MacGregorSailors.com

Focus on what dealer service is convenient to you.

island808 wrote:bought the boat. get to keep the busted engine. Probably just needs plugs and a carb cleaning. probably repower to something new and sell it though. Now to find the "right engine"



Thanks for all the help and advice.

dlandersson wrote:Focus on what dealer service is convenient to you.

I'm not one to get dealer service... But, point taken. I'm not going to suck up a spun bearing or something when in warranty.

Anyone know what the df50 lists for?

Last year's DF50 is going for about 5K. You might even want to put a 70, or 90 on it. Me? I'm happy with my DF50. finally ran one of my six gallon tanks dry this year on last year's fuel. I don't power much.

Price depends on where you're at. Might want to put your location in your profile to help us help you.

~Rich

Oh yea, I should drop it in my profile. I'm "round abouts" Annapolis Md. Might be a touch on the high side of prices. But I'm fine with that.
The Honda seems to be more like $8k... Is it that much more "honday"

Island,
Do the carb rebuild yourself. Lots of info buried here in the board. I recommend some very good lighting, a clean workdesk, and a magnifying glass to see small orifices. There are some tricks to taking the Honda 50hp carbs off and if you can't find out in the board history, let me know. Do not buy any new parts. They will cost you hundreds of $ and the thing is that hardly anything wears out in the carb jets or ports, they just get dirty. Have a can of compressed air or an air compressor. Clean everything and reassemble. You have a reasonable chance, but not 100%, that you will have a good engine. The Honda carb ports are unreasonably tiny. I used one single strand of a zip cord wire to clean mine. My new-to-me Honda ran rough when I bought it and after three rebuilds it works great (knock on wood). You get better at it after the first time.

preaching to the choir. I have the bad habbit of actually doing my own work when the thing is still in warranty.

Carb cleaning ain't no thing but a chicken wing.. I was going to replace the fuel line and run some sea foam before I even started carb stuff. The tech's haven't touched anything but the cooling system, so I may end up with an easy fix... knock on wood.

A while ago i swore off carburetors on cars (i've got a thing for buying old cars), they aren't efficient, clog and are, generally speaking, not worth the hassle over fuel injection. But, sometimes you can limp home on a carb repair when you are dead in the water with a bad efi unit.

still looking to buy a suzuki regardless I think. We'll see.

Carb rebuilds on a Honda are just not that easy as some say it is. I did it, solved nothing, and ended up taking it to a dealer. $850 later it now runs great.
My carb rebuild made things worse, and the carb really wasn't very dirty, so that was not the problem.

Phil M wrote:Carb rebuilds on a Honda are just not that easy as some say it is. I did it, solved nothing, and ended up taking it to a dealer. $850 later it now runs great.
My carb rebuild made things worse, and the carb really wasn't very dirty, so that was not the problem.

Don't keep us in suspense... What was the $850 ticket? A better carb cleaning in an ultrasonic bath?

My experience with Honda small engines is, you can't just spray stuff off, it has to be polished clean in and out. And in the case of these, tuned and synced.

Bought a new Suzuki... Honda makes a great product, but their sales and parts price protection and finicky running put them out of my fancy when they get old.

Just tried to get my eu2000 running. Stored completely dry for 2 months. Carb is clogged. Like the 15th time I have to clean that damn thing. Now I know exactly where it's clogged.

island808 wrote:
Don't keep us in suspense... What was the $850 ticket? A better carb cleaning in an ultrasonic bath?
.

He said I put one of the gaskets on upside down and blocked a fuel port.
Plus, the idle adjustment screws were way out of proper adjustment.

I spent HOURS carefully disassembling, cleaning, and putting back together. Even bought a carb sync tool. I received little help on this board regarding a proper carb sync. http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... =7&t=21912

All to no avail. Just sayin' carb stuff can be tricky for the average sailor.

Definitly. Seems the average sailor is a jerry-rigger. I have an advantage. Im not a sailor. I swore off carburetion a few years ago, mostly to keep me from buying old cars. When i do, they have fuel injection
But i have worked professionally on engines and has been a hobby for 30 years. Still find them fidgety. Ive taken to counting turns and writing them down when disassembling. Once back together the way it was, i start to tune from there, not from manual settings.

