Hello, new here and I have some questions

[trooper1822]

Hello everyone, this is my first post and I have some questions. So I just bought a boat. It is a 1981 Sea Ray with a 3.8l omc. A little back story on the boat. The person I bought the boat from bought it as a restore project. The hull is in good shape but the floor and interior needs to be redone. The person started to restore it but has way to many other projects and lost interest in it. When he bought the boat the original owner ran the boat for 45 min to verify that it did start and run. They also did a compression check and it showed everything was good. The boat was then moved and has sat since late 2009. It has spent its entire life in Louisiana. the person I bought it from has replaced the seats with new ones and also gave me the material to re-due the bow seats and all the panels in the boat. He also gave me carpeting for the floor.

Well I started pulled the spark plugs today and found one of the plugs had rust on it. So I decided to manually turn the engine over and I had about 2-3oz of rusty water come out of the front cylinder on the passenger side. So I pulled the intake manifold, exhaust, and pulled the head on that side. The cylinder had rust in it. Also the valves had a lot of rust on them. The piston was almost at the top of the stroke (about an inch below the top of the cylender. When I turned the engine over it turned over very easily so it was not frozen. I cleaned all the rust from the cylinder and found no pitting on the walls or piston. I had a friend who is a mechanic come over and we inspected the block as best we could and found no cracks. The head gasket looked fine. I did find a lot of rust in the exhaust manifold in the jacket, the intake mani, and other parts where water would travel. Also found rust on the inside of the valve cover although not that much Other than that as far as we could tell everything looks fine. So I am trying to decide how to proceed. I want to see if I can get this motor running. Tomorrow I am going to drain the oil to check for water. If I can get it running then I will proceed with the restore. What would be the best and easiest way to get rid of the rust? Also when I was taking the engine apart I accidently got some dirt inside the block so how should I go about cleaning the inside of the block before I reassemble? I plan on replacing the all the gaskets and rebuilding the carb. I got the boat dirt cheap and could part it out and make my money back so I am not that worried about it. So any help or advice on how to proceed would be awesome. Thanks

 

[southkogs]

Re: Hello, new here and I have some questions

Welcome aboard trooper.

To be REAL honest with ya' - an '81 OMC Stringer in that bad of shape isn't gonna' be worth your time. The drives aren't bad drives, but they are obsolete and you could run into some parts (if it's as bad as it sounds) that will be hard to find. You'll put thousands of dollars into that boat to get it running well (enough), not to mention your time.

You have the challenge of getting the engine running ... then figuring out if the drive is all froze up, chewed up or otherwise screwed up. After you sort all of that out ... you gotta' build a place to stand and sit. That's one heck of an uphill battle for an obsolete sterndrive.

I would consider parting out the drive, what you can of the engine, dispose of the hull and sell or use the trailer.

For a portion of the money you'll spend puttin' that SeaRay and it's drive back together you can probably buy a lake ready boat.

 

[trooper1822]

Re: Hello, new here and I have some questions

Welcome aboard trooper.

To be REAL honest with ya' - an '81 OMC Stringer in that bad of shape isn't gonna' be worth your time. The drives aren't bad drives, but they are obsolete and you could run into some parts (if it's as bad as it sounds) that will be hard to find. You'll put thousands of dollars into that boat to get it running well (enough), not to mention your time.

You have the challenge of getting the engine running ... then figuring out if the drive is all froze up, chewed up or otherwise screwed up. After you sort all of that out ... you gotta' build a place to stand and sit. That's one heck of an uphill battle for an obsolete sterndrive.

I would consider parting out the drive, what you can of the engine, dispose of the hull and sell or use the trailer.

For a portion of the money you'll spend puttin' that SeaRay and it's drive back together you can probably buy a lake ready boat.

Thank you for the reply. The hull is not in bad shape. I already have the wood to do the floor so that is not a issue. How can I determine if the drive is bad or not? Part wise I practically already have everything to rebuild the boat as it was included in the sale. IF the engine is good then I can proceed on with this. If not then I will begin the process of parting it out. I could prob sell the trailer (2009 model) and make back what I bought the boat for and still profit. But I want to giv this a chance before I junk it. I bought the boat knowing I would have to put work into it, kinda my project fix up kinda deal lol.

 

[Blujay96]

Re: Hello, new here and I have some questions

What is the model of the boat. I have a 1981 sea ray 197 with a 3.8l and a 800 stringer. If you need any pictures or anything let me know. My boats in great shape for the year. I was able to find a great deal on some motor parts and a complete drive.

 

[trooper1822]

Re: Hello, new here and I have some questions

What is the model of the boat. I have a 1981 sea ray 197 with a 3.8l and a 800 stringer. If you need any pictures or anything let me know. My boats in great shape for the year. I was able to find a great deal on some motor parts and a complete drive.

Mine is also a 197. It would be awesome if you could send pics or links on parts

 

[Blujay96]

Re: Hello, new here and I have some questions


Here is a couple pics of the inside. I will get some pictures of the engine and drive tomorrow. As far as the parts I found a guy that was parting out a boat. If you need specific parts let me know and I will see if I can help.

 

[Blujay96]

Re: Hello, new here and I have some questions

Sorry not sure why it rotated the pictures like that

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: Hello, new here and I have some questions

Well I started pulled the spark plugs today and found one of the plugs had rust on it. So I decided to manually turn the engine over and I had about 2-3oz of rusty water come out of the front cylinder on the passenger side. So I pulled the intake manifold, exhaust, and pulled the head on that side. .... Tomorrow I am going to drain the oil to check for water.

this is a day late and a dollar short, but you would want to do everything you did in reverse order.

1. remove dipstick tube to drain some oil off the bottom of the pan - see if it's water
2. if so, pressure test the cooling system before disassembling anything
3. listen for the hissing -it will lead you to the cracks

If the block is cracked, it will be cracked here like this:

At this point if you don't see cracks, probably rain water or a failed exhaust manifold. If you see any rust streaks in the exhaust carbony area, that's a project ender. The cheapest you'll find manifolds for that beast is around $1300. Used junk you might find for $800

 

[trooper1822]

Re: Hello, new here and I have some questions

Ok well I got the other side stripped down today and so far everyhting looks ok. I went over the intire block as best I could and found no cracks anywhere. There are no signs of rust inside the exhaust manifolds, just lots of carbon. No cracks on the manifolds or heads. So I have no idea why there was water in the cylinder. Maybe rain water somehow got into the one cylinder. But it does not look like there is any damage. I was going to drain the oil today but for some reason now the trim will not work. Worked before I disassembled so I will have to figure it out later this week. I am in the process of removing the rust via electrolysis. Seem to be working great. So later this week I am going to order the gaskets, rebuild kit for the carb and go from there. Once I get everything rebuilt is there anything I should do to the outdrive before trying to fire it up? I plan on changing the oil out, running it, changing again to get rid of any dirt that may get picked up. I know I need to change the impeller but need a tutorial on how to do it.