1999 Stingray 190RS Restoration

[Boisebiker]

I recently bought a 1999 Stingray 190RS as an upgrade to our 1988 Bayliner Capri 1650. The Bayliner only has a 5 person capacity and a 2.3L engine. It has been a great starter boat and has served us well. But we are a family of 8 and the kids keep getting bigger so we need more room and a larger engine. I have been looking at this boat for a couple months. I originally found it on Craigslist for $1500. The vinyl is trashed, carpet is shot and the engine was replaced with a salvage yard truck engine. I asked lots of questions and have been researching for the past 2 months. 2 days ago the owner listed it on Craigslist again at $800 and I could not let it pass so I picked it up. At this point I have not heard it run and have only visually inspected it. I figure at $800 there is little risk and I am always looking for a new project. This thread will include my journey with this boat and I will have many questions as I go. Maybe others will see this and either run away or see that there is hope. We will see.

 

[Boisebiker]

Day 1

We got the boat home on July 17th. I spent a few hours cleaning the boat out, inspecting as I went and taking inventory of what was provided. The boat has sat outside for the past 2 years uncovered. There were 2 boat covers inside but both were torn so they were removed. There were a lot of rocks, dirt and leaves in the boat so it got a good vacuum. All of the seats were removed for ease of cleaning and to inspect the floor. The carpet is pretty trashed. In the center of the boat the carped is worn through, in the engine area it has oil all over it and it seem to be coming unglued pretty much everywhere. Our current thought is to remove all the carpet and gel-coat the floor and put in a snap in carpet kit.
Once cleaned up I started to inspect the floor. As in my initial inspection I noticed the floor is loose and makes creaking sounds all over. The floor itself does not feel soft but it moves when I walk around. Looking through the storage locker I can see that the floor is no longer attached to the stringers. The top of the flooring has a nice smooth layer of epoxy, the bottom of the floor is bare wood. I used a wrench and tapped the stringers all around the storage locker and all location came back with a sharp solid ring. I plan to remove all the carpet so I can assess the next step. If needed I will remove the floor so I can inspect the stringers. What is the general floor assembly procedure on a boat like this? Is the flooring put down bare then a layer of epoxy on top? How is the floor generally fastened to the stringers? I hope to have more pictures tonight.

 

[muskyfins]

I had a Stingray and loved it. Very light, speed oriented hull. Added a 5.0 V-8 to mine and she flew.

I can't help much with the fiberglass repairs except to tell you to make sure there is no rot in the stringers before fixing the floor to them. Others will probably chime in here with the how to's including checking for moisture content. In fact, you could do a search on here and find some helpful information about what and how to look for.

As always......more pitures......waiting for the show to begin.opcorn:

 

[AShipShow]

Howdy, congrats on your find! I have a 96 Stingray 606 and its a great boat. Has the 4.3LX and moved pretty good.

As far as your boat goes, my guess is after sitting uncovered for a long while, the floor is probably going to be in rough shape. You may be lucky in that at some point stingray began making their stringers out of only fiberglass with no wood. If your lucky enough for that, you may only have to replace a floor. That being said, if and when you pull the motor to address the oil all over the engine area, you should drill some test holes in the transom to check the wood condition. Fortunately, stingray was also smart enough to stop the wood above the transom drain so it doesn't get wet.

Hopefully your boat is solid, but after reading a lot of peoples rebuild threads, they all pretty much start with "I got this boat thats been sitting uncovered, everything sounds solid!" But once you start digging, you inevitably find bad news... Remember, boats rot from the bottom up, so if the floor is bad, other things probably are too.

As far as the motor goes, a 99' would have a vortec 4.3 which is good, however if someone swapped in a salvage, you might want to make sure thats still the case. A vortec has 8 intake manifold bolts versus 10. If you still have the vortec then keep it and look into swapping to a 4BBL carb for some oomph.

Good luck and keep us informed...

 

[muskyfins]

If that is a truck motor, you'll also need to change the cam. And the starter should be a marine model too.

 

[Boisebiker]

A little on the motor;

It is a 4.3 Vortec out of a Blazer as far as I was told. The starter and the alternator are marine(they still have tag/stickers on them). It has the 8 bolt intake manifold but only a 2 barrel carburetor. As for the camshaft I have no idea if it was swapped. And I have no way of getting that info from the previous owner(he is currently in the Philippines with no contact info). How would I go about checking to see if it was swapped, is there a PN or identifier stamped on them? What will be the difference in performance if the truck cam is still in place?

 

[Corjen1]

Welcome to Iboats! Cool boat!

 

[Woodonglass]

The Wrench tapping method is HIGHLY unreliable. I'd recommend drilling core samples on the Motor Mounts AND stringers. 18 year old boats the haven't had the best of care and maintenance usually have a LOT of hidden surprises. I'd also recommend Core Sampling the Lower regions of the transom especially around the keyhole area.

 

[AShipShow]

No real easy way to find out if the cam was swapped, but to be honest, the cams out off the 4wd trucks weren't far from the marine grind so I wouldn't stress about it...

