Considering buying a 1997 Starcraft 241...what do you think?

[dodade]

We're looking for a "project" boat and the bones of this boat are GREAT. Pontoons great, floor solid, railing superb, trailer solid. We definately will have to replace the furniture down the road but what has us concerned is...it won't start. Could be as simple as needing a new starter...or as difficult as needing a new engine. Hubby tried to get the crankshaft turned but couldn't get a good grip on it (working in small places is so fun). The question is.... we can pick up this boat for 4k, worse case senario...new or rebuilt engine around 2k and then new furniture around 2500. Would that be a good investment? We have to make our decision tonight. The area we live in is not a huge pontoon using place....so not alot boats to find or comparison shop. Oh btw, the engine is a mercury 3 Liter, four cylinder inboard.

Thank you in advance for any suggestion, ideas, comments...

[badmoonrising]

Welcome !

Starcraft makes an excellent product and has been around over 100 years. As for the 3.0 liter, both of my boats have the same motor and Alpha One Gen 2 drives. It's a bullet proof engine and the drives are fantastic...as long as they are properly taken care of/maintained.

I'd put a battery in it and try to crank it over, if the engine is locked due to neglect a rebuild is recommended. Yes, the long block is cheap as far as rebuilds go.

Buy it, restore it have fun. I have alot of experience with this motor setup and I'd be glad to help further.

[badmoonrising]

Oh...a tip. If you put a battery in it and the starter does not get power, nearly 100 percent of the time it's the starter slave solenoid on the right side of the block (facing the boat's bow). These have a very high failure rate...

[dodade]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR RESPONDING!! He's charged the battery, knocked on the starter, unhooked and cleaned all the connections...and still all we hear is a clicking (fairly loud) noise of the teeth trying to connect. So the next step was to try to turn the crankshaft by hand...problem is he is having difficulty trying to find the bolt to "grab" onto? It doesn't appear as there is one. Any suggestions...don't know if your up for a phone call but we would love to talk to someone that is familiar with this engine/type of boat. 360*296*6179 We would like to do a bit more diagnosing before we decide on if we want to keep it or keep looking.

[badmoonrising]

On the harmonic balancer, there are 3 bolt holes. Remove the crank pulley and go to Home Depot, Lowes, local hardware store, etc. and buy 3 bolts size 3/8" x 24 X 3 ".

Install them tightly. They will stick out so you can insert a pry bar to turn the motor over...space is tight, but you can verify doing this if the engine is seized


But if the starter is engaging the flywheel and it's not even trying to turn over, I bet the engine is seized.

An engine that has been neglected to the point that the rings rusted to the cylinder walls is never going to be "ok" using anti-seize spray etc ...the engine will burn alot of oil, even if by a miracle this actually works to free the rings.

[dodade]

Ed,

Thank you! We did get the motor turned over. YEAH! Sooooooo We are now the proud owners of a 1998 (1997 was wrong!) Starcraft 241 Classic! We got a screamin' deal on it too!! We are so excited to make it ours Once I figure out how to post a pic I will

[dodade]

Here she is!

[badmoonrising]

Congrats, looks like a clean boat. Turned over as in it's running ? If so, congrats on that too