I hope this is in the right are if not moderators please feel free to move or delete

I am kind of in a pickle after buying a jet boat recently from a guy named Ernie in Higland Ca.

I purchased the boat and trailer from him gave him his full asking price on the deal and headed home. We talked about everything that was done to it and that the engine only had 30 min runtime in the lake and it was fresh. For some reason I believed him and life was good. Took the boat and trailer to dmv registration went well. Got the tags and pinks no issues.

Took the boat to big bear and immediately had massive oil leak from intake manifold to top of block in the back near distributor. This is a 455 olds if anyone cares. He had told me there was a leak and that was what I was expecting.

Trailered it home bought new gasket and reinstalled. Changed engine oil and filter

Only ran boat for 25 min that day never above 3200 rpm.

Next lake trip one week later took the boat to same lake, ran for 5 min and started to puke water from valve cover breathers. Not good. Loaded back on trailer and went home.

Couple days later after I calmed down I started to inspect further.

1. Engine oil milky
2. Spark plugs looked ok

So I pulled the spark plugs and hooked to water hose on 1/4 turn open on hose. Water started pumping out of 5 and 7 plug holes. Not good at all

Pulled the engine and dis assembled.

I found
1. Broken piston rings on number 6 and severe gouging in cylinder wall
2. All bearing were spun including some connecting rod bearings
3. Block had rusty and pitted cylinder walls
4. All piston rings were junk and rusted like it had set for years with water in cylinders

I have it torn down and out to machine shop to hope it can be fixed so I can enjoy my summer.

I called him and he was very quick to say it was fresh and I messed it up. I really wish he would help make this right. However some inside info says this is not his first dirty transaction. It is my own stupidity that I trusted a mans word and work.

I do not want anyone else to go through what I am because of dishonesty

Oh is this the Ernie I am thinking of? The CL guy in San berdo?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using SoCal Jet Boats mobile app

pretty sure it is he has good deals on parts but I would never buy anything complete as in a running boat. Parts wide he's had some good bad and ugly but at some of his prices I've gambled after inspection. Sorry to hear this happened and hope you get back on the water soon


Sent from my dirty buthole

I personally don't know Ernie ...never dealt with him....but I haven't heard anything good about him....but keep in mind not many people praise people on the internet. Its more common for people to report the bad things. I know it sucks but just take it as a loss and move on. There's not much you can do.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using SoCal Jet Boats mobile app

i know theres a lot of things you CANT check when it comes to an inside of a motor... and usually sales are branded "AS-IS"... you gotta, GOTTA know what you're buying before you exchange money.  once that money switches hands its a done deal and whatever happens happens... usually go for a test or at least run it on a trailer.  do compression check, etc. 

worst case you could take him to small claims over it, but most likely you're gonna lose.

I personally don't know Ernie ...never dealt with him....but I haven't heard anything good about him....but keep in mind not many people praise people on the internet. Its more common for people to report the bad things. I know it sucks but just take it as a loss and move on. There's not much you can do.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using SoCal Jet Boats mobile app

I do have to move on. And I will. Just wanted to express my situation so maybe some one else will not have to learn the hard way like I did

Get shit in writing... Been to small claims 3 times and won 3 times. If you have a witness to his bs story, take him to small claims with a certified mechanic estimate 3 times the amount up to 7500.

$5k max between 2 individuals is the limit in CA no?

Questions like these are better suited BEFORE purchasing a boat.
Sorry to hear about your luck.
I've dealt with him and his prices are on the high side in my opinion for the general condition of his stuff but he has everything so.....


-beerjet-

My personal compromise would be to split the bill for repair and I would handle the r&r for free.

It's all I could think of being fair

I wouldn't trust Ernie any further than I could throw him. In my personal opinion he's crooked as hell. Looked at a boat he had about 6 years ago, had missing head bolts among other things. Seems worse than a "shade tree" mechanic

Which boat is it? Maybe someone here knows the previous owner. You never know. Maybe the po sold it BECAUSE the motor was junk. The po could maybe help you in court. Btw, I took the owners word on my boat. The "new" engine was garbage too. When I called him, he told me where to go.


Sent from my iPhone using SoCalJetBoats

He had that boat for sale for a long time on CL sorry to hear about the motor, hopefully ur able to find a good bow tie to replace I've seen a few for sale and iron man can hook u up all the rail kit and shit needed to convert. Good luck brotha!!!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using SoCal Jet Boats mobile app

There are lots of 455 parts floating around this website right now, shouldn't be too expensive to put it back together long enough to last a summer or two but you will probably be money ahead to just start planning to do another motor the right way whether you decide to go BBC or Olds.  Hell if you have to buy new mounts and drive maybe just really do it right and put in a 460 BBF.

There are a dozen stories just on this site about Ernie burning people.  I wouldn't buy anything from the guy, especially a motor.

On a positive note that is a good looking boat good luck with the motor

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using SoCal Jet Boats mobile app

Exactly !  Looks to be a real eye catching float.