Look out here comes a RANThot weather, bad sleep, and no sailing this weekend

I don't want to come off too grumpy ...BUT

This thread brought up some opinions and points that I don't quite agree with:

Boat shopping is not car shopping. No 2 on Craigslist or e-bay are worth the same money regardless of engine. I took my boating course through Power Squadron 3 months, 2 2hour classes a week. And that's just the basic course. I bring this up because it mainly concerns safety and navigation. I have added at least 2 boat bucks to my and I fall just between "mandatory" equipment and "recommended".

When you see a boat add with "too many extras to list" that's thousands of dollars of equipment you probably need. The way I bought my boat it didn't have all the mandatory safety equipment.

I was of a similar mindset to the prevalent opinion when I got my boat, however like many others I found its hard and expensive to bring a 16 year old boat up to snuff maintenance wise AND get the appropriate equipment in a single season.

As time goes on and experience takes hold I begin to wonder if I should've paid upfront for all the extras so I could spend more time on the water.

Maybe I should start a thread on the "Must Haves" and see how much a properly equipped Mac would really be worth.

In my mind I had my eyes wide open, but in reality I wasn't aware of a quarter of the stuff this boat would require. I did have one opinion though that's helped me see the big picture. When I was looking at local Mac's there were a few in the $20-30k range that were extensively equipped and beautifully modded, I realized that whatever I paid to get my Mac home I would end up spending the difference over time. I truly didn't realize how much of that $10k would be required so quickly.

Make sure you have finances left over after your re-power to get a few hundred $ worth of stuff every time you come back to the dock. You don't know what you need until you don't have it on board.

Rant over...now you can keel haul me or make me walk the plank.

Willy

Nah, were basically on the same page, but for the fact i dont want somebody elses old junk. Fenders, sure, but beyond that, your 5 year old stuff is worth nothing to me. This one came full to the brim with equipment im going to trash or guve away because i dont know its history. I'd never trust a po unless they were a very close friend. then im not trusting them, im trusting my understanding of them. Some of that is my lack of seaworthiness and some is just, to me , common sense. Not to mention, im not necesqrily going to use the boat in sqme waters in the same way. A seller can ask, but i have a price as well.

I bought new, well equipped, and still spent $4K getting it up to snuff. That's boats.

Yea? Ive bought sails, lines, engine radio, standing rigging, and various things. Cost me a mint. But no big surprises. (Knock on wood). Never know what youre getting when buying used.

$4k on a new well outfitted boat.... You must have had a very particular goal... Or paid someone else to work on it.

I bought new. my dear M and I got off to a rocky start, crashing into the dock with the dealer when we tried to show off and sail up to the dock and I too, spent in that price range to get her where she is today, that is, able to go for a 3 week cruise safely and comfortably, and I am a light weight when it comes to creature comforts. I have no reefer, flat screen TV or built in head, or fancy electronics, or autopilot. All those would cost thousands more. Five year old junk can be junk...or it can be good, dependng on what it is. My 5YO garmin works fine. By a cheapee spare if you doubt it. Five YO reefer unit if it is working, wont be much worse then a new one. They dont update that stuff like celphones. A five YO celhone is ready for a museum. Five YO spare line, extra life jackets, extra jib ect are going to be no different then new if kept dry. Then there are the owners mods. it cost me a bundle to install storage and shelving in my boat, and I did all the work. It might not be what a new owner might want, but unless they are using the boat for day sailing, they will have to put in something. And that is where the time and money pile up. Some people do a better job then others. Ive seen horrible stuff through out the years. and some really nice stuff, better then I could ever do. (On my boat, everything I put in is modular. It can all be removed and the boat returned to stock condition with very few holes anywhere. Ive learned from experience)
I would probably take a super clean and well thoughout used boat with a bad engine over one with a newer engine but badly executed owner installed mods. Those can really mess a boat up badly, and take ALOT of time to correct IF it ever can. Try filling holes in fiberglass so that they are invisible. Matching, patching gelcoat, hours sanding, oh wait the color still dont match exactly...Then replacing the stuff you just took out with better stuff, drilling MORE holes in different locations...Ferget THAT!!! And you cant even PAY someone to do stuff like that unless you have deep pockets. Its cheaper in the long run to hang a new engine, that any dealer can install fairly competently, on a beautiful, well kept boat, then it is to try to undo someone Else's disaster-at-sea. And less time consuming. BOom bam, motors on, go sailing! Charge it even. Your time is worth money, and you are enjoying the boat.
Ix