Hello everyone! I got a 95 380 Santego with 454XLi engines. It’s cranks but won’t turn over.. any troubleshooting advice?
Thanks!!!

Hello everyone and thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the CYO community. I recently bought a new to me Carver Santigo, 380 and to be quite honest I wish I wasn’t so impulsive. I absolutely love the layout of this boat as it is the boat I was searching for unfortunately, this was the only boat in the area, and even though I knew it had a host of issues, I was willing to deal with them. Unfortunately, I don’t know a lot about big blocks and it’s been almost 20 years since I’ve owned a boat. I was really trying to find one with diesels or crusaders. Unfortunately, the one I have found had MerCruiser 7.4 L MPI magnums now I really wanted to avoid these motors and I honestly thought they were 330 hp motors which from what I was told were a better motor so I was OK with it now I bought this boat from a dealership in Long Island, which was advertised with 330 hp MerCruiser 7.4 L MPI motors I really wish I could make this short but there’s a whole host of things which I am going to probably make other topics on and ask a bunch of questions so I do apologize in advance. I haven’t had the boat three weeks , they insisted on not fixing the items I had asked for until it was paid in full, then waited to the very last minute to fix the things that I needed to up until the night before I was scheduled to take the boat home to Connecticut I got as far as , the river in which the marina that I belong to is at when I lost the starboard engine. Right now I have the boat getting pulled out of the water and the motor pulled so I can go through it but I really think this boat was going to be a money pit for a while , I’m not sure if I have any recourse as they advertised this boat with the incorrect engines. The surveyor didn’t catch it and listed different engines in the survey and here I am with a Boat with motors I really didn’t want and was advised not to buy this boat if it had these motors .

So I guess I’m wondering what I should do as far as these engines go. It seems that it’s going to be pretty difficult to find remanufactured engines from a reliable source at least that’s what Mike Mechanic says. I know I can’t buy them new, so I’m wondering if I should go to a secondary source to get remanufactured 7.4 L MPI magnums or go carbureted or swap everything out and convert it to a diesel. I really like the idea of converting it to a diesel but I’m not exactly sure what the differences are between a Carver that was a diesel as opposed to when that is a gas. In other words will I need to change the struts? Do I need to change shaft sizes? Do I need to change the transmissions etc. I’m hoping there’s someone in this forum that owns a late 90s early 2000s Carver 380 that came with diesels from the factory as I would like to pick their brain and see exactly what I would need to do to convert it and if it’s even worth it. Again, I do apologize for, the long winded post , Jeff

I have a 1988 3227 Convertible. Based on the documents I've been able to find it originally came with a pair of Crusader motors with Walter V drives that are geared at 2.05:1. It also has the original 18 X 21 3 blade props. A previous owner repowered it with a pair of Perkins T6.354's and she is at best able to cruise only at about 9-10 knots. I suspect that I need to reprop the boat to match the engines. Does anyone here have any idea where I could find out what type of prop I should have on this setup?

I am wondering if anyone has upgraded to new fuel level sensors and what your experience has been with them. I have a 2000 396 with 454s and my Garmin screens are showing wild readings for the fuel level. For example: When the fuel tanks were completely full it showed 63%. Just prior to filling up the tanks the fuel level showed 95%. The more fuel I used the fuel level was increasing on the screens.

I am adding fox gateways to the engines to get readings directly from the source but I don't believe that will do anything for the fuel level.

Any help or advice in getting this figured out would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Finally after a year we bought an 85 Carver 3697 Mariner, 16 years older than the 2001 350 I posted on over a year ago. Spent a lot less money of course and love the layout. All checked out with a few disclosed flaws, but those are being addressed. Port motor is LH rotation serial 46833 and had a “miss” at idle attributed to carb running rich. Also noisy alternator but that turns out to not be the issue, and don’t think the “misfire” is from the carb. After some closer diagnosis I am 99% sure it’s the harmonic balancer and it is vibration at idle causing the misfire. Fortunately plenty of room to pull it and I am pretty good mechanically. Question if anyone knows, this appears to be a standard GM 454 Gen 4 part, but I have also found an original new old stock Crusader part. Any reason to not just use a quality aftermarket. I am not worried about the extra cost for Crusader, bit since these have rubber in them could they deteriorate just sitting in a hot warehouse? Thanks, love this forum.

