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actually late 80's where the good ones...late 90's (like mine) arent as good and need to be rebuilt. like everyone said. cracks in transom or sponsons rotten knees, engine movement and the tap test with the rubber handle of a screwdriver. for the engine, compression and leak down is a must. like boomer said, if you show up with a set of gaskets he may be willing to pull the heads, if so, look for cylinder damage, cracked bridges, water intrusion. i'd at least have him run it on the hose.

but concentrate on the hull before the engine. since its a BP it wont last long anyway lol

Where are you? I pass that intersection 4 times a month, albeit usually in the evening on weekends. I can likely make a little time at some point....

Ive heard so many storys about what year of chargers are good and bad i dunno what to believe any more haha

All the boats of this age , 80's and 90's need some tlc to be ok, some where made a little better from the factory , but they are all ok with some work as long as the hull has been mostly sored inside and basicly looked after. Look at Max's you will not find a nicer one.Tom's ( wildcat) charger dl was one of the nicest examples of a used hull I had seen and he still ended up doing the transome I believe, they where not built to last forever lol but with a little work you can have a good boat a decent price if you are willing to roll up your sleeves.

Steve

Hi guys, thanks for all the responses. I will be looking the boat over with the owner when I get back from Florida (mid April) I will look for the items mentioned. I am in Eagle Lake, buddy's boat is just South of 118 off 35, I would def take anyone up on an inspection (beers and wings on me) but I doubt he would be into pulling the heads. I'm not sure if he's been trying to sell it for a while now or not. I agree boat condition is more important to me right now than motor (I was told the BP would be on borrowed time) which is why I was also trying to get a fair assessment of price for the hull being decent. I would be planning a repower most likely in the not too distant future.

Thanks

Kirk

as long as you stay on top of the bp, inspect it often and replace parts as necessary it shouldn't be a bad motor...im bolting one to my boat this summer..altho i guess their is a reason i have a spare powerhead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsCDjXrPybI it happens but this one didnt take much to fix and was 100% my fault it went down,, too much timing..

So my question Boomer or others (forgive me I know SFA) would it make more sense to have a new(er) motor that is more reliable than to have two BP's? I was thinking I could sell the one on the boat and roll some more money on an EFI?

For someone like boomer having a bp is a cheap way of having pretty decent power. He can fix it himself!! For someone who isn't able to or doesn't have the time to always be fixin shit, id agree selling the bp and getting something more reliable would make for the happiest boating.

But find out if the boat is any good first

depends on how fast you wanna go vs how much doe you have. if your happy doing 70-80 and want to be good on gas id go for a 175 pro xs.