What do I have to do to make my 1988 Sea Ray Sundancer 350 Alpha One ready for salt water?

Besides external corrosion, which the anodes will help to control, you have to worry about internal engine corrosion. If your engine is equipped with closed cooling, the engine block itself is protected, raw water only cools the heat exchanger and exhaust manifolds. The exhaust components and heat exchanger should be inspected before use, a thermal imaging inspection will detect any hot spots and corroded areas before failure.

If the engine has an open cooling system, I would not recommend salt water use, especially if the boat is stored in the water, not on a trailer. If the boat is trailered after each use, you can flush the cooling system with fresh water, which will help control corrosion, but not eliminate it. (flushing procedures can be found in your operators manual).

Without closed cooling, the life of the engine block will be reduced considerably, even with flushing, so you might want to consider having the engine converted to closed cooling. Mercruiser offers closed cooling kits for all models, the prices vary depending on the model, but the general cost, including installation will be $1200-2000. (the cost of a remanufactured 5.7L block is $3000-4000)

Here is some further info on Stern drive maintenance and salt water use:

http://www.boatus.com/boattech/articles/stern-driv...

Unless you are psychic, there is no way to exactly know how the hours were accumulated. Unlike cars, there is (I believe), not specific maximum engine hours for a boat to be sold as new. Figure an hour in the factory and perhaps an hour or two for demos. It may be that your boat was delivered via water and driven from the factory to the dealer, which would not be unusual for large boats, especially sailboats. For a 31' it would be a bit unusual, but not extraordinary. The real issue is the demo hours as during demos, the sailsman and the prospective buyer will always run the throttle to max for dramatic effect. On an engine with a few hours, this is a terrible idea. When I delivered larger power boats on the East Coast, the factory would often send a mechanic along whose main job was to make sure I never set the throttles past 1/2. It is unlikely you will ever wear out a mercruiser through engine hours so, if it's running well and the warranty is for new, I wouldn't worry.

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RE:

What do I have to do to make my 1988 Sea Ray Sundancer 350 Alpha One ready for salt water?

I just bought a boat that has been freshwater all its life, and my first time to have one that wasn't already in salt water. What changes do I have to make to it to make sure I don't screw it up?

1988 Sea Ray

To keep it short and simple, if the vessel has spent all of its life in fresh water, you will find that magnesium anodes should have been fitted.

to use the vessel in salt water, the anodes will have to be changed to preferably zinc, or at the very least, aluminium anodes.

As far as flushing goes, regardless of wheather the cooling system is closed loop or raw water cooled,

if you use a flushing agent right from the first day you use the vessel in salt water, this will well and truly extend the life of all engine components.

You can purchase flushing agent kits that plug in between the garden hose and flushing ears.

Nothing to do - lucky it wasn't in salt water before - Not much you can do - make sure all the zincs are in good condition and maybe bottom paint if it is not pristine.