GT 40 longevity

  We've got a 2000 SN 196 with a GT 40. Been running well ,put a new fuel pump in last summer and has been good. It has about 850 hours on it. I'm contemplating up grading to a 2003 SN 196 650 hrs, it has the same hull as the 2000 SN 196 but the PCM chevy engine ( I think). My question is is it worth it to get into this boat out of concern about the GT 40 having issues ?  Or would it be more of a lateral move.? Thank you for any thoughts on this.  Charlie in VT

Would love to see your expression when you find out that Chevy motor has been discontinued as well 

VTCharlie wrote:     Thank's for the hull correction. And thoughts on GT 40 . Probably end up keeping it for a while ,good used SN196's are few and far between.

There are a few GT40 owners that are stocking up on spare parts like ECM’s, distributors, thick film sensors, and other misc parts as they become available. There are engines with over 3000 hours out there still running. If you take decent care of the boat in and off season I see no reason to trade boats to get different engines.

I look at boat engine service in the same way I look at aircraft recip service. Road vehicles spend a significant amount of time at low load and that’s why you see 8300 hour engines. That’s probably way out of reach for a boat or plane engine due to the near constant load (with the exception for boat owners who idle around the lake endlessly and rack up hours at zero load).

Tach time would be interesting for boat engines. I wonder if Perfect Pass could yield that sort of data.

No GT40 parts crisis here... spare ECM, recent disty and thick film from the local auto parts store. Approaching 1600 hours..

  what is disty and thick film ? I'm not familiar with these . Thank You

"The Thick Film Integrated Ignition (TFI-IV) name is proprietary to Ford. Others may know it referred to as a "spark module.". Back when Ford was using their EEC-IV engine control unit, it was coupled with a special ‘TFI’ module designed to control spark output via information attained from the EEC-IV control unit."

As much as I loved the power of the GT40, the technical wizardry that requires a 300 plus page manual always made me nervous.

Good info Mike. I was also going to suggest GT40marine.com

I hope a LOT! ;-)

That’s actually useful intel, Ken.

Thanks.

tryathlete wrote: wetskier2000 wrote: No GT40 parts crisis here... spare ECM, recent disty and thick film from the local auto parts store. Approaching 1600 hours.. It’s the marine specific components that I would want to store up on. If I had an FCC, I’d want to have a spare setup. I forget what else but maybe the marine distributor. I think someone will step up for a profit to supply parts for many years to come.