As far as what should be "marinized ", its basically anything related to fuel and electrical
Carb
Fuel pump,
Distributor
Alternator
Starter

And obviously exhaust

 

[Boisebiker]

I am interested in learning more about "core sampling". Are there any tutorial or videos that can explain the process?

 

[Boisebiker]

No Title

Here are a couple shots of the floor, carpet and stringer. Sorry the stringer photo is upside down but you can see the floor is not touching the stringer. The stringer in this area does not have any soft spots that I can see or feel.

 

[Boisebiker]

No real easy way to find out if the cam was swapped, but to be honest, the cams out off the 4wd trucks weren't far from the marine grind so I wouldn't stress about it...

As far as what should be "marinized ", its basically anything related to fuel and electrical
Carb
Fuel pump,
Distributor
Alternator
Starter

And obviously exhaust

I have confirmed that all of the items on the list are marine and were probably swapped from the original engine. Just wish I knew if the cam was treated the same. How hard is it to swap in a 4 barrel carb? New manifold? New fuel lines? How much of a hp boost does one get?

 

[AShipShow]

Not hard to swap at all, plenty of info over in the Merc forum.

To take core samples, use a drill bit (somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/4") and drill holes as low as you can in the stringers and transom without risking drilling into the hull and drill into them and see what comes out... Dry yellowish wood? or Black grossness... Also this will confirm if you have wood stringers or fiberglass only stringers. Just be sure you only drill deep enough to get a sample and not drill through the other side of your transom. Then when your done, go back and fill the holes with either epoxy, resin, or 5200, etc...

 

[Boisebiker]

Not hard to swap at all, plenty of info over in the Merc forum.

To take core samples, use a drill bit (somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/4") and drill holes as low as you can in the stringers and transom without risking drilling into the hull and drill into them and see what comes out... Dry yellowish wood? or Black grossness... Also this will confirm if you have wood stringers or fiberglass only stringers. Just be sure you only drill deep enough to get a sample and not drill through the other side of your transom. Then when your done, go back and fill the holes with either epoxy, resin, or 5200, etc...

Seems pretty straight forward. What kind of sample area needs to be taken? Max/min space between samples?

 

[AShipShow]

You don't need to go nuts, maybe every couple feet.. You will especially want to focus on areas "uphill" of bulkheads and near the transom on the stringers... and for the transom, focus down low.

 

[Boisebiker]

So since I saved so much buying the boat I went out and bought a motor. It came out of a 1996 Reinell. It is a 4 barrel, Serial Number F755464. From what I can tell it is not a Vortec(bummer) but it came with the better exhaust and a correct oil dip stick tube. Plus starter, alternator, y-pipe and any other part I may want. The question I have is should I put in the 1996 non-Vortec with a 4 barrel Mercruiser block or stay with the 1999 Vortec 2 barrel truck engine. Or is there a combination of the 2 that makes sense? I was also able to pull the hydraulic lift system and many other miscellaneous parts off the Reinell all for $400.

 

[AShipShow]

If theres nothing wrong with the motor in your boat, I'd swap over the 4bbl intake and carb and call it a day... If you have room then I'd keep the other motor around as a spare.

 

[Boisebiker]

That was my first thought but the intakes have different bolt patters, 12 bolt vs 8 bolt. I am wounded if if the 4 barrel carb will work on a vortec intake manifold?

 

[Boisebiker]

Got back from a week at scout camp and had some time to work on the boat. For now I am focused on the engine. I put a new ignition switch in and was finally able to attemp starting. After the muffs were on I got the engine to start but it didn't run well. I found one of the freeze plugs popped out and it was the one under the engine mount. Then there was an oil leak at the pressure sensor. All leaks fixed but engine still not running right. I pulled out the timing light and found engine was very far retarded. Could not get timing to pull in with out running terribly so I started checking plug wires. #2 and 6 along with #3 and 5 were switched. Straighten them out and retime, now it sounds great. Temp comes up just over 160 and stabilizes. Oil pressure showing just under 40psi. Voltage holding at 14.
Next is out drive. I have oil and water coming out weep hole and shift assist is not functioning. The ignition cut feature does work but shift cable is not moving the fingers over switch in forward or reverse.

 

[Boisebiker]

No Title

We removed all of the carpet in the main cabin area and cleaned up the deck. There is still carpet under the bow seating area, looks like they put carpet in before joining the top and bottom halves of the boat. The decking is all in tact, no soft spots. As mentioned before the deck is not attached to the stringers very well. On the starboard side the floor creaks when I walk on it, port side is quiet. It sound like the foam is rubbing against the underside of the deck as I walk. I will be drilling holes in each section to test the foam for water and general inspection. I also plan to do a few test drills of the stringers. In a couple photos you will see cracking on the deck. This is where they puddled epoxy in some corners for leveling, what can I do with these areas? Sand down and glass/epoxy over them? We are debating over gel coat or carpet. This deck is not totally flat but has a complete epoxy coating. The area around the engine looks to have be painted over with black paint. So I am looking for opinions/thoughts on gel coat vs. carpet. If we gel coat we will put in a snap in carpet kit.