new to me 44 gulfstar

Hey guys I'm gonna be the new owner of a 44' gulfstar Motor cruiser/trawler powered by twin perkins 135hp mains and an isuzu generator. I'm familiar with the Lazzara design boats since I work on yachts for a living.

the boat has tons of mechanical space to do work and plenty of storage, which I'm happy about coming from a 42' uniflite with cumming 300's.

Anyways I was crawling around this soon to be boat and on the outboard side of the port engine I saw coolant in the bilge. what could cause this? seams to be no leaks around that area. coolant looks clean. one last thing are these perkins know to leak oil from head gaskets and such because both these bad boys seam leaky and only have 4k hours. also input on the gen set would be great.


Cheers, Ashton

Congrats. It would be worthwhile to clean, rinse and dry all bilges, and place new absorbent pads under all engines, hoses and joints. Run and pump everything, and inspect the pads for drips.
Did you get a mechanical survey?
Did you get a topsides survey? One gotcha from my motor-sailor purchase was the discovery too late that all of my rigging needed replacement. Major ouch.

Welcome!

We had a single engine Perkins 135 on a Taiwanese Tub and had a similar incident after I had the marina change the anti freeze. Best I could tell, they overfilled it or spilled some and didn't clean it up. IIRC, this was done during winter storage before spring launch. The problem didn't reoccur.

Acheron2010 said:

Congrats. It would be worthwhile to clean, rinse and dry all bilges, and place new absorbent pads under all engines, hoses and joints. Run and pump everything, and inspect the pads for drips.
Did you get a mechanical survey?
Did you get a topsides survey? One gotcha from my motor-sailor purchase was the discovery too late that all of my rigging needed replacement. Major ouch.

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I'm going to clean the engine area very well and do whats stated I just have not gotten there yet. I hear these engines are bullet proof. I am not going to have a survey done due to me doing 4 full very in depth surveys on a 150' boat that I work on. I watched the different guys to see what they do and I pretty much did it all besides moisture test. the hull is being media blasted currently left out to dry for a white while blisters are opened up then epoxy the entire hull. everything else seams to be very sound it just needs lots of love.

its funny I'm not to worried about the engines bc I hear they live forever and know to leak, I might just slap some new gaskets on once I get a better idea.

Congrats on your new boat. It is a favorite of mine. I would currently own one if my boatyard could haul it. Have fun with it.

The valve cover gasket may be the culprit for the oil leak near head gasket. The stamped steel covers on the side of the block are also prone to leak oil if someone has overtightened the bolts or lost the washers.

Any update?

coolant in bilge

Do they have coolant recovery tanks? Originally my Perkins just had a hose leading to the bilge and if the pressure caps are old and failing they can blow coolant that way.

I have 36 MK1. I know is old, but works great. I got twin Lehman 80, but he cooling system may be like mine. I would check the overflow canister ( clear plastic) and the clear small hose going to it from radiator cap. Check the radiator cap for leaks too. Check the GulfStar forum section.

"the boat has tons of mechanical space to do work"

Great , now is the time to do all the deferred maint.

Every hose in the boat , supply, on engine or noisemaker , head shower ALL!

Oil change , new quality anti freeze , the whole enchalida.

Anything that is hard to find , get a second,

All systems should have a schematic , electrical "additions" and esp fuel supply thru filters to users.

You will know the boat as well as an owner that has the boat for a decade , and you will sleep better.

Next haul do the sea cocks .