. They are specifically intolerant of overheating, so the cooling system has to be perfectly maintained. I personally would never use any fluids or filters, or parts that don't come from Cat.

When I bought my 99 400DA I had no idea what the previous owners had done as far as maintenance, and so I established a maintenance baseline by doing it all. It is about 1.5 years of work to do it all, yourself, but you will know everything about the boat and build a great amount of confidence.

Find out what oil has been used in the engines. If at anytime it has had any Multiviscosity Oil in it you will need to remove the Aftercoolers and have them cleaned. The additives in multi vis oil will block up the tiny air passages in the aftercooler and start starving it for air.

Once you get new fuel filters and the cooling system perfect take out the boat and make sure that it will turn between 2800 and 2850 rpm at WOT with full fuel, water, and provisions. If you can't make those RPMs then your boat is overpropped. That will prematurely kill your engines. And so will running your engines at higher RPMs for times in excess of what the manual defines as the maximum duty cycle for the engines. The engines sweet spot is about 2250 rpm and max continuous power is at 85% of Max RPM or 2380. If I remember correctly.

Good luck and enjoy your new yacht!

Pete
 
Congratulations on the new boat ! I'm new on this forum as well. I'm on my 4th Searay and don't know why I didn't join earlier. There are a lot of friendly, knowledgable people here. As far as RPM cruise, typical rule of thumb would be 3k-4k off of WOT.( If anyone disagrees, please correct me) My Cummins run at 2300 WOT and I've found the most economical running RPM is at 1900. She moves at approx. 28MPH depending on seas. Good luck and safe passages !
 
Just finished cleaning my cooling system....I hook up a spare small 12v pump, dump 2.5 gallons of Rydelyme into a plastic bucket. Circulate the Rydelyme thru the coolers and back to the plastic bucket (pump runs for 2-3 hours) and you coolers are spotless. Make sure you remove the zincs (4) too.
Good Luck with the new boat! Its a great boat and easy to run!
 
You have a great boat. We really enjoy ours.

I recently had DC power issues; mainly port side. Intermittent power and poor ability to take a charge; no one could figure out what was going on. Sea Ray drawings were incomplete. I ran the wires and found my boat has three additional 50 amp breakers (Port; Starboard and House DC) in a box located behind the Main DC circuit panel. Must have been a production line addition. The Sea Ray technicians were as surprised as I was. You can’t see them unless you pull the DC panel. Terrible place to install breakers that are not automatic reset. My port breaker was corroded; I changed all three. Everything started working great once I had clean power.

AC power is finicky at some of the places I dock; surges; off and on and so forth. Just be ready to reset everything by locating your ground fault receptacles. Mine are under the galley sink and in the aft head. Also note your shore power on/ off; breaker switches just atop the shore power plug ins.
 
.........I ran the wires and found my boat has three additional 50 amp breakers (Port; Starboard and House DC) in a box located behind the Main DC circuit panel. Must have been a production line addition..... You can’t see them unless you pull the DC panel. Terrible place to install breakers that are not automatic reset. My port breaker was corroded; I changed all three. Everything started working great once I had clean power.

Here is a thread I started that shows the breakers. I was surprised to find them there also.

http://clubsearay.com/showthread.ph...r-battery-charger-replacement-Info?highlight=

Did you make a note of the part numbers for them and where to purchase?
 
I have the part numbers on a Flounder Pounder purchase order some place. Just a 50 Amp push button breaker. Pretty common and the Flounder Pounder guys are ACEs with stuff like that.

I thought it a strange place to locate manually reset breakers. I was surprised when the Sea Ray guys didn’t know about them. The initial diagnosis, made by guys that are a heck of a lot smarter than I, was that my power issues were due to the weak port side batteries and/or an intermittent failure of one leg of the battery charger. Batteries checked out at 65% but I changed them out. Better but still had issues. As impassable as that seemed for only one leg of the battery charger to fail intermittently; I up dated the charging system. Still had issues. That’s when I found the culprits and made the fix. Bottom-line; everything is working great and I have an antique, fully functioning, three phase 40 Amp battery charger I can use as a sea anchor.
 

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