Cracked Block - Dealers are just ignoring me ... WTF

[braindamage]

3 hours ago, sidekicknicholas said:

Yeah, it will be the last time I ask my brother to do it .... I normally do it, and haven't had an issue in like 15 years.   Unfortunately last year I was out of the country when it was going to start getting cold and called him to have him do it.   I figured I was safe - I gave him my usually checklist of "To Do" items and I know he has done his old Super Air in the past.     I was wrong.

 

Every nice day that passes I get more cranky.   Oh well.

Same happened to me one winter about 25 years ago with my dad. He ruined the engine block on my (former) boat and (former) convertible. He paid for the boat engine but I replaced my convertible engine myself. Family...oh well. 🤷‍♂️

[85 Barefoot]

4 hours ago, sidekicknicholas said:

 

 

So I understand everyone is busy, but I guess my point is how can a place be an authorized dealer for the company and turn away repair work for that company?!  I would be 100% fine with any shop saying "Yeah we're swamped - it'll be $10k, we'll call you when we're ready" ... but I am just a cold shoulder.   I guess I always assumed that Malibu would dealers would be able to service my whole boat, Indmar engine included.  

 

 

 

I would disagree.... If you're a dealer with a service center, I would guess part of that deal is taking care of Malibu boats, new or old.  I fully expect Jaguar to keep servicing my wife/my car for as long as I own it.  When I bought the boat I figured that was the case too...  if I still owned our first '89 Sunsetter I would expect them to service that just as easily as a '18 LSV.  

 

... I guess this was the advice I was looking for - to turn to Indmar.  I  would prefer a Malibu dealer so if/when I sell the boat I have "Malibu" paperwork to go with the new engine to put a buyer at ease it was done properly vs. doing it at "John Doe's Engine Repair".  I figured Malibu would at least be able to direct me where to go, but getting a hold of a dealer or the TN location has been next to impossible.   My previous boat was a SANTE Nautique, which any time we had an issue the dealer network was crazy quick to respond.  Perhaps I got spoiled from that.

Lack of phone call doesn't mean they won't.  It's THE BUSIEST two weeks of the year.  In any event, as to the car comparison, expectation is one thing, reality is another, my wife got handed the keys to her truck, under warranty, by my local dealer 2 weeks ago who said they will not touch her truck until we remove our aftermarket alarm system.  We have no aftermarket alarm system.   Truck has been in 8 times for issues now, all warranty and not tick tack stuff.   Long story short, it's at another dealer way out of town.  No help from manufacturer yet.  Point is, you have a cracked block that's not Malibu nor indmar, nor your dealers fault.  Faulting Malibu for a private businesses inability to accommodate you is just not their fault, sorry to say.  Good news is if you call around you will find many people who can replace a block.  

[Michigan boarder]

@sidekicknicholas your best bet is to do it yourself, you are hosed for the rest of this year.  All the guys that just posted on this thread will lend you countless, free hours of advice starting with which short block to use, how to prep, steps to remove and replace, tips on tuning, etc. etc. etc.  I bet if you decide today that you will do the swap yourself that you will have that boat in the water by mid July at the latest, working on it during the daylight between now and then.

Don't have tools?  A cherry picker is like $200 (or you can rent one), and the rest of the hand tools will run around $200 or less.  Seriously.  Go for it man!

[blk93jeepzj]

Here ya go.  Lots of guys have recommended Michiganmotorz on here in the past.  I used marineenginedepot when I replaced mine.  Do the tear down this weekend and have everything ready to go when the new engine arrives should be able to get it in in one day next weekend and can be back on the water by the 4th.  You have to have a buddy that is a gear head that would be willing to give you a hand if you get into a bind.  If you can get it all back together and running any of the local Indmar shops will be able to set the timing for you.  Good luck.

http://www.michiganmotorz.com/350ci-vortec-base-marine-engine-1996-current-replacement-p-109.html  

https://marineenginedepot.com/20012/0/Mercruiser-881571-New-5.7L-GM-Marine-Long-Block

[Cap305]

Sorry to hear about your situation.  I was in the same place two summers ago.  Had an oil change disaster and ended up having to replace the motor.  Unfortunately, the local Malibu dealer at the time wasn't willing to do the work on something of my vintage (2001) boat so I had to find a private shop to do it.  I had to search around for places that knew anything about V-Drives but finally got someone who would do the work.  Took roughly 8 months for full completion mostly due to insurance payout and a couple of order snafus between the shop and mercury marine.  I lost a full summer of boating which just added to the suckitude of having to deal with a sick boat and the legal issues of why it grenaded in the first place.  It is likely you'll find someone more than willing to do the work late in the season but before winterization time comes or over the winter.  I'd just call around and chat with shops about the work but you'll likely have to accept a dead summer unless you want to do the work yourself.  

   Also, if you end up having a private shop do the work you can save yourself some money by removing seats, engine cover, etc. so that they don't have to bother with the shop time to do it.  The guy I had do the work said that was the biggest shop time expenditure.  The actual motor pull and reinsert went pretty quickly.  

