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  1. Rick Stephens

    Perfect Seal on head bolt threads?

    Getting cold out here - teens. Got it to long block though. Thanks for the help.
  2. Rick Stephens

    Perfect Seal on head bolt threads?

    This is what I own and have used for a non-hardening sealer. I have seen it listed as an alternative to Perfect Seal. Should be called Camel Snot.
  3. Rick Stephens

    Perfect Seal on head bolt threads?

    The Merc manuals all (I have a morphodite bastard 4.3L and have several manuals open while I work on it) state to coat head bolts with Perfect Seal - easy enough to get a different brand replacement of Merc's camel snot sealer now that they no longer make it. I have never ever done that to a...
  4. Rick Stephens

    Near miss, anchored pleasure boat and tanker

    Wow. Just saw this (sorry if been posted before). Pleasure boat stalls out in the channel, drops anchor. Huge tanker rolls by 30 feet away. Also an incredibly smart pro fishing boat captain engaging brain to assist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=dW_dk2NCOUU
  5. Rick Stephens

    2001 mercruiser 3.0L alpha one with stiff steering (non-power)

    Do it in place. A little carb cleaner and a rag to push through. Note: the big nuts holding the cable guide tube have very specific torque settings and thread lock applied. If they are loosened you will want to redo it according to manufacturer recommendations.
  6. Rick Stephens

    2001 mercruiser 3.0L alpha one with stiff steering (non-power)

    The nut at the end of the plastic cable housing is the one you need to loosen. The clevis pin holds the cable end in the tube. On mine, when the lube was like dried up caulking, it took some good jerks to get the cable end out of the tube housing.
  7. Rick Stephens

    Alpha 1 Gimbal Ring Play...what is acceptable?

    If it is side to side play, then the issue to replacing the lower bearing is that the upper has to come apart. Which means drilling out an access hole to put a wrench on the steering lever bolts inside the top of the gimbal housing. Have to remove it and pull the lower pivot pin and remove the...
  8. Rick Stephens

    Storage question - Ammunition

    I'd just get a standard office 2 door storage cabinet. No reason for ammo to be in anything specially thick walled or stringently locked. I have a room in the basement that has a couple hundred pounds of powder and 20 or 30 thousand rounds of this and that. Used to shoot 25-30,000 rounds a year...
  9. Rick Stephens

    Replacing a 1999 3.0 mercruiser

    You might get a spark gap tester. They are really reasonable, seen them as low as $12. Plugs in line and gives you an idea of whether your ignition is sending a strong enough spark.
  10. Rick Stephens

    Painted into a corner....

    Great story. Surprised you didn't bust that motor mount when you fired it up the first time. 300-6 mounts always were under achievers. Just got my 15 yo kid an F150 with the injected 300 and the 5 speed to drive in the snow back and forth to school and work. Great trucks. Awesome story. Thanks.
  11. Rick Stephens

    3.0L to 4.3L mtr mounts and 25 yo transom

    I grew up where it was a 4+ hour drive to ski (around San Jose to Tahoe area). Never really got to do it often enough to be very good at it. Then I bought a house in Idaho 7 miles from the local ski hill. Little dinky hill, but it's 'ours'. 9 years ago heard a radio ad for ski patrol class - NO...
  12. Rick Stephens

    3.0L to 4.3L mtr mounts and 25 yo transom

    Afraid I have to take a break from the boat project for a few days, probably good timing anyway since it is snowing - Yeah snow! Putting on a ski patrol annual refresher this week. Pretty much eats the free time. I can't wait till the hill opens so I can live on 'snow rats' and ski all the...
  13. Rick Stephens

    3.0L to 4.3L mtr mounts and 25 yo transom

    I got my Transom glass in. A lot of layers of glass, and it ain't moving. Dropped the transom plate in to do actual measuring off the mount points, found out this boat's transom is 12 degrees, the donor boat's transom is 14 degrees. Height measurements for the mounts were an inch and a half off...
  14. Rick Stephens

    Help me please. Overhauling my boat

    That's great, it's coming along. Just a thought, for deck lids that don't have to be water proof and that can take a chair or walking on, you make your own. Pieces of plywood sealed up well, some carpeting and a lot of glue, and a stainless pianer hinge and you got a lid. Add a little strap to...
  15. Rick Stephens

    3.0L to 4.3L mtr mounts and 25 yo transom

    It's getting a little slower as the temps drop into the low 40's in the day and 30's at night. Snow tomorrow. While it is nice having a big shop, impossible to heat 5000 sq ft. Been running a propane catalytic heater to get the epoxy to cure before spring. Installed the transom today...
  16. Rick Stephens

    3.0L to 4.3L mtr mounts and 25 yo transom

    Got the mounts in and a layer of 1708 over top of the transom. Added a couple 16 inch wide layers of 1708 in the middle of the transom to build it out to 2 inch. Now I have to finish the transom and install the transom plate to make sure my motor mounts are level and the right height. No use...
  17. Rick Stephens

    3.0L to 4.3L mtr mounts and 25 yo transom

    Got the new transom in, tabbed into place with a layer of 8 oz, and the motor mount bases PB'd in. Still have a 1708 layer to go over the entire transom. The upper halves of the mounts and all the tabbing and glass build up on them. undefined
  18. Rick Stephens

    Scam had grandparents scrambling w/$3500

    Had an interesting event last Wednesday. My wife and I work together in an online Mac business. So we are together pretty much all the time. She gets a call last wednesday from my sister (the lawyer, no less) who says: "This has got to stop". And proceeds to ream out my wife over the fact that...
  19. Rick Stephens

    3.0L to 4.3L mtr mounts and 25 yo transom

    Howdy everyone. I am new to the boat modding side of the forum, and new to fiberglassing things like motor mounts into my boat. Here's the story: I have a 25 year old runabout that I lucked out when I bought, since I didn't know squat about how to prepurchase exam a boat. At least I lake...
  20. Rick Stephens

    Why Alpha1 G2 aluminum transom bolts?

    Trying to figure this out. Swapping out an Alpha1 to a GenII. Bottom bolts on the Alpha 1 transom plate to gimbal housing are steel. On the GenII the bottom bolts are aluminum carriage bolts with a itsy bitsy rubber washer to keep water out of your transom. On donor boat those aluminum bolts...
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