Hour meter broken need help

[SKIVT]

Hello everyone. I'm new here and I need your help. I'm looking to buy a Ski Nautique with a GT40 motor. The dealer selling the boat tells me the hour meter is broken but he has a tool that can check the hours on the motors computer. I asked him if his tool could down load a report to his pc so it could be printed, but he said no. I'm just wondering if what he's telling me is true. If it is true I guess I'll have to see it for myself. Thanks for your help.

[NautiqueJeff]

RE: Hour meter broken need help

From what I have heard in the past, only the GM-based PCM engines have the ability to pull engine hours from the engine computer. Ford engines (including the GT-40) do not.

What year is the boat?

[M3Fan]

RE: Hour meter broken need help

Where is it, and what year is it? What color? You never know- someone on the board might know more about the boat. Hour meters going out or being replaced is not uncommon. It just needs to be documented. That, along with some common sense, should help you feel more comfortable with the purchase.

[SKIVT]

Re: RE: Hour meter broken need help

From what I have heard in the past, only the GM-based PCM engines have the ability to pull engine hours from the engine computer. Ford engines (including the GT-40) do not.

What year is the boat?

It's a 2000.

[NautiqueJeff]

You might want to check out this thread to learn all about the teleflex gauge problems, and the associated hour meter issues that concern that year.

[Rick]

There are 3 hour meters in a 2000 if you have Perfect Pass. one in in the PP and tells you how many hours since the chip has been updated. Find out which version that will also tell you the vintage and whether it might have been updated. The second is in the Teleflex guage cluster but as Jeff says check out the thread. The final is in the computer but also just tells you the hours on that computer. It shouldnt have been replaced yet but one never knows If they are all very low and the PP is 6.4 pr higher I might worry. Having said that My 2000 SN has just passed 1300 hours and according to PCM shouldn't need a rebuild until 2000-2400 hours.

[M3Fan]

Another good point- unless the boat was used in a school, how many hours could possibly be on it? Even 100 hrs a year, which is good by anyone who works 9-5's standards, you'd have 500 hours. Rick is probably one of only a handful of people with 1000+hr Y2k boats.

[ag4ever]

I don't think the GT40s have the engine hours in the computer.

Just an FYI, I doubt it could have a bunch of hours unless it was used by a rich college kid who could afford the fuel or a ski school. Heck my '02 only has 128 hours on it.

[SKIVT]

Thanks for all the good info guys. I don't doubt that this is a low hour boat. My concern is how this will affect my resale value. I want to be able to tell the buyer of my boat that "yes those are the correct hours." That sounds better than "I'm not really sure of the hours, but the dealer I bought it from said it had low hours." I was all set to pull the trigger on this until the hour meter problem. What a friggin mess.

[DanielC]

To the best of my knowlege, GT-40 motors do not store the hours. If you are still using the teleflex gauges, I recommend getting an analog hour meter and putting it in the boat.

[M3Fan]

My 2000 has an analog hour meter in the boat. And documentation for its installation. Certainly helps my wits about the hours.

[dave210]

that dealer was full of crap there is no hour meter in the ecm of a gt 40. chevys do but you need diacom program to retreve it and with this program it can be set back if you know what your doing

[gotpwr]

There are 3 hour meters in a 2000 if you have Perfect Pass. one in in the PP and tells you how many hours since the chip has been updated. Find out which version that will also tell you the vintage and whether it might have been updated.

I still have the original PP Digital Pro v5.1 from the factory on my 2000. I'm not aware of an hourmeter function on that vintage PP. How do you access the engine hours? I would like to see the engine hours before I install the 6.5ng chip I bought.

[Rick]

i have the upgrade to 5.3 so myine was resel. I also have a mechanical meter and tht is how I know the true hours. To get hours on PP I beleive you push the menu and up button at the same time that gives you the temperature then scroll up and you get battery voltage then hours. M3Fan is right my boat was the lake boat at Belle Aqua in Sacramento. The mechanic changes the oil in their biat every Saturday morning in the summer. I bought it because I got a good deal and It was used for pracitce before the 2004 Malibu open and 10 of the 11 top skiers used it before Malibu brought their boats.

[peteSki]

I've got a 1997 Ski with GT-40 engine, when I bought it the hour meter read 650.... yeah right. I also know that the engine had been reconditioned 100 hours before I bought it, now that's a place to start. I installed Perfect Pass when I got the boat, so I now use that as my guage for regular maintenance. As for the actual hours on the boat, who knows. I'm sure previous owners may have simply disconnected the hour meter, but you never know. You gotta look at the engine itself to see how much wear is on it. I was lucky in that I knew who I got if from and know it was rebuilt. The GT-40 is rock solid, change the oil every 50 hours and that baby will just keep on running.

Pete