Boat complete Restoration

[oops!]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

good on you for the repair....i hope the carb works out too.

ive been looking at seats and swivel bases........... man there expencive!......i think i might try a trick and get an office type chair that has the swivel/ recline section i want ...and rip the chair off and the wheel section...and use that base ...then use what ever type of chair i want.....

i dont boat in salt...and office chairs are a dime a dozen so it might work for me......

have you given any thought as to how your going to make the mew suntan platform ?

cheers
oops

 

[JMRuth72]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

With those compression numbers I would take about a teaspoon of oil and drop in the cylinder and rerun the compression test. If the numbers increase dramaticaly it is a ring problem and you are looking at a complete rebuild. If they only change a few points or none then it is a problem with the head. Let us know what you find. The other way that I know of to narrow it down is get the motor on it's compression stroke (both valves closed) for each cylinder and use an adapter that will let you use a air compressor to pressurize the chamber. Fill it up and listen for leaks. If you hear hissing out of the oil cap it is top end, with a stethoscope if you hear leaking down near the oil pan it is the rings. I would start with the oil as it is a lot easier than getting at the bottom of the motor for the leakdown test. Good luck and keep us posted. Finding these problems has never proven to be difficult, just tedious.

 

[Nandy]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

With those number my advice will be to do a vacuum test. The pressure test just tell you there is a problem. The vacuum test can help you pinpoint better if it could be the rings, gasket, or valves. If you dont want to spend the money the vacuum gauge the oil trick is good and if you gain substantial pressure then you pretty much know the problem is rings or the cylinder. If you don't gain pressure it could be a valve or a gasket. Only way to tell is opening the motor. Either which way, we will be around.
Good luck...

 

[JMRuth72]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

Ok, I gotta ask because I haven't heard this one before. Granted that is not saying much I know that there is still a lot about mechanics that I don't know. What is a vacuum test and how do you perform it? What will it tell you? The oil trick is a old one that someone told me about a long time ago and it makes sense to me. The pressure test is also although I have not had the need to try either one I am handy enough that I know I could if needed. The vacuum one is a new one. Please explain!!!!!

 

[qaztwo]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

Connect a vacuum gauge up to a running engine should be steady at idle. I'm sure theres a web site that will show the different "Interpretation" that can be made.
You'll get more info over in the engine forum.

 

[JMRuth72]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

Oh ok! That vacuum test. I did find that out online once and it was very informative. I think that I still have it printed off somewhere. IT was amazing at what you can tell about an engine from the vacuum. I was thinking about it the other day. I think that if I can find it again doing that test on my Ram PU. It runs good, just doesn't seem quite right. I love driving it, but it seems like something is missing. Can't put my finger on it. For some reason I was thinking that you were talking about pulling a vacuum on the cylinder instead of pressurizing it. I must have had a really bad blonde moment. LOL. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Recelect]

Update on Carb and motor

Update on Carb and motor

So, If anyone has been reading this thread, then you know I was in desperate need of a new carb Power piston that I could not find, or another carb. I was also advised to get the motor going before I do anything else, so that is what I spent the weekend doing. mind you, here is colorado on friday and saturday it was near 70 degrees out, which was awesome to work in, then today, the day that I am ready to fire her up, it is 30 degrees, snowing, and the wind is ripping roofs off buildings.... But, being the impatient guy that I am I braved the weather to get her up and running!

so with that; last week I took a chance and ordered a carb off ebay. It cost me 30 bucks but I already had a carb kit and really did not want to buy a new carb. It arrived yesterday, saturday, and I spent sunday morning re-building the thing. Now the "new" carb was close, but not quite the same thing. there was suttle differences between my carb and this new one that made putting the throttle linkages together a tad difficult. I was planing on using the best peices off the 2 different carbs to make 1 awsome carb, but I found that the only peice I could use off my carb was the top section. This was allright, except when I went to put the carb on the motor, the throttle linkage on the new carb was different and would not clear the intake.
But, this did not stop me. I just happen to have an incredibly handy cordless cutoff tool that made quick work of cutting the linkage to fit. once I did that, She bolted right on!

Next was hooking everything else up, fuel, choke wires, pcv, etc... and then to try to fire it up. I cranked and cranked, and cranked to no avail. Opened the fuel filter up, spewed alittle fuel out, closed it, dumped alittle fuel into the top of the card, cranked, and she fired like she was new. I am not going to lie, I was pretty excited. The first time I started this motor it ran like crap, after I found the carb was in such bad shape, I new I would have to re-build it, which I have never done before... to say the least, I figured I would have to find something I did wrong during the re-build and start over... but I was lucky. she fired, the choke opened and she came to a nice steady idle. I "floored" it and with no hisitation at all she reved up in RPMs. I am just really impressed that it ran so well.
I also figured there would be alot of black smoke but there was hardley any, especially after she warmed up a bit. There is no doubt that this motor is good and the rest of the refurb can continue! Next is paint! soon as I get new paint on her, I will post more pictures!

