Just purchased a 2004 328 Vista. Low hours and in imaculate shape. Looking forward to next year, and was hoping to end the season on her this year, but fate has other ideas, as we've already had some issues. Had her surveyed and that all went very well, and the seller corrected or had fixed some issues that the surveyor and mechanical surveyor found. Unfortunately, not everything was found, or didn't exist until we got her home. I had a trailer made for her, and we brought her home from Virginia to Illinois ourselves. Had her in the water for a weekend, and then got a call the following week that the bilge was running every 30 minutes.. Went down and looked at her, and saw a small drip coming from off the back of the motors close to the wall.. Had my marina mechanic go down and look at her the next day, and was informed that the Y pipe had a crack in it, to fix would require the motor pulled.. We used her the following weekend, and pulled her out at the end of the weekend. The leak had gotton substanially bigger by then. We pulled her out and hauled her to the local Four Winns dealer. Unfortunately, things continue to get worse. THey got the motor out, and verified that the Y pipe was definately leaking through a nickle size hole in the pipe. But unfortunately, it got worse from there, they noted that the transom sheild was also cracked, and needed replaced. I unfortunately should have maybe done some more research on my end, as this boat has the XDP drive system, and is apparently well documented on it's issues, including the cracked shield deal. According to Volvo, part for those drives are no longer made either, and there were only 2 of those shields left in the world (according to Volvo), and they were in Sweden. $1100 part, and $300 in shipping, and it's on it's way.. There really is no way the surveyor could have seen or known about the shield, and the pipe, I'm not conviced didn't "break through" until transport home, or once we started using it as I was out there twice, once to look at her initially, we did a sea trial then, and then once during the survey where we did another sea trial. The surveyor was in the engine compartment and all over it, as was I, and the bilge was dry, and I never once, on either occasion, saw the bilge run. So, needless to say it's all on me. Unfortunatly, the drive situation has me a little scared, but I'm hoping to get this one past us, and hope the other one will hold up for me. The mechanic crawled around and looked and felt best he could on the other motor/drive while the other motor is out, and says that everything feels pretty good, compared to how corroded the other motors Y pipe was. So, were just hoping. Unfortunetly, this process has pretty much ended my season this year, as by the time we get it back, I'm out of time to boat anymore (too much other stuff going on), and will need to be getting her winterized. Hoping this will be mean, we'll at least be able to enjoy the next season without having to deal with issues like this. Trying to stay cautiously optimistic.. Anyway, pics of her can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 629&type=3
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2004 Four Winns 328 Vista
1997 Larson Cabrio 290 - sold
1988 Rinker Fiesta Vee 248 - sold