[05hammerhead]

Did you call MN Inboard?  That would be extremely unlike them not to call back or refer you to someone else.   Not saying itll be cheap or fast, but theyd at least call you back.   Friend just brought his boat there friday cause he sunk it and they said theyd have it done the in 10 days. 

[footndale]

@sidekicknicholas. Fremont is decent, but will take a while. Shipyard in Green Bay is good too.    There are some engine builders in Wisconsin Rapids, PM me and I will get you some names that friends have used.

Edited June 22, 2018 by footndale

[footndale]

Or buy one and put in yourself. http://www.michiganmotorz.com/

[TenTwentyOne]

Keep looking around. You'll find someone to do the job, and do it reasonably soon. For a properly equipped shop, it is 1.5 days for 1 tech to swap a long block. It's really not that bad to swap an engine in the average wake boat. There are shops that don't prepare for this time of year, and there are ones that do. I figured out the properly managed shops in my area years ago. 

[footndale]

@sidekicknicholas sent you a PM.

[TallRedRider]

I long for the days of recession and $5 per gallon gasoline....Service was so much easier and the lakes were so much more empty.  

I kid, I kid.  

I own a 2016 Nautique and my dealership is struggling to get me back on the water after a throttle assembly failure.   It makes me wish I had an old boat so I would do it myself.  Being under warranty, I am at the mercy of the local shop.  

Being ignored is just bad service.  I think it is human nature to not want to deliver the bad news that you aren't getting into the shop until December.  I find that failure to have a difficult conversation now makes for more difficult conversations down the road.  In the case of business, it results in lost business.  

[hethj7]

@TallRedRider  I feel your pain.  I love all the new tech in the boats, but also can totally relate to those worried about what happens when it fails.  They are about like automobiles anymore - tough to really be a shade tree mechanic with all the electronics vs early EFI or carbs.   

My dealer is busting their rear right now to get me back on the water after a SG issue.  I still wouldn’t trade my boat as we love it, but a suckgate or listing the thing certainly minimizes the risk of parts failure. 

[67King]

On 6/21/2018 at 7:14 PM, oldjeep said:

Core plug

WHatever.  They are referred to in Dearborn, and all along the supply chain feeding Ford as cup plugs, obviously from their shape.  Point is they are not "freeze" plugs.

[MadMan]

 

On ‎6‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 6:14 PM, oldjeep said:

Core plug

 

6 hours ago, 67King said:

WHatever.  They are referred to in Dearborn, and all along the supply chain feeding Ford as cup plugs, obviously from their shape.  Point is they are not "freeze" plugs.

I agree, Chrysler calls them core plugs, Ford calls them cup plugs, but ask for either one of those at your local parts store and you're likely to get a blank stare.

[Toymanator]

I am in a partnership on an old boat, the idea was to have a fun old boat and help the person I am partnering with get into boating and learn the ins and outs without breaking the bank. It worked because after two years my wife was convinced to buy a new one. I now have two boats, but have been through the ringer on that old boat. Last year it was a bent prop shaft and this year it wasn't winterized properly and resulted in a cracked block. My experience has been, that the larger dealerships are more of a service center. They are mainly concerned with maintenance (oil changes, v drive and transmission servicing, etc.) Last year when we had issues they did not even want to look at the boat or take the time to find the part. I called nearly every dealer in the state to find someone to work on it, even offering to pay above there shop rate since it was something I did not have the time or knowledge for. At the end of each call I would ask the dealer, "Do you have someone you refer older boats like this to or who would repair something like this?" I eventually had a list of four or five shops in my area who specialized in older products/larger jobs and could help. 

This year when we found that the block was cracked I took my list and called everyone. None of the dealerships were interested in putting in a new motor or rebuilding the one I had. I might have had a different story during the winter months when they are really slow. But mid june-july they are scheduled 3-4 weeks out on service calls and these big repairs would put them out even further. After calling around this year I had 3-4 guys who were willing to rebuild the motor for me. They are little engine shop guys, the one I ultimately went rebuilds diesel and marine motors in a shop in his backyard. He had my block machined, painted it, put new pistons, bearings, rings, and gaskets. He offered to put in a stage 2 Cam and high performance pistons in free of charge. He sent me pictures almost daily of his work and guaranteed it for life. I have found that these older guys are much more knowledgeable when it comes to motors than my local dealership. 

On the other hand, I would never take my new 2018 22 MXZ to them. They don't understand a lot of the technology on the new boat. I always take my new boat to the dealership. (mostly because it is warranty work) The dealership is very familiar with the engines in the new boats but anything with a carburetor is often foreign to them. I had the same expectation as you when I got into this. A Nautique dealer should understand and be able to source parts better than anyone on my old Nautique. Sadly that wasn't the case. The first major repair we had was actually done by a guy in the service center of the Mastercraft dealership, I had to source two parts for them.  Sorry to hear about your cracked block, I feel your pain. But from my experience finding the right person for the job is more important than hounding the dealership.   