 

[oops!]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

really glad that worked out for you....grab a grinder !!!!


btw...you did have muffs on didnt you?

 

[Coors]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

I dunno, but if you swapped carb horns, etc- I don't know that you ended up with a good carb.
Only a test drive will tell.

 

[oops!]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

and nuthin wrong with doin a happy dance when "beasty" roars to life

 

[OhWellcraft]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

Congrats on getting her fired up, don't want to be a downer but I would still be concerned about #4. Only being a 4 banger anyways you need all the power out of it you can get. Sometimes they will run fine with no load on them but as soon as you get them in the water and put a load on them they fall on their face. I agree with other posters in that you need to make sure the powerplant is up to snuff before you get too much further into it. Hate to see you put a bunch of time and money into it only to find it needs a engine overhaul. Good luck and keep updates coming. Try the spoon of oil and rerun comp. test it is cheap fast and can tell a lot.

 

[Recelect]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

Well, I am not sure what I am going to do just yet. the boat is completely torn apart and the trailer is not road worthy (plus to get it in and out of the 1 car garage that it is in, I have to pull the tires [to wide with the tire on to get through the door] and hope that the axle stays on the jack while I roll it through the door....) . The bottom end still needs to be rebuilt and I need to buy a new prop. I don't have the space to rebuild the motor unless I get the boat out of the garage, which I am not going to do because it is in the middle of epoxy and I plan on painting it soon. I have a budget set this year to be able to build the bottom end, upholser it and get it on the water, and I plan next year to re-build the motor, but I still need to see if it floats! I have never had this in the water and that is more of my concern. If i take it out and the motor sucks, then I will deal with that then, but I think for now, I am going to take my chances. Compression on #4 is at 110 now after running it for a short ammount of time and I hope it will get better after it runs alittle longer. we will see. This motor hasn't ran for years but when it started on sunday it sounded awesome. even idle through out and no hesitation apon throttle. I know there is no load, but i still think it is promising.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

Don't worry about it floating, that's the easy part.

 

[fixb52s]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

I would run the hell out of it, then check compression again. Rings are known to stick. Some run time up to temp. can "unstick" them. A little Marvel Mystery oil in the crankcase will help too, just change the oil before hitting the water.​

EDIT: I just read where that #4 is up to 110. This tells me those rings were stuck, and are now freeing up. You should be just fine, so breathe a little easier.​

I did this with an old BMW engine a few years ago. It sat for a few years. 2 cylinders were about 25 pounds low. After running it awhile I rechecked it and found them all within 5 pounds of each other. I have been driving the snot out of that car for the past few years with no problems.​

Get that deck done, then turn to the engine.​

 

[cbavier]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

Your project is very similar to my Chris Craft Project. Mine is an 86 with the same engine, but 140 HP. I made sure the engine ran good before I started to tear it apart. I also had to replace the bellows (not fun for the first time).

From what I am finding, ensure your stringers are good, and make double sure your fuel tank does not leak! I found some pinholes in mine.

As for the rear sundeck, I included some photos of mine. You can make something similar to this for a larger deck. As for the ski configuration of the seats you are looking for, I seen many factory boats with it, but I don't know if a balance issue would happen with yours.

NICE Chris Craft BOAT!

 

[fixb52s]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

NICE Chris Craft BOAT!

Thanks! I wish I could say the same for the stringers... The more you dig, the more you replace.​

 

[Recelect]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

So i spent alittle time today developing a plan for my boat. this is not drawn to scale but it is very close to everything I want... Let me know what you think!

 

[JMRuth72]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

Nice idea!! You will hopefully get a few better informed comments about it from some of the others on here that have more experience, but I would worry about it being to heavy on the port side and listing. I will be interested to see what the others say as well.

 

[redfury]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

I'm right there with ya with the carb rebuild. The first carb I "rebuilt" ( read: bought a rebuild kit for it, dismantled the carb and put the parts in and put it back together and didn't get any better performance out of it...old thermoquad on a 383 chrysler ) I didn't know what I was doing.

Years later, I learned a little and had to rebuild the carb on my newly acquired old as dirt Allis Chalmers snowblower. Fired it up and it ran like a dream! I was so stoked it went well the first time out! Now I have to do it to the 1990 'rude on my little boat and I'm full of spit and vinegar to get at it once I can "get to it"...darn snow!

It's a big positive step, hopefully the end of your engine troubles. However, with marine engines, you'll never know until you get a load on it. Let's all cross our fingers!

Beyond that, at least you have decent justification to move on with the rest of the boat...congrats!

 

[Recelect]

Re: Boat complete Restoration

Update;

I am finally finished with epoxy and patching holes, and just about done sanding so this weekend hopefully will be the week end I paint! I started taking apart the lower end of the sterndrive this week as well (it needed a new prop shaft) and found that there is nothing left of the waterpumps impellar. I also found that it is a pain in the but to get that prop shaft out......