New or Refurbished Sterndrive

[gordmac]

If the wastegate has been removed that may be why the engine failed. In general when something breaks you not only need to fix it but find out why it broke and fix that too.
As someone looking for a boat to buy I may be prepared to pay a bit more for one with a nearly new outdrive but if you use the boat for a few years before selling then it isn't nearly new anymore. If you can get a genuine new one for £3k and intend to keep it for a while I would buy that.

 

[spannerman]

Just to clarify how a wastegate works, it doesn’t waste boost outside the engine, thats called a dump valve which marine engines don’t use ( except for petrol supercharged engines). A waste gate is a valve held closed by a spring forcing all the exhaust to go through the turbine in the exhaust side of a turbo. It is opened at a predetermined air pressure or boost from the inlet manifold, when this happenes exhaust gas bypasses the turbine causing it to slow down, this in turn causes the impellor on the other end of the shaft from the turbine to slow down. As it slows it generates less boost so the spring overcomes the air pressure opening the wastegate so it closes again forcing all exhaust gas back through the turbine section. This cycles and regulates the boost at optimum without damaging the engine, obviously if the wastegate doesn’t open the boost goes way too high and causes detonation which burns holes in the pistons.
I have been driving Saab turbos for 40 yrs and have played with wastegate boost settings on many different turbo engines over the years to get the most power without wrecking the engine, been lucky so far!