My local dealer says he has 2000 of these engines out and has never seen it but it's happened. On a friends '89 Sea Ray 4.3L V6 (175 HP), the distibutor gear has some (about 1/3) teeth that are completely worn away, and the others show wear to the point that they are only about half as thick as they are supposed to be. It's hard to see but we also think the Cam gear is also worn (expectedly). This engine only has 200 hours on it and it has been regularly maintained (oil changes etc.).<br />Before we knew why it wouldn't run, I was looking at buying the boat after we got the problem-whatever it was-fixed. <br />So here are the options:<br />1) We remove the engine and put a new one in. Any ideas or recomendations on cost or places to shop for just the engine.<br />2) We remove the engine and go through it completely, for metal fragments, and try to determine why these gears went bad (lack of lubrication for some reason). And then we put it back in.<br />3) I start looking for a new boat, but for some investment in my time I can get this boat very cheap.