Dkahnjob

My New to me 2000 35 Lightning Classic has 190 hours on it. I just stopped by my local Mercruiser service center to find out what might be required. SHOCK!!! He said that the 200 hour service is to take the heads off the engines and replace the valve springs, do a valve job, surface the heads, and R & R the outdrives to check the alignment. Is this what everybody does, or is this kind of over kill? I know you can check valve spring tension and even change the springs without pulling the heads, we used to do it on a Cracker Box race boat that I campained.

I don't want to neglect the maintenance on my new pride and joy, but I also don't want to waste money and there are probably only so many times that you can do a service like that until you need to start replacing heads etc.

What is the recomendation of the group, I am new at this power combination.

Thanks in advance.
David

35 fountain

David - you did'nt mention weather you had an HP 500 carb or an HP 500 EFI but by what you are describing as maintenance it has to be either one of these. I am afraid your dealer is shooting straight with you and if you are still unsure you can call the guys at Mercury Racing @ 920-921-5330 and just tell the receptionist you would like to speak with someone on the HP 500. They are going to tell you the same thing. All of this work is actually preventative maintenance and what you are trying to prevent is dropping a valve into a cylinder and destroying the block and heads.

Now realistically what I would do at 250 hours is a compression test. If you are within 10% of 175 pounds. replace the valve springs and rocker arms. This can be done without removing the heads. If you are outside the spec the heads will need to come off. Either way you should be planning on an engine refresh at 500 hours.

As far as taking the drives off - if this has not been done yet then you are way overdue. The drives should be removed after 20 hours and every 100 after that. The alignment needs to be checked and adjusted and if it is off long enough it will wear out the coupler and you have to remove the engine to replace it. While the drive is off you should check and grease the gimble bearings as well as the universal joints. The bellows should be inspected to make sure no water is getting past the tolerance rings or the hose clamps and into the transom assembly as water will kill your gimble bearings, and cause rust to form on the input shaft, universal joint and yoke eventually causing the yoke seal to start leaking. You need to be aware of what is happening inside the transom assembly.

How far you go with the maintenance on these motors and drives is up to you but the way I look at it is an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You have a great boat and fantastic engine and drive package but along with the high performance equipment comes some high performance maintenance. Get the work done now while its cold outside and the shop is slow.

Dkahnjob

35 Fountain, thanks for the informative post. The engines are HP500 EFI. I am going to go to my friendly Mercruiser dealer tomorrow to start moving ahead with this maintenance, you are right, I don't want to buy any pistons.
Thanks,
David

35 fountain

Good move - you will be able to enjoy the boat early this season with complete peace of mind knowing it's ready to rock - Best of luck with it.

RaggedEdge

Good info given by 35 Fountain here. At 167 hrs my 500's had 20 out of 32 valve springs damaged, mostly the inner springs and dampers. One additional suggestion here as well, look into a higher quality spring. The original 500 spring was a Crane item, Merc then changed, after all the failures began to show, to a Comp Cams item. Both are mid quality at best. I changed to the Isky Endurance SP series, one step below their Tool Room series, these are a real high quality spring and they have one that is right on in terms of open/closed pressure and size. The Tool Room series was a little too high in terms of pressure. You pay a little more than the Crane or Comp items but they will hold up much bettter, and might be less expensive than buying the Merc part. I also changed the Crane Gold rockers out in favor of the Crower Stainless full rollers, again a little more money but much higher quality items. Higher lift roller cams are hard on valve train components, the oil filled lifters are heavier than a solid would be, and in a performance marine application we run at higher revs more often than not. Invest in the best you can afford and the pay back will be longer trouble free life. The money spent here is far less than the cost when a spring fails and the valve drops into the piston. Another suggestion ---- My engine builder suggested that the rockers be backed off at the end of the season to take the pressure off the springs during storage. Lot of logic in this as well, I have been doing this each fall, then in the spring I take the boat to his shop and have him look things over and reset the rockers, good to go another season, so far he's been right on, no problems at all. It's that old ounce of prevention vs pound of cure deal.

In respect to the drive 35 is right here, I would add that it should come off at least once per season for lube and alingment check, also gear lube on a 25 to 50 hr cycle. Lube is cheap, R&R on two drives with the alingment check is little more than an hour deal. Cheap in comparison to a drive coupler. Good luck with your new Fountain, you will enjoy it.

BTW, if you poke around here on OSO you can find a lot of info regarding the 500 HP valve train issues. Also check out Isky Cams site, they have a lot of info on the springs I mentioned, and their tech guys are super to work with.

Dkahnjob

Ragged Edge, Thanks. A friend of mine who owns a race shop for cars also suggested upgrading the springs. I will definately check that out. The cost of the parts is minor compared to the big picture, I always want the best money can buy, it is cheap insurance. I have one set of stainless steel full roller rocker arms in the garage right now, off my the spare engine from my flat bottom, all I need is to buy a matching set for the other engine.

rickdarling

Dkahnjob -

Do you have your boat serviced in California? If so, where at?
I live relatively close to you and am potentially looking for a new shop.

I've been going to Paul Pauff (and they have been great) but it is a little bit of a haul for the smaller stuff...

Thanks - Rick

FeverMike

I had over 250hrs on my 2000 HP500 Carb. and when I sold it the guy went through it because he was going to put a blower on it. Everything inside the engine looked new! All I ever did for maintanance was change the Mobil 1 15W-50 oil and filter ever 20-30hrs, checked and lubed the drive U-joints once a year, change the spark plugs, cap and rotor each season, checked the timing each season and change the drive oil each season.
I had no broken valve springs ever, no bearing wearing out, no water intrusion and the engine looked and ran like new.

itilldo

you changed the plugs and cap every year? is that really necessary or are you just being anal (which is a good thing)

RaggedEdge

As was suggested do the compression test and a leak down as well. If all is good then likely you could just change the springs. When I did mine the springs were really bad and was afraid of the metal debris in the engines. We did a complete tear down, clean up, new rings, bearings, valve job etc, did the race tricks with screens and magnets to catch the crap if it were to happen again. Everything was perfect in the engines but better safe than sorry. The guy that did mine is also a race motor guy, and a close friend of 30+ years, wouldn't trust them to anyone but him. If you trust your buddy have him do the work for you, the BS about marine engines being different is just that, BS. The combinations may be different but a good engine man you can trust is worth a lot. Check out those valve springs from Isky and run those Crowers, my guy says he's never seen a Crower fail, he's done lots of 9000 rpm stock car motors with them.