All, I was out for the last few days on the water and while under anchor in a cove for a few hours in the HOT (over 90 degrees F) Georgia sun as we were getting ready to leave, my Starboard engine started, but would not stay running. Before I could put her in gear, she would stop. After I pushed forward with only the port engine for about a 1/4 mile, I tried it again and the starboard engine started and stayed running and we went onto the next destination - fireworks show. We docked for about 6 hours with the Kohler Gen running the entire time. When it was time to leave, same thing the starboard engine would not stay running. This time I tried diverting the Starbard engine from the aft tank to the Starboard tank and no change, so I changed the fuel back to the aft tank. After pushing off with one engine around hundreds of other boats inm the dark (yikes) we got past the no wake area (about 1/4 mile) and I pushed the port engine to 2600 rpm to limp back to our dock and then I tried starting the Starboard engine again and it started, I put it in gear and ran back to the dock under full power at 3600 RPM with both engines. This was about a 27ish minute run at 3600 rpms. I then docked in and out of gear no issues.

Info:

Mercruiser 7.4L MPI MIE V-8 gasoline naturally aspirated engine - 330hp SN- 0L303931 & 34
Velvet Drive Transmissions, Model 20-01-005 direct drive - 2.455:1 ratio

Other Info:

Both Engines were drawing from aft tank
Aft tank 7/8 full
Gen running on Port tank 3/4 full
Starboard tank not being used and is 1/2+ full
On 6/16 Took on 135 gallons of fuel between all three tanks

Aft 53 gallons of 145 gallons
Port 39 gallons of 99 gallons
Starboard 43 gallons of 99 gallons

Maintenance:

Fuel filters were changed about 20 hours ago (also did impellers/ Oil change / Fluids check)

I found one other thread in the forum, but it does not really apply to this issue which is why I started a new topic. Hope everyone had a great Independence Day weekend in America.

As always, thanks for any and all input.

How does one change their contact email address? Asking for a friend mind you!

I have a 350 Mariner and with 454 engines and a generator its impossible to see where the drain hole thru the stringer is located. About 1 -2 inches of water accumulates here. If someone has the same boat could tell me where it should be I would like to be sure its not plugged. With bow up it usually reaches the pump in the center section.

HEY GUYS
i hav a 2007 carver 41cmy with twin crusader 8.1l mpi ..
i got a diacom adaptor with softwate and plug for my mefi7 ecm how ever i cant find the rectangular 6 or pin connector
for connection to my diacom adaptor ...
i talked to a crusader dealer in the us and told me the plug is on engien starbord side master... how ever i doubt the startboard is my master since the round big plug for throttle control has nothign hooked to it....
anybody can shed me some light maybe the diag plug is hidden soemwhere on the boat

I wanted to start this thread to document the rot repair to our swim platform due to poor dock box installation and sealing. This is a well documented issue with these dock boxes being improperly installed by the dealers. So I thought I'd share my project as I complete it and hopefully help others out as well as solicit suggestions from others who have done similar repairs.

We are getting hauled out on Wednesday, July 5th which is when I'll start the bulk of work, but while we were tied up at the Oriental, NC free docks I went ahead today and cut all the silicone out and pulled everything apart and made preps for the actual work. Good thing too, as it took a lot longer due to screws that had been rounded off and I ended up having to grind a slot in them to get them out. Anyway, here's the first few pics showing the dock box coming off and how it is constructed. I'll keep this updated once we haul-out and I get going. Hope it helps!