[braindamage]

I’m with @Michigan boarder do it yourself.

i had an old Jeep that had a bad motor and I shopped it around for about 5 yrs before finally deciding to put in a new motor myself.

buy a cherry picker on Craigslist, sell it once you are done. Take pics at every step, store and label all parts in ziplock bags. Layout and take pics of the order that you disconnect so you can reverse them...

buy a whole long block, sell the old when it’s out.

the only bummer is that for my Jeep there are ubiquitous videos and forums focused on engines, where this forum, while awesome, is almost completely void of helpful guidance for this.

[DockRocketeer]

On 6/21/2018 at 7:04 PM, oldjeep said:

Be serious, nobody buying a 12 year old boat cares who replaced the engine.  Id be more interested in the incompetant service place you were using that caused the need. 

Agreed.  Who ever winterized your boat clearly did not do it correctly.  In my opinion, I think most dealers are fully capable of providing engine service on all Malibu's provided its lucrative enough for them to take on the endeavor.  It would be easier for a dealer to do an engine swap rather than swap parts from an old block to a new one.  You run into a lot of wear and tear issues and parts not fitting correctly which takes more time to work through losing them more money.

But if your serious enough about this, I would try David Lonas at Barr Marine.  He should be able to direct you on how to procede

Edited June 25, 2018 by DockRocketeer

[Cory]

Common guys...  you know he forgot/didn’t winterize the boat.  If he had actually taken it somewhere and they screwed up, most of his initial rant would have been directed at that dealer/shop.

still sucks.  Summer is too short up north.

[ORMailbuboater]

11 minutes ago, Cory said:

Common guys...  you know he forgot/didn’t winterize the boat.  If he had actually taken it somewhere and they screwed up, most of his initial rant would have been directed at that dealer/shop.

still sucks.  Summer is too short up north.

He mentioned his brother did it for him this year.    Tough to sit out the summer with a broken boat.  

[Cory]

2 hours ago, ORMailbuboater said:

He mentioned his brother did it for him this year.    Tough to sit out the summer with a broken boat.  

Oh...  I didn’t see that post.  That would put a strain on the fam.

[footndale]

@sidekicknicholas Got the boat in the water yet?

[sidekicknicholas]

Not yet. 

Hopefully next week though!  I took your advice and got a hold of Havel Engine, and I guess it remains to be seen but it sounds like they do good work.  Badger Marine is handling the tear apart / reinstall of the interior pieces and trans.   As of Friday it was "really close", but no call today, so my gut says Monday or Tuesday.

 

On 6/25/2018 at 5:57 PM, Cory said:

Common guys...  you know he forgot/didn’t winterize the boat.  If he had actually taken it somewhere and they screwed up, most of his initial rant would have been directed at that dealer/shop.

still sucks.  Summer is too short up north.

I can assure you it was done, same as every other year I've owned an inboard.  It was DIY, so anything that went wrong there is 100% on me (my brother), but that isn't where my problem was... it was the fact that every Malibu dealer in a 200 mile radius refused to service a product they sell.  Sure it wasn't new and warranty issue but still, I would fully expect them to support a 1989 Sunsetter the same as a 2014 LSV...  Its a Malibu and they're an authorized dealer.

Maybe I was a bit critical, but being completely non-responsive is not okay in my book.  30+ days with weekly emails asking "Hey, how are things coming with finding parts / a quote" with zero response sucks; only to get a final "nah, we're not interested in doing this" six weeks later... because thats time I could have spent moving on looking elsewhere.  To me, it was unacceptable. 

... and then for Malibu corporate customer service to go say, "Yeah, some dealers are bad, not much we can do about it" is also unacceptable.  

Just a bummer to lose like 60% of my boating time this year because of poor communication and poor dealer support.  I  just got a pretty nice promotion and bonus and we're considering a new(er) boat because of this.  With this whole process is fresh in my mind I'm leaning pretty heavily to a Skiers Choice boat for a replacement.... The Moomba Makai has really caught my eye.

Oh well, hopefully its back this week, everything runs as it should, and we can get 6-8 weeks of time on the water yet this year.

[Falko]

I should start changing boat engines on the side...

[RyanB]

On 7/28/2018 at 5:35 PM, sidekicknicholas said:

......Sure it wasn't new and warranty issue but still, I would fully expect them to support a 1989 Sunsetter the same as a 2014 LSV...  Its a Malibu and they're an authorized dealer......

Not trying to be a jerk. And I hope you get this all worked out but I think your expectations are too high. 

[Pnwrider]

On 7/28/2018 at 6:35 PM, sidekicknicholas said:

Just a bummer to lose like 60% of my boating time this year because of poor communication and poor dealer support.

Sorry, but I don’t think you can place blame on the dealer for losing 60% of your boating time. This would be a non issue had your boat been properly winterized...