I have a Wesmar built Advance in my shop going through a 500 Hr Maint. service and noticed they elected to save a few $$ and did Not install a sea water strainer. This boat had a blocked trans-cooler, damaged impeller & has trans issues possibly caused by this. Another customer called this week with another Wesmar built boat & his did not have a strainer either (1991-95) I just looked at the super clean Messer project pics & noticed that the strainer had been removed from that boat.
OEMs have two opinions on this, Am Skier & Correct Craft share the opinion that a few xtra $$ here will save the consumer alot of $$ later and ultimately have happier customers. M/C, Malibu, & the rest save the $$ (under $100) and prefer their dealers & parts dept. to reap the benefit of selling more impellers, transmissions, manifolds, exh. systems, heads, blocks etc. Besides your lubrication system the next most important system is the cooling system. Imagine how long your motor would run without an oil filter.......
I will try to post some before & after pics of how the strainer should be installed.
