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  1. tpenfield

    2019 Winterization Test for Mid-west/Northern Central USA

    Looks like boat owners in those areas of the US are going to get a good test of their (or their boat shop's) winterization procedures over the next few days. -20 F to -30 F in the Dakotas and Great Lakes areas, wind chills in the -40 to -50 range. :eek: :faint2: Should be a good test of how...
  2. tpenfield

    Site Navigation Wierdness - just happened today . . .

    In navigating the iBoats forum this morning, I noticed some weirdness happening when I go into the 'Messages' area of the site. If I go to the inbox or Posts, or any other of the message options listed the URL shows as http://dev-forums.iboats.com/ . . . . . . When I click on any of those...
  3. tpenfield

    Private Messaging Not Working?

    I tried sending a PM a few days ago, but it did not seem to go through. There was a message that the PM was sent, but it did not show up in my sent items. I tried several times throughout the day to re-send, etc. I thought it might have been that my mailbox was full or something like that...
  4. tpenfield

    Heat Exchanger Inspection at Winterization Time . . .

    Today was winterization day for my twin Mercruiser 7.4 LX MPI with Full Closed Cooling (never understood what the 'LX' was for . . .) Anyhow . . . I pumped out the gasoline (44 gallons) and mixed up about 7 gallons of 'fogging cocktail' and added it back to the tank. The rest of the gas goes to...
  5. tpenfield

    980 hours on engines - compression test

    I have 980 hours on my twin Mercruiser 7.4 LX MPI engines. They are going to lap 1,000 next season, as I average 40 hours per year, since buying the boat in 2012. . . 2013 being our first season with it on the water. I have not done a compression test in a couple of years, so I wanted to do...
  6. tpenfield

    Custom Fiberglass Extended Swim Platform

    It looks like our next boat is still a few years away, so I am thinking about doing some enhancements to the current barge, a Formula 330 Sun Sport. I always wanted an extended swim platform to get the people out beyond the outdrives, as they present a mild hazard when doing the sandbar thing...
  7. tpenfield

    Mercruiser 7.4LX MPI Throttle Position Sensor (TPS)

    I got a TPS error code ( I think it was code 24) on my starboard engine (as I mentioned in my ECT Thread). I also got a MAP error code (I think it was code 33) I didn't write the codes down before I cleared them. Anyway, I am seeing occasional high idle and surging from the starboard engine...
  8. tpenfield

    Other Countries Access Blocked ?

    I received word through my web site from an iBoats member that is in the UK. He said that he can no longer reach the iBoats site, that it is ‘blocked’ I had not heard of such a thing. Just wondering if that is a country thing or if it is specific to iBoats, or operator error of some sort...
  9. tpenfield

    ECT Sensor Temperature vs. Temp Gauge Reading

    I had a hunch that my temperature gauges were reading a bit high vs. what the MEFI module was seeing via the Engine Coolant Temperature (ECT) sensor. So, today I hooked up the computer to my engines to compare the ECT reading vs. the temp gauges at the helm. Engines are per my signature below...
  10. tpenfield

    Today's Entertainment

    We anchored at the usual place today. Plenty of sun and calm seas. After a while we noticed this boat across the sandbar. Appeared to be a man and a woman on the boat. I guess they didn't know about tides :noidea: At 5 O'clock, it looked like they had about 4 hours of tide until they...
  11. tpenfield

    Got a Big Tub ???

    Since our summer house is starting to look more like a boatyard, we decided to get some big (100 gallon) 'tubs' (actually farm troughs) to run the engines during prep work, etc. Sort of a necessity with my brothers Yammy F-350's as they have 2 water pickup areas on the lower unit, so the...
  12. tpenfield

    Boat Launch Fail . . .

    Not the kind that you would see on YouTube, but . . . Yesterday was 'boat launch day' for my 33 ft. Formula. After dozens of hours of maintenance and prep work the boat was ready for its seasonal launch. The boat hauler was scheduled to arrive at 3:00 to haul the boat down to the boat ramp a...
  13. tpenfield

    Bravo 3 . . . More Anodes

    You can never have too many anodes on a Bravo 3 outdrive, it seems, particularly when using/keeping the boat in salt water. I have been getting a bit of corrosion each season on the Starboard side outdrive gimbal ring. I probably need to do a rebuilding on the transom assembly and make sure...
  14. tpenfield

    Mercruiser 7.4 LX MPI Fuel Pump Question

    I have the combo fuel pump and sea water pump on my Mercruiser 7.4's. (yes, wonderful) . . . I was changing out the impellers and was having trouble getting the impeller off of the shaft. So, I decided to take out the whole pump assembly. In the process I disassembled the fuel pump from...
  15. tpenfield

    Boat Prep Supply Buying Season . . .

    Usually I buy things as I go through the couple of months leading up to boating season. This year I decided to at least try to get it all done at once, so I am not hampered by not having the stuff when I need it. Today was the day, I ordered some stuff on line . . . including iBoats . . . and...
  16. tpenfield

    New Tow Vehicle for the Admiral's Daily Car

    A bit of a story about our primary towing vehicle . . . The Admiral uses our 2004 Cadillac Escalade as her daily car. Last Friday morning the water pump crapped out, spewed AF all over the place in the engine compartment and shorted things out in the electrical system, trashing the battery, all...
  17. tpenfield

    Ordered a new MacBook Pro Laptop . . .

    After over 8 years of use, my 'mid-2009' Macbook Pro is reaching 'end of life'. So, the Admiral said "you should get a new computer" . . . say no more. :D I did a bit of armchair shopping and then ordered a custom configured MacBook Pro 13 i7 Processor 16 GB RAM 512 GD SSD Thunderbolt 3...
  18. tpenfield

    My Winter Hobby

    I thought that I would test out the new iBoats Forum Site with a post about my winter hobby/sport . . . Snowblowers :D For the past few years I have been expanding my 'fleet' of snow blowers . . . I've had a 1988 Toro 521 for quite sometime. Got from a family member who could seem to get it to...
  19. tpenfield

    Winterization - Fuel Storage - Empty Tank Approach

    Prepping to take my brother's Grady-white with twin Yamaha 350's out for the season and get it tucked away for winter. I was surprised to read this in the Yamaha service manual . . . Conditioning and stabilizing gasoline When preparing to store a boat for extended periods (2 months or longer)...
  20. tpenfield

    Infrared Camera Inspection of Boat Hull . . .

    I have my boat out of the water and up on blocks/stands for the winter. While the nights are cool, but the days are still fairly warm, I took this opportunity to do an 'inspection' of the hull of my boat with my FLIR One IR Camera. Here are a few photos #1) This was a 'cold' area in the...
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